Hanagriff moves from council to parish presidency

David Hanagriff, D-Centerville, was elected the new St. Mary Parish President Saturday with 7,117 votes, or 57 percent of the vote, over Gary Duhon, D-Morgan City, who got 5,419 votes, or 43 percent, according to complete and unofficial results on the Louisiana Secretary of State’s website.
Hanagriff is in his second term as a District 3 parish councilman. He is also co-owner and vice president of Hanagriff’s Machine Shop in Centerville, which his family has owned and operated for 105 years.
He is married to Angie Hanagriff, a schoolteacher in Franklin, and has three children.
Duhon, who finished second in the race, had served two terms as an at-large parish councilman and currently serves on the Morgan City Harbor and Terminal District Commission.
Hanagriff said the campaign was “long and grueling” and that he underestimated what it took to run for a parish wide election. Hanagriff is “looking forward to going right to work,” he said.
The area economy is “really bad” right now with the low oil prices and that’s being reflected in parish sales tax collections, Hanagriff said. Parish leaders need to be conservative and focus on the issues in St. Mary Parish while trying to bring in more industry to the parish, Hanagriff said.
Hanagriff was “humbled” by the support he received and thanked all of his supporters, including his family and friends, he said.
As his first action as St. Mary Parish president, Hanagriff plans to put together a committee of civil and business leaders throughout the parish to “start ironing this out right now to see what’s best for St. Mary Parish,” he said.
Throughout his campaign, Hanagriff touted his business background as one of his strongest attributes to be able to lead the parish, he said.
“I know you can’t run parish government or any government like a business, but you can run it in a businesslike manner,” Hanagriff said.
Hanagriff wants to try to consolidate government where possible and bring people together to try to solve the problems the parish is facing, he said.
According to the secretary of state’s website, the unofficial turnout for the St. Mary Parish president election was 38.4 percent.