In Terrebonne Parish president race, Jason Bergeron bests Darrin Guidry by slim margin
A Houma tech-company owner who has never sought political office before will head the executive branch of Terrebonne Parish’s Consolidated Government when the incumbent, Gordon Dove, leaves office in January.
Jason Bergeron beat out two-time parish councilman Darrin Guidry in a run-off election Saturday night by a margin of 9.76 percent, garnering 9,774 votes or 54.88%, to Guidry’s 8,036, or 45.12%, based on complete but unofficial results from the Louisiana Secretary of State.
Early voting numbers, released almost immediately after the polls closed, showed Bergeron ahead with 3,844 votes, or 54.30%, compared to Guidry’s 3,235 or 45.70%. That 8.6 percent margin never closed tighter for Guidry, widening as the night went on by 1.16 percent.
Bergeron stated early in his campaign that he wished to provide Terrebonne Parish with change – a new slate at the top – and Saturday night he said that’s precisely what he still intends to do. Some initial changes, he said, don’t have to be terribly large to be effective.
“I think change sometimes is as simple as conversations differently, to fix issues with people right there in the room,” he said. “That’s change we probably haven’t seen done.”
Bergeron said that as he eases into office his plan is to see that department directors and employees are set up for success.
“We’ll have conversations about things that they've been maybe wanting to do differently,” Bergeron said. “And we’ll be making sure we have got the right people, passionate, hard-working people in the right places, and that we are making some decisions every day to make us more efficient and to move Terrebonne Parish foreward.”
Bergeron said he has not yet communicated with Dove, but that he expects the turnover to be done smoothly.
“I do hope we can work together,” said Bergeron, who did not receive Dove’s endorsement.
Bergeron acknowledged that he is walking into a hot seat of sorts. A thousand families are still without permanent homes due to Hurricane Ida. Homeowners insurance rates are through the roof and climbing higher. But the parish president-elect expressed confidence that he’s up for the challenge.
“That’s the situation the Lord put me in,” Bergeron said. “And he put me there because he feels I’m the guy that can fix these issues. I talked with my crew and everybody here with me tonight, about that it’s going to take all of us. I know I don’t have a magic wand. And I know it’s going to take all of us working in unison to move Terrebonne forward.”
Guidry said the defeat will give him time with family that he’s not had an opportunity to spend for some time.
“We had committed to working 14-hour days for eight years an putting our retirement on hold,” Guidry said. “I was prepared to do it for eight years more as parish president, and now we can finally retire and enjoy life and travel maybe.”
Asked what he attributed his loss to, Guidry pointed to the various issues the parish has been plagued with, answering that “the voters had a bad day at the office, and they kicked the cat.”
“That’s what happened,” Guidry said. “We had COVID, we had double-digit inflation from Washington, we had attacks on our oil and gas industry from Washington. We shall see if this next parish president can magically fix everything. I could have run against a dish rag and a dish rag would have won because people are blaming local government. But I believe Gordy did a great job recovering from this storm and if you don’t think so go to Lake Charles. The people of Terrebonne Parish are in pain and I understand that they are in pain.”
This article originally appeared on Gonzales Weekly Citizen: Jason Bergeron bests Darrin Guidry by slim margin for Terrebonne president
