Republicans Plan Major Changes on Crime, Immigration, Traditional Values

Based on early voting, Republican voters appear to turning out in record numbers in East Baton Rouge Parish and across the nation.

Two likely beneficiaries are former President Donald Trump, who is seeking to return to office, and Coach Sid Edwards, who is seeking to end 20 years of Democratic rule in the Mayor-President’s office.

The two candidates, both considered outsiders, plan lots of changes if they are elected.

Their priorities center around security — at the local and national level. President Trump plans to close the border and return millions of illegal aliens to their home counties, keep the country out of unnecessary wars, and build up our national defense.

Coach Sid plans an all-out war on crime, starting by raising the pay of city police and hiring 100 new police officers. He plans to build a new Parish Prison and a new Psychiatric Hospital to get the mentally ill off the streets and into a facility where they can be cared for.

Voters in East Baton Rouge Parish will help choose Congressmen from two newly-configured districts.  The governor and legislature gerrymandered Congressman Garret Graves out of his seat and placed the parish partly in the 5th Congressional District currently represented by Congresswoman Julia Letlow, and the reconfigured majority black 6th District, where Sen. Cleo Fields (D) and former Sen. Elbert Guillory (R) are fighting it out. The Republican Party is backing Letlow and Guillory in their respective districts.

District Judge Kelly Balfour is seeking a seat on the 1st Circuit Court of Appeal and has little competition from disgraced District Judge Eboni Rose-Johnson who has been removed from office by the Louisiana Supreme Court.

In the Public Service Commission race, Sen. Jean-Paul Cousson and former Sen. Julie Quinn have a competitive race going. Sen. Quinn has the support of most local Republican parties but Sen. Cousson has the local parties in the Lafayette area on his side.

Metro Council member Laurie Adams (R) is defending her seat against no party candidate Pennie Landry. Adams has been endorsed by the Republican Party but Landry is making a race of it.

The only Constitutional Amendment on the ballot would dedicate revenues from solar farms to coastal erosion.

BREC has two tax propositions on the ballot — one to renew an existing tax and another to impose a new tax.  However, mismanagement at BREC has finally gained public attention, and the fate of the tax proposals is doubtful.

A proposal to amend the East Baton Rouge Parish Plan of Government is also on the ballot. It includes a number of diverse changes, which the St. George Leader has editorialized should not be joined in one vote. We recommend a No vote.

For some reason, rumors have spread in St. George that voters in St. George no longer vote for Mayor-President.  That, of course, is false. The Mayor-President is mayor of the City of Baton Rouge and president of the Parish of East Baton Rouge.  That office has been voted on parishwide since 1948.  Everyone in the parish votes on it, regardless of whether they reside in a municipality or not.