Richard A. “Rick” Chargois, a 25-year veteran of the Louisiana State Police, is challenging incumbent Lafayette Parish Sheriff Mike Neustrom Oct. 22.
Chargois served as a trooper/deputy commander and headed various departments (Uniform Operations and the Bureau of Investigations) of the Louisiana State Police until his retirement in late 2004.
Chargois’s father, Eric, also served in law enforcement for approximately 40 years, retiring from the Louisiana State Police as a Region II major inspector and then serving as chief deputy under then-Lafayette Parish sheriffs Ross Brupbacher and Donald Breaux until his death. “I can truthfully say that serving the public in a law enforcement capacity has been engrained since birth,” Chargois says.
“Fortunately, the average citizen in Lafayette Parish will never need to call upon the Sheriff’s Department, City Police, Fire Department or any other emergency service for help,” Chargois said. “But for those individuals who find themselves involved in any life threatening situation, it is imperative that those departments operate in a timely and efficient manner. As taxpayers we expect our streets and neighborhoods to be safe and our parks, shopping centers and schools crime free. Sadly, we do have drugs in our schools and on our streets, high crime areas do exist in our parish and our children and grandchildren are exposed to potential criminal activity at every turn.”
Chargois is a lifelong resident of the Acadiana area, is married, and has five daughters and five grandchildren. Chargois is a Republican.
Neustrom, a Democrat, announced his bid for re-election earlier this month. A former criminology professor at UL Lafayette, he was first elected in a runoff in 1999. He beat the same opponent, Republican George Armbruster, in another runoff in 2003 but faced no opponent in 2007.
Qualifying begins Sept. 6.
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
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