Nine candidates vie to become Terrebonne Parish president

UPDATE: This article has been updated to reflect that Shari Champagne and Todd Fanguy have withdrawn from the race.

Terrebonne Parish voters have an array of contenders to choose from who are seeking to become their new parish president.  Nine candidates – five men and four women with varied backgrounds, philosophies, levels of political experience and alliances – have officially thrown their hats in the ring.

They are: Jason Bergeron; Connie Bourg; Roy Chauvin; Christa Duplantis-Prather; Darrin Guidry; Michael Paul LaRussa and Aronda Smith.

Primary Day is Oct. 14. If no candidate wins 50 percent plus one or more votes, the two drawing the most votes will face each other in a run-off scheduled for Nov. 18.

The winner will succeed the current Parish President, Gordon Dove, who has served for eight years and now is term-limited out of contention. Candidates filed their qualifying documents with the Clerk of Court between Aug. 8 and Aug. 10. They seek to preside over a parish with a $247 million budget still struggling to rebuild after a devastating Hurricane Ida, soaring insurance rates, an ever-eroding coastline and limited career opportunities.

Several expressed a desire to better Terrebonne so that young people will stay for better opportunities. At least three of the candidates hoping to be the new Terrebonne Parish President have names recognizable for business or political involvement.

First-timers who threw their hats in the ring say they shouldn’t be counted out, and that perhaps it’s time for a change in local government that doesn’t cling to long-standing methods of choosing priorities and attacking problems.

JASON BERGERON

Change was the first thing candidate Jason Bergeron mentioned when asked why he was inspired to run.

A first-time candidate for anything, Bergeron is CEO and founder of Stratify LLC, a Houma technology company, and also performs business consulting. A 1993 graduate of South Terrebonne High, he was on the way to a football career when a knee injury sidelined him. As a consultant he has seen first-hand, he said, how businesses need to grow and be nurtured for the parish to prosper.

“My daughter is a senior at LSU and she has nothing to come home for,” Bergeron said. “My son is talking about moving away when he finishes high school in two years.”

Business experience, he said, has taught him that new approaches to serious problems need to be made, such as how the parish handles challenges posed by Federal Emergency Management Agency rules in times of crisis and the rebuilding process.

“I am not a politician,” Bergeron said. “I am running as a public servant. I believe we can get the right people in a room to have a conversation on how we fix issues … I am an innovative, organizational servant leader.”

CONNIE FANGUY BOURG

Another first-time-ever candidate is Connie Fanguy Bourg of Houma. She and husband Lavis “Jay” Bourg ran the Lavis Auto Repair service station on Barrow Street for 47 years.

“I love this parish this is my home and I want to see it be better place to live,” she said.

Ticking off priorities, Bourg noted the need for resolution of cripplingly high insurance rates.

“We all know that homeowner insurance rates have sky-rocketed since Hurricane Ida,” she said. “I will work diligently with our new insurance commissioner to get the best possible outcomes. Our roads need attention, to be better maintained for the safety of everyone.”

A homeless shelter is another priority Bourg mentioned, as well as a need for many steps to be taken so that the parish is beautified.

ROY CHAUVIN

Schriever activist Roy Chauvin makes no bones about having been a government gadfly for many years, making his concerns well known after retiring from the enforcement division of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

“I thought I would get more mellow the older I get, but I have the same desire I did when I was 24-years-old working for Wildlife and Fisheries,” he said. “Correcting things that are not right. I felt I was chosen for that purpose in life.”

Chauvin said he has not put any campaign signs out and doesn’t intend to do so. His campaign is self-funded, and he will not accept contributions from anyone. Authorities received complaints from Chauvin that campaign signs were posted in public by candidates in violation of laws regulating them. However, all are still pending.

“I am up to the challenge,” Chauvin said of his hopes for election. “I managed a bunch of people as a law enforcement supervisor.”

CHRISTA DUPLANTIS-PRATHER

Christa Duplantis-Prather has been involved with parish government for more than two decades and watched carefully from the sidelines when she was not. She is a registered nurse at Ochsner Medical Center in Metairie. Experience, she maintains – during the administrations of three parish presidents – will help her decision-making process and will be a boon to administrating the parish.

“I have listened over twenty years or more and I hear the people, and I know what to do,” Duplantis-Prather said. “The people of the parish have inspired me to run because anytime I would run into them at Rouses or Cannatas they would say ‘we miss you … we need you.’”

Duplantis-Prather has represented to different parish council districts between 1996 and 2019, and during those times has served on every council committee. She has also served as Vice Chair of the council.

DARRIN GUIDRY

Darrin Guidry, the former Parish Council chairman and District 6 representative, is wrapping up his second term. He has also filled in for the Parish President during times the chief executive was absent.

“I could have run for reelection, but seeing all the challenges the next parish president faces from the inside, I thought it was too important and that someone with the experience needed to tackle the challenges we are facing had to run.”

He sees the rising rates of insurance companies following Hurricane Ida as a crisis that must be addressed and is spoiling to fight for recognition of Terrebonne’s floodgates and levees by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“I am going to protest the FEMA elevations and hire somebody to do a model with our levees and infrastructure in place,” he explained. “We would petition FEMA to change the elevations and take more of the people in flood zones our of flood zones. It’s going to be a battle, but it has to begin.”

MICHAEL PAUL LARUSSA

Michael Paul LaRussa has spent much of his adult lifetime dealing with government officials as a businessman and community leader and says he has forged strong relationships with people in Terrebonne Parish in his capacity as president of his eponymous real estate company.

“I see how crucial this election is,” LaRussa said. “We have got one bite of the apple with federal money, the storm money from Hurricane Ida.”

That means strict establishment of priorities, he said, taking ideas directly from the people and pulling them into reality.

The little man, he said, is the person whose voice needs to be heard by government. LaRussa says he has gained good experience doing that while performing various forms of public service work.

He credits his work with the School District/Chamber of Commerce task force with achieving a pay raise for teachers, and says he is particularly proud of work he has done representing realtors state-wide in talks with state legislators.

“We’re rolling and going,” he said of his current campaign.

ARONDA SMITH

Aronda Smith’s path to the parish president candidacy was a circuitous one, but the Desert Storm and Desert Shield army veteran says that every bit of knowledge she has picked up on the way has made her that much more qualified.

The former oilfield worker was in Philadelphia for 20 years, and during that time earned associate, bachelor and masters certifications with a focus on business administration and dynamics.

She is now back home and wants to use her accumulated accomplishments for the good of Terrebonne Parish, where she has lived since 2020 developing her own business as a business consultant and coach. Her family is from Gibson and she grew up in Houma.

“We have to look at Terrebonne Parish closely, where we stand in the global economy, recognize that we are a part of the global economy,” she said. “That is part of learning how we are going to progress. The military is all about strategy and with our issues of coastal erosion and the need to dredge bayous, all the things specific to our parish, I have an approach.”

Mental health assistance, a focus on addiction and other human services need a closer look, she said, adding that there is a great need for infrastructure improvement with roads, highways and bridges in need of repair. “I believe in innovation and research,” Smith said. “I want to take a look at the things happening here and use the expertise I have to find the best approach.”

This article originally appeared on Gonzales Weekly Citizen: Nine candidates vie for Terrebonne Parish president