BATON ROUGE - The Louisiana House of Representatives is on track to do something it hasn't done in 32 years: publicly choose between candidates vying to be House speaker.

This sort of decision is usually hashed out behind the scenes, with an anointing of sorts when a new term begins, rather than a contested vote.

But unless a compromise is brokered within days, lawmakers in the House will face a head-to-head match-up between Democrat Walt Leger and Republican Cameron Henry as the new term begins Monday.

Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards is pushing for Leger, even though Republicans hold a majority of House seats.

Some lawmakers continued to work behind the scenes to find a third, compromise candidate that could garner support from Edwards and Republicans alike. But so far, that candidate hadn't emerged.