The INDsider -> Nathan Stubbs MON, OCT 6 4:00AM by Nathan Stubbs

Field of candidates dwindling in District 31

Last week, there were no fewer than six potential candidates - including two former runner ups for the seat and three former city-parish councilmen - looking at the District 31 state rep race. As of today, there could be as few as two candidates qualifying. A special election for the seat is scheduled for Nov. 4, following Don Trahan’s resignation. Trahan is stepping down from the legislature to become Director of External Relations with the state Department of Education. Qualifying for the race opens today and runs through 5 p.m. Wednesday. Only two candidates, family law attorney Nancy Landry, who lost by 33 votes to Trahan last year, and Maurice businessman Troy Theriot, who worked on Trahan’s two campaigns, have officially announced their intentions to run.

This morning, former city-parish councilmen Lenwood Broussard and Rob Stevenson both say they will not be among the field of candidates. While last week he said he was “90 percent” certain he’d be running, Broussard says he now realizes he is not ready to sacrifice the kind of time it would take away from his business and family life. The same goes for Stevenson. Former councilman Randy Menard says he is also now leaning against running, but was waiting to see who else qualified for the race before making a final decision.

Also eyeing a run is Charlie Buckels, vice chairman of the state Republican Party who ran for the District 31 seat in 2003 and lost by 13 votes to Trahan. Reached this morning, Buckels remained noncommittal. “There’s a lot of a considerations,” he says. “If I do something like this, I will not do it half-heartedly; it’ll be diving in with everything I have.

Articles by this Author:

View all articles by this author

Comments (1)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

OFFICE MANAGER
written by MARKIE THERIOT , October 09, 2008 - 07:13 pm

Thank you for such a wonderful article. I am in hopes that your newpaper will continue to print articles that are based on "facts" & continue to ask questions for those of us who are not politically savy; such as: "Why would an informed voter vote for a Lobbist who 2 days prior to announcing her run for office is suddenly a "TRUE REPUBLICAN & NOT A TRUE LOBBIST?"

You must be logged in to post a comment. Log in using your Facebook account or register if you do not have an account yet.

Most Read

Alex Lege: 'The Cop Watcher'

Is it a crime for citizens to photograph, video, or take notes of a police officer in the line of duty, or a right protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution? Locally, such activity, as witnessed recently, will at the very least result in a night spent behind bars.
David Calhoun, ‘EB’ Brooks join Lafayette Central Park

David Calhoun and Elizabeth “EB” Brooks are the first two employees of Lafayette Central Park Inc., the nonprofit charged with turning Lafayette Consolidated Government’s 100-acre Johnston Street Horse Farm property into a passive public park. Calhoun was named executive director, and Brooks is director of planning and design.
Update: PXP creating 600 jobs averaging 100k

At Thursday's State of the Economy luncheon, LEDA President and CEO Gregg Gothreaux said PXP has already quietly hired 180 people for its Broussard expansion.
Today in awesome: ESA’s Caffery wins fellowship

Episcopal School of Acadiana’s Dr. Joshua Caffery, chair of the school’s English Department, is headed to Washington, D.C., and the Library of Congress as the latest winner of the Alan Lomax Fellowship in Folklife Studies.
Zachary Barker takes helm of the Opportunity Machine

Zachary Barker continues making waves in Lafayette’s business scene, mostly recently being named director of the Opportunity Machine.

in case you missed it

COOL TOWN 2013

This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A curious compact

A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
Pooyie 2012

It's good, it's bad and it's just plain crazy.
Saving Saturday Night

An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Posthaste vs. HART FORTENBERY

Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.