October 15
October 15, 2007
Ruberta LaCoste
October 17, 2007The race in the 53rd Representative District is a fight between two men with similar priorities: hurricane protection and coastal restoration are top priorities.
But it’s still a fight.
Incumbent Damon Baldone wants to continue to focus on coastal restoration and hurricane protection. He said these two issues were the most important.
Some of the projects Baldone has in mind are creating rock barriers to protect the barrier islands and narrowing passes. He would also eventually like to put sand behind the rocks.
He said when he came into the Legislature, the Morganza-to-the-Gulf hurricane protection project was still a dream and now it is close to a reality.
He attributes some of his success in the Legislature to working together with the other senators and representatives in south Louisiana.
“I think we did an excellent job as a team,” Baldone said.
He said he wants to secure more money for economic development for various projects, including the Terrebonne Parish Port.
He believes deepening the Houma Navigational Canal is a good idea, once proper flood protection and a lock is developed.
“Deepening is a good idea,” Baldone said. “I think we need to develop our lock.”
Roadways in the state remain a concern for the representative.
“How are we going to pay for this $14 billion backlog on roads,” Baldone pondered.
He said the idea of dedicating motor vehicle registration fees to road maintenance is good, but worries that by taking these funds out of the general fund, healthcare and education programs will face budget cuts.
He said part of the cause for the backlog is the fact that the state gas tax has not been indexed for inflation.
Baldone said he would also give a tax cut to people in the state making $9,000 a year and still paying state taxes.
And he wants to spend more on bringing technology into the classroom, namely putting a laptop on every child’s desk.
As far as missteps made in the Legislature last session, Baldone believes the House’s strict ethics reform bill should have been passed.
He said all elected officials should have ethics codes to follow, especially the local ones, where he believes corruption is more of a problem than at the state level.
He is finishing up his third term and has served for 6 ? years as a state representative.
Baldone, 42, has two stepdaughters and has been married to Eliska for three years.
His hobbies include duck and deer hunting, crabbing and fishing.
Baldone’s only challenger, Wallace Ellender, 52, views restoring the barrier islands as being both the critical and smart thing to do for hurricane protection.
“I don’t think proper focus has been put on the coast,” Ellender said.
While he said Morganza to the Gulf is vital, it will not be completed for the next 10 to 15 years, which leaves a significant window open for another storm hit.
In the meantime, the barrier islands could be restored much more quickly and the passes closed, Ellender explained. Doing this would provide protection for everyone and the coastal marshes.
He said it was sad Gov. Kathleen Blanco vetoed the $64 million barrier island appropriations bill by Rep. Gordon Dove, R-Houma.
He also believes restoring the barrier islands should take priority over installing a lock on the Houma Navigational Canal, as the islands would help to protect everyone in the parish, but the lock would only help those along the canal.
Ellender, of course, would not support deepening the HNC without proper flood and hurricane protection being installed first.
On the subject of the state’s $14 billion maintenance roadways backlog, Ellender said some of the ideas proposed by Blueprint Louisiana to address the problem are good. But he said he will refuse to sign his support to the agenda until coastal and wetland restoration are added to the plan.
A fifth generation sugarcane farmer, Ellender serves as the national legislative chairman for the American Sugarcane League. He has worked offshore for Texaco, and has never held public office.
“I know how the system works. I don’t totally agree with it. But, I know how it works,” Ellender said.
He has been married to his wife Teresa for five years and has three children and two grandchildren. He graduated from Louisiana State University with a degree in agricultural economics.
While at LSU, he tended to Mike III, cleaning the tiger’s cage and feeding him. Mike III passed away that summer as the oldest living tiger in captivity at the time.
