Schriever senior group told to stop confusing identity
October 25, 2011
Joseph Herbert Naquin
October 27, 2011Incumbents and political veterans held ground in Lafourche Parish’s legislative races, and they did so in impressive fashion, with margins of victories reaching as high as 55 percentage points, according to unofficial results released by the Secretary of State.
One-term incumbent Jerome “Dee” Richard dispatched challenger Bobby “Beck” Grabert with a 55-point margin. Richard collected 8,028 votes, or 77.9 percent of the cast ballots, in the 55th state House district.
Richard, 56, said the first order of business would be to elect a new Speaker of the House. The only state representative with no party affiliation said he would support Rep. Joel Robideaux, R-Lafayette, for the post because of the representative’s non-partisan roots.
“The Speaker of the House, if it’s Robideaux, that’s going to bode well for me because he’s a former independent,” the Thibodaux resident said.
Richard has long talked about raising the funding level for higher education, which has bore the brunt of the state’s budget woes over the past couple of years. The lawmaker said he will pick up where he left off last year and immediately file two bills to cut government excess.
One bill would cut thousands of state jobs through attrition, and the second would reduce the amount of the state’s consulting contracts. Richard filed the measures last year, both of which failed despite being endorsed by State Treasurer John Kennedy.
“I’ll get those bills filed at the beginning of the year in January.”
Richard, who serves on the House Governmental Affairs, said he a smaller issue he plans to tackle deals with unfrequented voter precincts.
“I’ve noticed in my district where we had people working at one box with one registered voter,” he said. “Why do we have some of these precincts with five and six registered voters? Why can’t we combine them with the box next door?”
Jerry “Truck” Gisclair, D-Larose, also a one-term incumbent, maintained his seat with a 16-point margin over first-time challenger Micah Hebert. Gisclair earned 5,465 votes, or 58.6 percent of the ballots cast.
Gisclair, the 54th District representative, said he would reintroduce a bill that penalizes drivers who fall asleep at the wheel and take the life of another person. He won’t aspire for jail time for offenders, but will instead work to suspend driving privileges for “drowsy drivers.”
“I don’t think you ought to have the right to drive the next day after you just killed, killed, one, two, three or four people,” Gisclair, 63, said.
Gisclair will also focus on streamlining the Caminada Headlands project and improving highway infrastructure to and from Port Fourchon and flood protection near the north and south Lafourche levee system junction, he said.
As far as deciding on a Speaker of the House, Gisclair said he is still considering multiple candidates. “I’ve eliminated a couple of individuals, which I don’t want to say anything now. I’ve got a couple of gentlemen that I’m looking at, one or two that I really worked with closely in the last couple of years and I want to give them good consideration.”
State Rep. Gary Smith, D-Montz, successfully made the crossover to the other legislative chamber with a 19-point victory over Garrett Monti. Smith, who served three terms in the House, garnered 16,501 votes, or 59.5 percent of Senate District 19 ballots.
Smith said he wants to preserve recent legislative changes that have reduced government’s size and “duplicity.”
“We want to make sure first and foremost that we protect those things and that we continue on the proper path of making government responsible both in its budget and its services to the citizens,” Smith, 39, said.
The state senator said he would also work to preserve current and encourage new businesses to help make the district an economic center. He said protecting Nicholls State University is a priority and he hopes to improve the quality of life in the area.
He has not yet drafted legislation, something he plans to do after meeting with residents, colleagues and the governor, he said. “It’s such a big ball. There are so many intricacies in it, that I do not have a specific piece of legislation already drafted that is going to be filed.”
Democrats Elton Aubert and Troy Brown will face one another in a run-off for the 2nd Senate District. Brown won the primary with 11,834 votes and Aubert finished second with 30.9 percent.
Al Carter finished third with 14.2 percent of the vote, Mike Bell was fourth with 12.9 percent, George Grace was fifth with 6.3 percent, and Zaine “The Queen” Kasim finished sixth with 1.7 percent.
