Lafourche tax renewals set for off-election ballot
April 8, 2014
Lafourche’s chief indigent defender seeks judgeship
April 8, 2014The crowded race for Louisiana’s 6th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives will include a former Louisiana State University football player, teacher and coach and current entrepreneurial businessman.
Dr. Charles “Trey” Thomas III, a 34-year-old Republican, said he intends to campaign on issues relative to energy, entrepreneurship and education. In a news release announcing his candidacy, Thomas trumpeted unity as a means to achieve solutions.
“Amazing things happen when people come together to find solutions to problems,” Thomas said in a news release. “When we understand and take pride in the fact that we are Americans and live in the greatest country on Earth, nothing and no one can stop us from achieving what may seem to be impossible goals.”
Thomas founded his strategic-management consulting firm HolSyn Consulting in 2010. The Baton Rouge native boasts 10 years of experience working with K-12 and college students as a teacher, coach and academic adviser. He is also executive director of the nonprofit Family Values Resource Institute, which his parents founded 20 years ago.
While playing football for LSU, Thomas achieved a bachelor’s and master’s degree in education. He further received a dual master’s of business administration and doctorate of educational leadership from Texas Christian University.
Thomas criticized the approach of Common Core State Standards, a hotbed issue for local parents and teachers, in advocating for localized control of education, calling the method “heavy handed.”
“When I’m elected to congress, I will work to give educational decision making and authority back to our local communities because they know how best to educate our children,” he said.
Thomas also accused federal lawmakers of “legislating entrepreneurship” with burdensome regulation and bureaucracy. He said he understood the importance of an “Energy Independent” nation and criticized management of energy resources for being reliant of foreign product.
“Louisiana has a wealth of resources offshore in the Gulf as well as natural gas deposits on land that could create thousands of highly paid jobs within Louisiana and help America release itself from the stranglehold of imported oil from unfriendly nations,” Thomas said.
Thomas has joined a celebrity-laden field in the contest for the 6th District, which encompasses parts of Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes, as well as Ascension, Assumption, East and West Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Livingston, Pointe Coupee, St. Charles, St. Helena and St. John the Baptist parishes.
Incumbent Bill Cassidy, a Republican, will vacate the seat to challenge Mary Landrieu, a Democrat, in this fall’s election.
After months of speculation, former governor and convicted-felon Edwin Edwards (D-Baton Rouge) announced last month he would enter the race. Garret Graves (R-Baton Rouge), the top coastal adviser to Gov. Bobby Jindal for seven years, previously announced, as has state Sen. Dan Claitor (R-Baton Rouge).
Others in the race include: Democrats Quentin Anderson (Baton Rouge) and Richard Lieberman (Laplace). Republican candidates are Craig McCulloch (Ethel), Bob Bell, Norm Clark, Paul Dietzel II and Cassie Felder, all of Baton Rouge.
