Things have been heated up a long time for the Presidential election which is still more than a year away. And finally, after slow starts, the campaigns for state and local elections which are a scant two months away are getting started. Reason for the slow start in the governor’s race was the fact that Cong. Bobby Jindal was way ahead and no major figures wanted to enter a lost cause scenario. But now we are beginning to hear more and more about three other candidates – – Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell, State Rep. Walter Boasso and John Georges, a newcomer to the political field.
The Democratic Party seems determined to beat Jindal, a Republican, with negative attack ads. And the candidates are joining in against the leader, hoping to make the prognosticators look silly.
We wrote before that one should not write off any election in Louisiana, especially for governor. Look at the past – – like when Buddy Roemer upset Edwin Edwards, little known Mike Foster defeated a whole field of well knowns and Kathleen Blanco eeked out a win over Jindal who was expected to carry the state last time.
But we haven’t heard too much from the other statewide candidates. Most of the incumbents are satisfied to stay in office. And Attorney General Charles Foti may have the toughest time of doing that. He got bad revs for charging those doctors at Memorial Hospital with murder after Katrina for administering medicines he claimed caused the deaths of their patients.
On the local scene, we have three very viable candidates for parish president – – Councilman Clayton “Snookie” Faucheux, former Councilman V. J. St. Pierre and former President Chris Tregre. All three are well respected and appear to have a lot to offer the parish as president.
Other local positions at stake are assessor, clerk of court and sheriff. The slates for all of the local and state offices will not be finalized until quallifications end in two weeks.
St. Charles residents will have an opportunity to see and hear most of the candidates for local offices in person at a Meet the Candidates Night September 13 at La Maison Magnolia Reception Hall in Norco from 7 to 9 p. m. Sponsored by River Region Chamber of Commerce, it will be open to the public.
But there will be a lot of individual rallies by the various candidates between now and election day. Plan to attend so you can see and hear them in person.
As they say, bad public officials are elected by good people who don’t vote. It should be easy to cure that problem.
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