BATON ROUGE- The final hours of the candidate sign-up period for the Oct. 24 election are winding down.
    
No unexpected twists have stirred up things at the top of the ballot, where Louisiana has wide open races for governor and lieutenant governor.
    
At least eight candidates already have registered to run for governor. Questions linger about whether anyone else might jump in before the three-day qualifying period ends Thursday evening.
    
The governor's race is a competition among four major contenders: Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle, Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne and U.S. Sen. David Vitter, all Republicans; and state Rep. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat.
    
Republican Bobby Jindal is term-limited as governor. With Dardenne running to move into the governor's mansion, that also creates a heated competition for the state's No. 2 job.