They’ve been campaigning for months, but this week their campaigns become official. Candidates appearing on the Oct. 24 ballot began submitting paperwork at the Lafayette Parish Courthouse this morning, though so far they’ve been trickling in at a slower-than-expected pace, according to Clerk of Court Louis Perret.
Perret says four years ago he himself had to wait until about 2:30 p.m. to qualify because of the heavy flow of candidates on the first day. Not so this time; Perret was able to qualify for re-election this morning.
By noon only 22 candidates had shown up, with Lafayette Consolidated Government CAO Dee Stanley arriving before the courthouse opened to be the first to sign up to replace his term-limited boss, City-Parish President Joey Durel. Stanley’s opponent, state Rep. Joel Robideaux, qualified about a half hour later, Perret says.
Both Stanley and Robideaux are Republicans.
On Friday Durel announced that Stanley is now on annual leave from his CAO position until after the election, noting that he had assigned the administrative duties of the CAO to Chief Financial Officer Lorrie Toups, Chief Development Officer Carlee Alm-LaBar, Human Resources Manager Ray Domingue and administrative staff within Stanley’s division and Durel’s own office.
The sign-up period for candidates to officially add their names to the ballot runs through Thursday.