Lafayette fall election set as judge, mayor, police chief candidates qualify for office

Andrew Capps, Lafayette Daily Advertiser
·3 min read

Ballots for the Tuesday, Nov. 8, election in Lafayette Parish are set as qualifying ended Friday for dozens of offices in the parish.

Topping Lafayette's ballots this fall will be races for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Sen. John Kennedy and Republican Rep. Clay Higgins' 3rd Congressional District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Higgins, who qualified to run for his fourth term representing Southwest Louisiana in Congress on Friday, drew seven challengers, including three other Republicans, and he was endorsed by the state party.

Local races abound with races for judicial, mayoral and police chief positions.

Voters will pick appeals court and city judges

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Two district court judges from Acadiana are running to replace longtime Third Circuit Court of Appeals Justice Sylvia Cooks, of Lafayette, who is leaving the bench after 30 years on the appeals court.

Two Black, Democratic candidates are running to fill Cooks' seat, each in their second year as a district court judge.

Ledricka Johnson Thierry was elected as the first woman to serve as a judge in the 27th Judicial District Court, which covers St. Landry Parish.
Ledricka Johnson Thierry was elected as the first woman to serve as a judge in the 27th Judicial District Court, which covers St. Landry Parish.

Lafayette-based Judge Valerie Gotch-Garrett, of the 15th Judicial District, and Opelousas-based Judge Ledricka Johnson Thierry, of the 27th JDC, will face off in the Nov. 8 election.

The two are running in a smaller section of the 21-parish Third Circuit Court of Appeals. The majority of the district's registered voters are Black Democrats, and it includes parts of Lafayette, Iberia, St. Landry and St. Martin parishes,

Valerie Gotch Garrett
Valerie Gotch Garrett

Voters in the city of Lafayette also will determine who will replace former City Court Judge Michelle Odinet, who resigned after barely a year in office when a video surfaced of her using a racial slur.

Lafayette City Court: Judge Michelle Odinet resigns after making racial slurs on video

Three candidates are running for the seat she vacated in December, including a former district judge, a former police chief and a current prosecutor.

Former 15th JDC Judge Jules Edwards III, who lost to Odinet in the 2020 City Court election, is again running as a no party candidate for the seat. Edwards served for nearly 30 years as a district court judge before deciding to run for a position in the city court.

Assistant District Attorney Roya Boustany, a Republican, will also compete for the City Court judgeship this fall after working in the 15th Judicial District Attorney's office for roughly seven years.

Former Lafayette Police Chief Toby Aguillard, A Republican who was pushed out of the department by Mayor-President Josh Guillory in January 2020, rounds out the trio of candidates for the City Court judge position.

A runoff election will be held in the race on Dec. 10, if no candidate secures a majority of the votes cast on Nov. 8.

Small-town voters have lots of elections to track

Broussard, Carencro, Duson, Scott and Youngsville voters have several races to track.

Duson Mayor Johnny Thibodeaux is the only incumbent mayor who was re-elected unopposed.

Carencro is the only municipality in the parish without an incumbent mayor running for reelection, as long-time Mayor Glenn Brasseaux announced his retirement from the job in February.

Brasseaux's City Manager Don Chauvin and former Carencro City Councilwoman Charlotte Stemmans Clavier will vie for the seat.

Broussard Mayor Ray Borque will face a challenge from Corey Morgan. Scott Mayor Jan-Scott Richard will face Troy Bergeron. And Youngsville Mayor Ken Ritter will face Kenneth Champagne.

All mayoral candidates in the parish are running as Republicans.

The parish's elected police chiefs will largely avoid challenges in their bids for reelection, with Broussard Chief Vance Olivier, Carencro Chief David Anderson and Youngsville Chief Rickey Boudreaux all running unopposed.

Only Scott Chief of Police Chad Leger, a Republican, will face a challenger as he makes his sixth bid for the office. Republican Caleb Lege, a former sheriff's deputy and Scott Police Department officer, is running to unseat Leger.

Broussard, Carencro, Duson, Scott and Youngsville will also have elections to their councils and boards of aldermen on Nov. 8. More details are available online at voterportal.sos.la.gov/candidateinquiry.

Follow Andrew Capps on Twitter or send an email to acapps@theadvertiser.com.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Lafayette ballots set for fall election after candidate qualifying