Three of four Avoyelles Parish local offices have only one candidate

As of 3:45 p.m. Thursday, three of the four local offices on the March 20 ballot had attracted only one candidate each. However, there were three candidates for a vacated seat on the Bunkie City Council.

Qualifying continues until 4:30 p.m. today and will be open until 4:30 p.m. Friday. At that point, any candidate with no challenger will be declared to be elected without oppostion.

Current interim School Board member Jill Guidry, who was elected to serve as vice president of the board, was the only candidate in District 8, which represents the Bunkie area. Acting Constable Shelia Callihan also had no challenger in the Ward 7 constable race.

In what is expected to change by Friday, Peter Chenevert was the only candidate who had qualified in the Cottonport Town Council District 4 election. Incumbent Councilwoman Demple Prater has indicated she will qualify for the March 20 election.

Prater was defeated by four votes by retired police chief Gerald Mayeux in the Nov. 3 election for the district seat. However, between the time he qualified and the election was held, Mayeux had moved out of Cottonport, thus being ineligible to take his seat on Jan. 1. The Town Council met Jan. 4 and appointed Prater to continue serving in that position until the March 20 election.

The only other election on the ballot is to elect a 5th Congressional District representative to replace Luke Letlow, who died of COVID a few days before he was to be sworn in as the district's new congressman. He defeated fellow-Republican Lance Harris of Rapides Parish in a runoff on Dec. 5 and died Dec. 29.

As of Thursday afternoon, Letlow's widow Julia was joined by five other Republicans and the top Democrat in the Nov. 3 election. Letlow, from Richland Parish, is considered the front-runner due to support from former U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham and her husband's stated wish that his wife succeed him. Sandra Christophe of Alexandria finished third with 16 percent of the vote in the Nov. 3 primary.

The other GOP candidates are Chad Conerly of Kentwood, Allen Guillory of Lawtell, Horace Melton III of Shreveport, Sancha Smith of Opelousas and Errol Victor of Slidell.