Leaders of the Pack

Former Lake Charles Mayor and current state Sen. Willie Landry Mount eked past state Sen. Don Cravins Tuesday to meet top vote-getter and Lafayette surgeon Charles Boustany Jr. in a Dec. 4 run-off for the 7th congressional district seat. But in the Senate race, Democrat Chris John, a Crowley congressman, couldn’t stop Metairie congressman David Vitter from becoming the state's first Republican elected from Louisiana to the post that is being vacated by retiring Sen. John Breaux. Vitter’s victory, with 51 percent of the vote compared to 29 percent for John and 15 percent for John Kennedy, was a major setback for Democrats, who hoped John could push Vitter into runoff.

And in local voting, Joey Alcede won the marshal’s post over Bill Pousson, with Alcede garnering 55 percent of the vote to only 45 percent for Pousson. Jeremy Cryer defeated Jeff Pitre in the runoff for the Westlake police chief post.

In the race for Congress in the 7th District, vacant as a result of John’s run for Congress, Mount won Calcasieu, Cameron and Jeff Davis parishes (for 25 percent of the vote), while Boustany won Lafayette, Acadia and Vermilion parishes (for 39 percent of the vote). Cravins won Evangeline and St. Landry parishes (for over 24 percent of the vote). David Thibodaux, a Republican and Lafayette Parish School Board member, garnered 26,497 votes or 10 percent of the votes, while Malcolm Carriere, Democrat, garnered 5,280 votes for 2 percent. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the National Republic Campaign Committee spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on negative attack ads on the opposite party candidates that they perceived were front-runners. It was clear that Boustany was the Republican Party's first choice and Mount was the Democratic Party's first choice. In addition, Boustany reportedly wanted to meet Cravins in a run-off, believing that it would be easier to beat an African-American than it would be to defeat Mount.

Although Boustany goes into the run-off campaign with a strong lead, the race will be interesting to watch. There is some speculation that Republican voters, who made a big push to get out the vote for the Nov. 2 presidential election, may stay home in December. In addition, the 7th Congressional seat has traditionally been held by a Democrat, with Breaux and former Gov. Edwin Edwards holding the seat in the past.

Boustany, a lifelong Republican, was an at-large member of the Lafayette Parish Republican Executive Committee from 1996 to 2001 and was named the vice chairman of the Bush/Cheney Victory 2000 Campaign for Lafayette Parish. He currently sits on the board of directors for Lafayette General Medical Center. He has served on the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency Tissue Advisory Board, the Board of Directors for the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce in 2001, and the Executive Board of Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce as vice president for Government Affairs in 2002. In 2000, he served as president of the Lafayette Parish Medical Society.

Mount was elected the first woman Louisiana State Senator from District 27 in 1999, after serving six and a half years as the first woman mayor of Lake Charles, Louisiana. She is serving her second term and chairs the Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee. She is vice chair of the Joint Legislative Committee on Capital Outlay and a member of the Education, Legislative Audit Advisory, and Judiciary C Committees. A former small business owner, Mount has been active in a variety of civic and community improvement projects. She is past president of the Louisiana Conference of Mayors and served on the Executive Boards of the Louisiana Municipal Association and Council for a Better Louisiana. Mount also serves on the McNeese State University Foundation Board, the Christus St. Patrick Board of Counselors, the United Methodist Foundation, Prevent Child Abuse Louisiana Board, and the United Way Community Foundation.

In the race for Senate, even with the support of the retiring Sen. Breaux, John couldn’t gain enough votes to force Vitter into a run-off. John won Orleans Parish, but Vitter, riding on President Bush’s coattails, beat the 7th District Congressman in Lafayette and Calcasieu parishes, although Vitter won the Calcasieu vote by a narrow margin. But with the avalanche of support Vitter had in Jefferson, East Baton Rouge, St. Tammany, Bossier, Caddo, Tangipahoa and Lafourche parishes, John couldn’t chip away at Vitter’s lead to get him below 50 percent of the vote. Kennedy, who had run relatively strong in a number of polls, didn’t win one parish.

Vitter graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University and was a Rhodes Scholar. He holds a law degree from Tulane University School of Law. He is a veteran of five years in the U.S. House of Representatives, in addition to having served two terms in the Louisiana Legislature.