Nathan Stubbs

School board candidates debate tonight

by Nathan Stubbs

District 3 School board candidates will have their sole debate tonight, just four days before voters head to the polls. A runoff will be held Nov. 4 if no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote on Saturday. Vying for the seat is retired teacher Lionel Lewis, Jr., 70;
oilfield service company salesman Elroy Broussard, 56; an; and retired teacher and Louisiana Technical College administrator Shelton Cobb, 68. Lewis, who was appointed by the school board to the District 3 seat in January following Rickey Hardy’s election to the state legislature, is running as the incumbent. Shelton Cobb is director of the Lafayette Board of Zoning Adjustments and ran for the District 3 seat before in 2006, finishing second to Hardy in a three-way race with 25 percent of the vote. Cobb, who made a failed bid for city-parish council last year, has the support of the former incumbent Hardy. The debate tonight, hosted by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., is at 6:30 p.m. at the Alice Boucher Elementary School cafeteria.