'16 campaign leaves some cold

Beryl Amedee, who represents the Tri-City area in the state House of Representatives, is a Republican in a time when a nontraditional GOP candidate has been nominated for president. And she’s a woman at a time when a woman has become a major party nominee.

But Amedee finds little to cheer about.

“I really don’t have anything good to say about the presidential,” said Amedee, R-Gray. “I’m just counting down the days.”

Amedee, reflecting on her campaign last year, recalls people who seem to be tired of politics.

“By the time it got to August, people were already so sick of politics you couldn’t even get a good poll by calling,” Amedee said. “People were tired of answering the phone because the presidential race had already gone full speed.

“It’s like ‘it’s a year away people.’ I think that’s why we’re all tired of this presidential race, because it’s been long and it’s not over yet.”

Another local representative, Rep. Sam Jones, D-Franklin, believes Hillary Clinton will win.

“It appears from looking at the polls that Hillary Clinton is going to win,” Jones said. “Louisiana will probably be a Trump state because it’s a very red state.”

While Trump is not considered a typical Republican, his comments about his opponents help push Clinton forward in the polls.

“I think with all of the latest missteps and bad comments that Trump was making, he’s just digging himself into a no-win nationally,” Jones said. “We have two candidates that have very high unfavorables .

“But I have noticed lately that favorables for Hillary Clinton have gone up. And her unfavorables have gone done. Lots of people are gravitating towards her.”

Voter turnouts are generally high for every presidential election.

“I think you’ll have some very active people voting for Hillary Clinton,” Jones said. “And you’ll have some very quiet people voting for Hillary Clinton.

“And I think the same thing for Trump. You’ll have a lot of people out there very clearly for Trump, and some will quietly vote for him.”

Louisiana Republican Committee Chairman Roger Villere stands with its candidate of choice, Donald Trump.

“We’re supporting Donald Trump,” Villere said. “He is our nominee and we’ll stand behind him. When we went to the convention, Louisiana voted overwhelmingly for Trump. I think it was 31 to 15.”

There’s more excitement centered around the U.S. Senate race. Voters have 24 candidates to choose from.

“It’s just nice to have a race for once that you have a number of people to choose from,” Amedee said.

The names Amedee consistently hears amongst her party are Charles Boustany, John Fleming, Rob Maness and John Kennedy. She has not looked at any polls yet. Of the Democratic Party, she recognizes Foster Campbell and Caroline Fayard as leads.

“I’ll be honest, being a Republican, I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to the Democrat names,” Amedee said. “So if I’m hearing them, they must be in the lead.”

Amedee is disappointed about David Duke’s decision to run because of his history, especially trying to run under the Republican Party.

And she is not alone in her sentiments.

“We have condemned his candidacy,” said Villere. “We reject him completely and his hatred. We reject him being a Republican. We don’t consider him a Republican.

“I don’t think he shares our values at all. He’ll adopt what people say just to sound mainstream, but he’s a racist bigot, plus he’s a convicted felon.”

Since the committee could not block Duke’s running as a Republican, Villere said the party will change its bylaws at the next State Central Committee meeting Aug. 28, following the advice of the secretary of state and attorney general.

“So we’re going to amend our bylaws at the next state central committee so that in the future, someone like him or worse, we can reject him as far as a candidate using the label Republican,” Villere said.

“We reject his candidacy,” he said. “We don’t feel like the people of Louisiana will support him in a meaningful amount.”

“David Duke getting into it here at the end really knocked the algorithms all over the place,” Jones said. “He’s certainly going to get some votes. But you can’t poll him very well because people won’t admit to voting for him.

“And I just think … if Duke gets to the runoff with someone, whoever is in the runoff is going to beat him. I mean, the state will never elect David Duke to any office. He just kind of … messes up the Republican side of the issue.”

Jones says predicting outcomes for the U.S. Senate is still early.

“This is way, way early to predict the final outcome because the campaigns themselves are not going to be hard hitting until after Labor Day. And the vetting process will go on there.

“That race will go on to the run off, which is in December when all the presidential stuff will be over.”

Jones believes the congressional race is Republican Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle’s race to lose.

“I can’t imagine that he won’t lead in the primary,” Jones said. “The only question is who will make the runoff with him. I think he’s going to be very strong because he ran a very strong governor’s race.

“He has a lot of residual vote and good will out there. So he’s going to keep a lot of that and build on that.”

Angelle didn’t carry St. Mary Parish in the primary but he came in second, Jones said.

“He carried almost every other parish in what is now the congressional district that he’s running in. So you’ve just got to give him the benefit of having the head start on everybody.”

As of Aug. 1, 32,915 people are registered to vote in St. Mary Parish. There are 15,288 registered as democrats and 8,734 as republicans. Those registered in other parties totals 8,893.

The 21-34 age group has the largest number of registered voters at 7,786. Coming in second at 6,991 is the 65-plus age category, followed by the 55- to 64-year-olds at 6,186.

The smallest age group registered to vote is 18- to 20-year-olds at 1,094.