Amedee unseats Harrison

Beryl Amedee, R-Gray, defeated two-term state Rep. Joe Harrison, R-Napoleonville, in Saturday’s runoff election for the District 51 seat garnering 52 percent of the vote.
District 51 includes parts of Assumption, Lafourche, St. Mary and Terrebonne parishes. Sections of Morgan City and Amelia are in the district.
Harrison was seeking a third and final term as state representative.
Amedee received 4,101 votes to Harrison’s 3,783 votes. Overall voter turnout for the state representative runoff was 32.8 percent.
In St. Mary Parish, Amedee also got 52 percent, 1,109 votes, to Harrison’s 48 percent, 1,013 votes.
Amedee carried Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes as well with 54 percent and 59 percent of the vote. Harrison took his home parish of Assumption with 58 percent of that vote.
“The campaign was long and a lot of hard work, but I believe that just by the grace of God and by the favor with the voters we were able to pull off a win,” Amedee said. “It’s always difficult when you’re running against an incumbent, especially one that’s been in so long.”
Amedee, who serves on the Terrebonne Parish Council, only had name recognition within her council district before running for state representative, she said.
“To go from being a virtual unknown in July to being able to take the lead over an entrenched incumbent was just amazing,” Amedee said.
Harrison, who has served two terms as state representative, said he was disappointed in the outcome of the election, but “all things happen for a reason.”
Harrison focused on issues such as coastal restoration and education while in office, he said.
The state is facing “a really, really tough next four years,” Harrison said. But he is encouraged having John Bel Edwards as governor, who is a “quality person” with the leadership skills Louisiana needs, Harrison said.
Legislators already know that the governor is going to call a special session in 2016 to address the state budget, Amedee said. That session will be Amedee’s “main focus” to begin her term, she said.
“Whenever we get to a regular session, I would like to see what we can do to take care of some of the most urgent issues for the whole district,” Amedee said.
The next most important issue, after the state budget, is the state’s economy with the ongoing economic downturn in Louisiana, Amedee said.
Though the Legislature doesn’t have anything to do with the price of oil, the low price of oil is probably the most significant problem affecting the economy right now, Amedee said.
“There are things that the state Legislature can do to try and make it more of a business-friendly environment in Louisiana so that the businesses now won’t be so skittish about expanding and investing,” Amedee said.
Many businesses are either moving out or hesitant to come to Louisiana because of the “state budget crisis,” Amedee said.
“We’ve already lost some businesses due to the thought that we might do away with the inventory tax credit,” Amedee said. Liability laws have also been scaring businesses away from the state for a while, she said.
Amedee received support from the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry political action committees and Louisiana Lawsuit Fairness Pact, a tort reform organization, she said. Louisiana Federation for Children, an educational choice group, also backed Amedee, she said.
“That’s something that’s near and dear to my heart also. I believe that parents should have much authority to choose the type of education that their children are going to receive,” Amedee said.
Harrison plans to get back to focusing on his financial planning business after devoting so much time to being a legislator, he said.
“I’m most disappointed in the type of race that was run,” Harrison said.
Harrison hopes the political system will disallow candidates being able to use “the type of political attack that I was subjected to so that people can actually see the issues,” he said.
“It’s time for us to start acting like Louisianans and bring our state together instead of party politics,” Harrison said. State leaders need “to stop this division that we’ve seen,” he said.