Louisiana election briefs

Cormier voted in as Plaquemines parish president
BELLE CHASSE — A former parish councilman and school teacher won a runoff election to become the next parish president in Plaquemines.
Amos Cormier Jr. defeated businessman Jerry Hodnett 56-44 percent Saturday in the runoff election.
A Republican from Belle Chasse, Cormier will replace Billy Nungesser.
Both Cormier and Hodnett are former parish councilmen who pledged to fight for lower insurance rates and coastal restoration and levee projects. They also said they would work to speed up the $111 million replacement of the Belle Chasse bridge and tunnel.
Cormier ran as an outsider while Hodnett pledged to improve the relationship between the president and the council.
Hodnett ran first in the primary, with 33 percent of the vote.

Shreveport elects its first female black mayor
SHREVEPORT — Voters in Shreveport elected the city’s first black woman mayor on Saturday.
Ollie Tyler, a former education official, defeated no-party challenger Victoria Provenza, a teacher, geologist and business woman. It was the first time two women faced off in a runoff for the mayor’s office in Shreveport. Tyler captured 63 percent of the votes, according to election results.
Tyler will be the second woman to lead the city. Republican Hazel Beard left office in 1994.
She succeeds term-limited Mayor Cedric Glover and will be sworn in Dec. 27.
Tyler said she will work on her transition team, including putting together an economic development team. She said a priority would be to go through the budget and see what funds are available for infrastructure needs done.
“I want to thank everybody for the confidence they placed in me, and we’re going to be out there engaging them to help us grow our city to make it better,” Tyler said after the election.
Tyler, a former school superintendent and state Education Department top official, has never held elected office.

Skrmetta re-elected to Public Service Commission
NEW ORLEANS — The chairman of Louisiana’s utility regulatory agency, the Public Service Commission, will return for a new term in January.
Eric Skrmetta, a lawyer from Metairie, defeated fellow Republican Forest Bradley Wright, a New Orleans energy consultant, in Saturday’s runoff election for the District 1 PSC seat.
Campaigns from both sides were attack-heavy.
Wright slammed Skrmetta as beholden to the large utility companies and accused him of unethical, pay-to-play political deals. Skrmetta criticized Wright as a pawn of the solar industry and claimed Wright used misleading campaign ads to smear him.
The PSC seat covers 12 parishes, including St. Helena, Tangipahoa, Washington, St. Tammany, St. Bernard, Plaquemines and parts of Orleans and Jefferson, St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, Ascension and Livingston.

Gonzales voters oust councilman in recall election
GONZALES — Timothy Vessel became the first Gonzales councilman to be recalled in the history of the city on Saturday, when 75 percent of the voters cast ballots to oust him.
Chuck LeBlanc, chairman of the recall effort Save Gonzales, said after a nine-month drive, the group was elated.
Vessel faced the recall election alone after former Councilman Gary Lacombe, also targeted for recall by the grass-roots organization, avoided the election when he resigned Nov. 25.
The recall effort against the two men was launched in April in large part because of bloc voting on the council.
The councilmen repeatedly outvoted Councilmen Kenny Matassa and Kirk Boudreaux, rejecting rezoning requests along the way and making changes to city budgets that led to budget vetoes by Mayor Barney Arceneaux.

Lafayette voters approve airport improvement tax
LAFAYETTE — Lafayette Parish voters approved a 1-cent sales tax that will be levied over eight months next year to pay for improvements at the Lafayette Regional Airport.
According to complete but unofficial returns, voters approved the tax Saturday 59.5 percent for to 40.5 percent against.
The tax will be collected from April 1 until Nov. 30 on goods and services except food and prescription drugs. The revenue, expected to be in the range of $35 million to $37 million, will be added to bond proceeds and airport grants to reach the $90 million needed for the project.
In addition to expanding the terminal from three gates to five, with room and accommodations to later add two more gates, the project calls for more parking and a larger lobby inside the terminal.
From The Associated Press.