Candidates share platforms and ideas at Chamber event

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Several candidates running for political office next month were able to express their qualifications and platforms to the voters of Evangeline Parish at a Meet the Candidates political rally hosted by the Evangeline Parish Chamber of Commerce and was broadcast live on The Ville Platte Gazette’s Facebook page.
Over the course of the night, each candidate present had five minutes to speak about their goals and answered questions from the new publisher of The Gazette Garland Forman who served as moderator.
Both candidates for mayor of Ville Platte had an opportunity to address the audience.
“I really think I have a lot of things I can do to make this community be lifted up from the bottom,” said Kevin LaFleur. “Once the bottom comes up, everybody at the top automatically rises.”
If elected, LaFleur plans on addressing drainage, high utility bills, and crime. One way to combat the crime, as he said, is “working with people to get some jobs and trying to get people where they need to be so they can take care of their families.”
One way of doing this, as LaFleur proposed, is “I would really like to get another plant by Cabot and Cameron Iron because then we can really give the people a real job instead of at Domino’s or McDonald’s or anything like that. Something to where the people can raise a family. Then, we can start moving forward.”
LaFleur is running on a platform of bringing everybody in the city together to make the community better. He is running against the incumbent Mayor Jennifer Vidrine.
“One of the reasons I am running for re-election,” she said, “is the same reason I ran the first time and the second time. It’s for the people of Ville Platte.”
Mayor Vidrine, like others before her during the night’s program, touted her accomplishments in office such as bringing about new businesses, new homes on Dossman Street, elderly apartments, a grant for the fire department to purchase a new ladder truck, revamped operating system, crime stopper tip line, revamped law enforcement communication system, improvements to the city parks, and employee raises.
Other work is bringing a plant to the Industrial Park that “will work with small manufacturers.” She is also working to bring a call center with 50 to 60 jobs to the city.
She said, “May the work I’ve done speak for me, and let the work I will do speak for you.”
Two of the candidates for Louisiana Secretary of State also addressed the audience.
Heather Cloud, who is currently the mayor of Turkey Creek, commented, “If there’s anything to be excited about in the secretary of state race, it’s I am one of you. I’m from Evangeline Parish, and I actually live in Evangeline Parish.”
Cloud stated she is running for secretary of state because of the voter fraud that plagued her run for Turkey Creek mayor in 2014. She said, “That really opened my eyes to the necessity for clean elections in the State of Louisiana,” she said. “As secretary of state, I won’t let any force work to negate or dilute the vote of the people.”
She touted her accomplishments of serving as mayor, president of the tax commission, and business owner in Evangeline Parish. “I know what it’s like to be from rural Louisiana more than anybody else running for this office,” Cloud said. “We need a voice in Evangeline Parish and the rural areas of this state, and I am that rural voice.”
Part of her plan as secretary of state is being transparent and adequately training commissioners at polling sites. “I know it’s important for people to know what the right answer is when and if something happens,” Cloud said. “I will facilitate that communication and good relationship.”
Also running for secretary of state on a theme of growing up in a log cabin is Renee Fontenot Free, who spoke Tuesday night through an audio recording. “I am an attorney, but I am a country girl at heart,” she said. “I ride horses. I can hunt and fish with the best of them. I wear jeans and cowboy boots whenever I can.”
As far as her accomplishments, Free said, “All candidates claim to be experienced and qualified. I’ll bring real experience, real knowledge, and unique qualifications to the secretary of state.”
Free has worked for the past 28 years “at the highest levels of state government” under four governors, five attorneys general, and three secretaries of state. She took a leave of absence from the attorney general’s public protection division to run for secretary of state.
One of her most traumatic events of her career was planning elections in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. “As first assistant secretary of state,” Free said, “my job was to see to it that those elections went off without a hitch. I guess the proudest moment was when the federal courts approved our plan. Despite the turmoil and devastation, we again earned the public’s confidence putting on fair and impartial elections.”
The first candidates in parish races to speak were candidates for Evangeline Parish School Board District 10.
Incumbent Arthur Savoy focused on his background as a teacher and a school board member.
He has been teaching welding since 1980 and said, “For the last 20 years, my welding department has been in the top three in the State of Louisiana.”
Savoy has also been a school board member for the last 22 years. He said, “We have accomplished pages after pages of things that are great for the teachers, the students, and the people of Evangeline Parish.”
Some of these accomplishments are pay raises for everybody who works in the parish, a new technology building, and a contract with Johnson Controls to “lower the ceilings of every school in Evangeline Parish to standard height and to put some brand new LED lighting.”
Running against Savoy is Maggie Ortego who also sent in an audio recording. She said, “I was born and raised in Evangeline Parish and have a personal interest in our schools. This interest is shown through the time spent volunteering for several years.”
One item on Ortego’s list is, if elected, as she said, “reaching out to all parish schools and determining what obstacles stand in the way of obtaining student performance and addressing steps needed in order to remove these obstacles.”
She added, “If given the opportunity, I am ready to role up my sleeves and work with the board as well as Superintendent Lazard.”
Running for city council for District A in the City of Ville Platte is Faye Lemoine, who told the audience, “I want to jump on the bandwagon because I think our city is heading in the right direction.”
One of the problems that Lemoine wants to address if elected is drainage. “We do have a problem with drainage in our city,” she stated. “We’ve begun to work with it, and I hope we’re going to continue to work with it.”
Other problem areas she plans on addressing are litter and crime.
Lemoine is running on the qualifications of being an educator for 34 years and being “familiar with federal budgets and regulations that go into the way you spend your money.”
She went on to say, “I will try to make our city a better place and a place we’re proud to call home. We want our town to be attractive. We’re picking up the litter, and we’re working on the drainage.”
Linton Fontenot, candidate for chief of police of the City of Ville Platte, then took the stage. “My goal is to bring this department to another place,” he commented.
One of the ways to bring about his goal is through officer training. “One of the biggest problems that I hear is the officers are not being paid enough,” he said. “My answer to that is programs such as LACE that generates a lot of money that goes to the police department. That way, we will be able to pay the officers more, get better equipment, and better training to be able to handle any kind of situation they run across.”
The night led off with Representative Mike Johnson who is running for re-election as United States Congressman for Louisiana’s 4th District. Although not present, he delivered his message through an audio/visual recording.
“It’s been a great honor of my life to serve as a congressman for Louisiana’s 4th Congressional District,” he expressed, “and I’m really grateful for the confidence that everyone in the southern part of the district has put into me. I made a promise on the campaign trail when I ran that I would pay just as much attention to the southern portions of the district as the Shreveport/Bossier areas with the higher populations, and I’ve made good on that promise.”
He continued, “We’ve done over 42 town hall meetings all around the district. I think that’s an important part of the job to be with the people that I represent so we can hear from you and carry your voices and concerns to Washington.”
Congressman Johnson touted the accomplishments of the 115th Congress such as landmark tax cuts, generational reform, and regulatory reform that has led to a well performing economy, record low unemployment, and record high stock market and small business confidence.
I think the country is on the right track,” he stated. “I hope we will get the chance to continue that good work, and I think, overall, it will be a good thing for the country if we can keep the ball moving. In the meantime, we’re working across the aisle in a bipartisan fashion with everyone to move the ball forward for the country.”
Early voting for the November 6 election begins Tuesday, October 23 and runs to Tuesday, October 30 everyday except Sunday, October 28.