Another LA Election Set for Jan. 18 -- for State Senate

The Shreveport (LA) Times ^ | 12-07-02 | Burton, Larry

[Theodore R.]

Seven candidates vie for Senate seat Larry Burton / The Times Posted on December 7, 2002

Seven candidates will compete for Northwest Louisiana's state Senate District 36 seat.

The last day of qualifying Friday saw two more hopeful s file for the post being vacated by Sen. Foster Campbell, D-Elm Grove. The latest qualifiers are:

-- Robert R. Adley, 55, a conservative Democrat who served as a state representative from 1980 to 1996. Adley, of Benton in Bossier Parish, owns and operates a natural gas management company and ran for governor in 1995.

-- T.E. "Gene" Coleman, 66, a Republican of Homer in his second term on the Claiborne Police Jury. Coleman is a State Farm agent.

They join five other men who filed earlier in the week to run for the Senate seat, which represents most of Bossier Parish, all of Webster and Bienville parishes and half of Claiborne Parish.

The other candidates seeking election to the post Jan. 18 are:

-- Jack Cook, 71, a retired businessman of Plain Dealing in Bossier Parish. Cook, a Democrat, is a newly elected justice of the peace in Bossier Parish's District 3.

-- Attorney John Cucci Jr., 36, who lives in Benton in Bossier Parish and practices law in Shreveport. He is a Republican.

-- Doug Frye, 40, a first-term City Council member in Minden in Webster Parish. Frye, a Democrat, is a contract auditor for a Baton Rouge-based firm and a real estate agent.

-- Jerry Lott, 65, who retired from the Webster school system in 1999 with 38 years of service, 15 of which he served as superintendent over the system. Lott is a Democrat who lives in Sibley in Webster Parish.

-- Third-term Bossier Parish Police Juror Henry D. "Hank" Meachum, 65, a Democrat who lives in Haughton. Meachum is a real estate agent.

Campbell, the state's longest-sitting senator, was elected Nov. 5 to the Louisiana Public Service Commission. He will resign from his Senate seat to assume his PSC job, which begins Jan. 1.

[Theodore R.]

Campbell, a former educator, was a long-term ally of former Governor Edwin Washington Edwards (1972-80; 1984-88; 1992-96). He also lost a special congressional race early in 1988 to now Rep. Jim McCrery, R-LA.

Also this district has never had a Republican state senator. The Republicans must unite behind one of their two contenders to have any chance to make the "special election runoff" with one of the five Democrats. I would think Adley would be the leading candidate, based on name ID and past experience.