INDReporter

Chamber issues endorsements, passes on some races

by Walter Pierce

The Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce's political action committee, Empower PAC, has issued endorsements in races that will appear on ballots in Lafayette Parish on Oct. 22, throwing its weight behind several candidates who are running unopposed and declining to make an endorsement in a handful of other races.

The Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce's political action committee, Empower PAC, has issued endorsements in races that will appear on ballots in Lafayette Parish on Oct. 22, throwing its weight behind several candidates who are running unopposed and declining to make an endorsement in a handful of other races.

The chamber is endorsing Sen. Fred Mills (22nd District), state Rep. Page Cortez (23rd), Elbert Lee Guillory (24th) and Jonathan Perry (26th) in state Senate races. Among those candidates, only Guillory has a competitor on election day.

In the state House of Representatives races, the GLCC endorses incumbent Rep. Nancy Landry in District 31,  Jack Montoucet (42), Rickey Hardy (44), Joel Robideaux (45), Stuart Bishop (43), Don Menard (39) and Taylor Barras (48). Landry, Bishop and Barras are running unopposed.

The chamber is also endorsing Holly Boffy for the District 7 seat on the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and City-Parish President Joey Durel for a third term.

On the Lafayette City-Parish Council, the PAC is backing incumbents Sam Dore (District 6), Don Bertrand (7) and Keith Patin (8). However, the business group has endorsed challengers Britt Latiolais in District 5 over incumbent Jared Bellard and Walter Campbell in 9 over William Theriot. Bellard and Theriot are the CPC's most fiscally conservative members.

The chamber's PAC is not taking positions in the races for the newly created House District 96 and in BESE District 8.

Curiously, the chamber also declined to issue an endorsement in District 1 in northwest Lafayette Parish where three political newcomers are vying for the post and in District 3 where scandal-plagued incumbent Councilman Brandon Shelvin is facing a credible challenge from Carencro City Manager Lloyd Rochon.