Central Elections Nov. 6

Candidates qualified last week to run in the City of Central’s municipal elections Nov. 6. As a courtesy to Central candidates, East Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Court Doug Welborn and his staff set up shop at Central City Hall last Wednesday to assist candidates and receive qualifying papers.
By the close of qualifying on Friday, 21 candidates had filed papers to run in Central this fall. Three candidates are running for Mayor, two for Police Chief, and 16 are running for seven seats on the Central City Council.
Candidates for Mayor are the incumbent, Jr. Shelton, who is completing his first term as Mayor. Shelton, a long-time business owner, led Central through the Great Flood of 2016 and its aftermath.
He is being challenged by David Barrow and Marc Michelli.
Barrow served as the city’s chief administrative officer under Mayor Mac Watts and briefly under Mayor Jr. Shelton. Barrow was terminated by Shelton in August 2015. In April 2017, an arrest warrant was issued for Barrow by the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s office in connection with an apparently forged signature of former Mayor Mac Watts on a contact with a local developer. Barrow turned himself in and denied any wrongdoing. Barrow has not been charged in connection with that matter but District Attorney Hillar Moore said today that that the Assistant District Attorney who has been assigned the case will meet soon with investigators to consider the matter.
The third candidate for Mayor, Marc Michelli, is a network engineer for large cable and internet companies. He designs, builds, and maintains wireless networks for those companies.
If no candidate for Mayor wins a majority on Nov. 6, a runoff between the top two candidates will be held on Saturday, Dec. 8.
Police Chief James Salsbury is being challenged by former Sheriff’s deputy Roger Corcoran.
The current Central City Council consists of five members, all elected at large citywide. They are Jason Ellis, Shane Evans, Dr. Kim Fralick, Wayne Messina, and John Vance. Dr. Fralick serves as Mayor Pro-tem.
However, last year, the City Council adopted a reapportionment plan that established a new seven-member City Council effective January 1. The new Council will have two members elected at large and five members elected from five single-member districts.
Only four of the five incumbents are running again this fall, which means there will be at least three new members of the Council.
The five candidates running for the two Council at Large seats are:
• Wade Evans
• Aaron McKinney
• Ryan Meador
• Incumbent Councilman Wayne Messina
• Kim Powers
All are Republicans.
Voters throughout the City of Central will get to vote on the at-large candidates with each voter having two votes.
If one candidate receives a majority of the votes cast in the Nov. 6 primary, he will be elected. In that case, the candidates who ran second and third will face off in the Dec. 8 runoff. If two or more candidates receive a majority of the votes cast in the primary, the top two candidates will be elected. If no one receives a majority of the votes cast in the primary, the top four candidates will face each other in the runoff. In the runoff, the top two candidates will be elected.
The candidates are:
District 1 – Charlie Habig and former Councilman Aaron Moak
District 2 – Joshua Roy and incumbent Councilman John Vance
District 3 – Mayor Pro-Tem Dr. Kim Fralick and Dave Freneaux
District 4 – Incumbent Shane Evans and Despo “D’Ann” Wells District 5 – Charles Lee Hinton, Jeffrey Meyers, and Briton Myer
All are Republicans except Charlie Habig.
The candidates will all have to comply with strict reporting requirements by the state campaign finance office and less stringent person financial disclosures.

Twitter Digg Delicious Stumbleupon Technorati Facebook Email

Comments are closed.