Qualifying has ended in parish

By: RAYMOND PARTSCH III
Managing Editor

For several Evangeline Parish politicians there will be no need to blanket neighborhoods with signs or flood the airwaves with campaign slogans in the coming weeks.
That’s because a total of nine politicians from the parish have been re-elected as no one decided to oppose them during qualifying this past week for the upcoming Oct. 24 primary election.
Four police jurors, the clerk of court, the tax assessor, the coroner and two state legislators won’t have to endure a grueling re-election process.
“I am flattered that I was able to get re-elected without opposition,” District 28 state senator Eric LaFleur (D-Ville Platte) said. “I look forward to serving out my last four years in the legislature.”
That sentiment was shared by District 38 state representative H. Bernard LeBas (D-Ville Platte), who will being serving his third and final consecutive term.
“The first thing is that it makes me feel good that the people feel I am doing a good job,” LeBas said, who has served in the state house since 2007. “I am trying to represent them in the fashion that they want to be represented. It truly humbles you.”
Without having to deal with the grind of an election, both LaFleur and LeBas can now focus on hitting the ground running for the next legislative session.
“It takes a lot of the pressure and headache of running a full scale campaign,” LaFleur said. “It does help us to focus on the time between now and the time the new leadership takes over. This frees me to build some coalitions in leadership. I am not hog-tied by an election and free to start that process.”
LeBas added, “We have already started seeing exactly what kind of legislation we are going to be looking at. We are almost certain we will have a special session when the new governor takes over due to the budget. This will be a time that we are going to try and plan ahead.”
Evangeline Parish Clerk of Court Randall M. “Randy” Deshotel and parish Tax Assessor Dirk Deville are both unopposed. Thomas G. Fontenot also was unopposed for coroner as he will take over for Dr. Charles Fontenot, who opted not to run for reelection.
Four police jurors also faced no opposition. Rocky B. Rider (District 1), Ryan Ardoin (District 3), Kevin Veillon (District 5) and Ryan “LeDay” Williams (District 8) will return to the nine-person board.
Even with so many races resulting with zero opposition, there are still plenty of key races on the ballot.
Five spots on the Police Jury are up for grabs. Kenny Burgess faces off with Sidney Fontenot in District 2, incumbent Lamar Johnson will run against Robert Johnson in District 4, Eric B. Soileau and Donald R. Vidrine will run for the District 6 seat, Grant Soileau and Kevin “Cabon” Fontenot will try to unseat Bryan Vidrine in District 7 while Daniel Arvie, Shawn D. Gallow and Gerald “Big D” Alfred will vie for the District 9 seat.
Incumbent Evangeline Parish Sheriff Eddie Soileau faces opposition from three candidates in his bid for reelection. Sidney “Joey” Peloquin III, Darin K. Bordelon and Anthony “Andy” Gaspard will also be running for Soileau’s seat.
Absentee voting for the upcoming election runs between October 10-17. Also, any necessary runoff elections will be held statewide on Nov. 21.