The Gubernatorial Primary is October 14, and early voting is already underway.
To see what's on your ballot, click here.
We've sent out questions to all of the candidates in some of Acadiana's hottest races, and we're posting the questions and each candidate's responses online so our viewers can get some information about the people who are asking for their vote.
We sent the questions to each candidate using the email address they provided to the Secretary of State when they qualified for the race. If we didn't hear back by the deadline we provided, we called them using the telephone number they provided to the Secretary of State when they qualified for the race.
If we receive any responses after this story is posted, we will update it when we do.
We've sent out questions to every candidate running for every seat on the Lafayette City Council and Lafayette Parish Council. District 3 Lafayette City Council Member Liz Hebert and Parish Council Members Bryan Tabor (District 1) and John Guilbeau (District 4) were all re-elected without opposition.
In the District 3 race on the Lafayette Parish Council, incumbent Josh Carlson decided to run for another office. Terry Hughes, Jeremy Monts and Ken Stansbury are running for the seat.
Here are the questions (in italics) we asked, followed by the full response received from each candidate.
TERRY HUGHES
We reached out to Hughes, but, to date, have not received a response.
JEREMY MONTS
Please give us a brief summary of your qualifications for this position.
With over 20 years in the IT industry, primarily managing large-scale software and hardware implementations, I feel that my project management experience and ability to communicate with all levels of organizations are highly transferrable skills.
Why do you want to be a member of the council?
I believe that having people that are not career politicians is vital to having a rounded council. I want to provide that viewpoint to the council and hopefully provide insights that are outside of the normal political box.
What do you believe is the single biggest challenge facing the Parish
Council?
We're spending more than we're making. This is caused by inefficient projects that run over time and over budget, along with disagreements on who should be paying for what. Making sure that these projects are completed efficiently and on time will provide us more funds to address our other concerns, and I believe that the
council should be spearheading oversight.
What is your position regarding the use of city funds to cover parish needs?
With the level of annexation that has happened over the last 20 years, the cities in Lafayette Parish have consumed a large portion of the parish tax base. As such, there should be understandings and agreements that compensate the parish for this loss of revenue.
Would you try to implement any changes if elected? If so, what would they be?
Yes, if elected I will do everything I can to change the council's current viewpoint on how we're currently managing our budget and push back on unnecessary spending that is discovered. I would also push to have more areas zoned for high density housing. Walkable neighborhoods are the lifeblood of communities, and we need to create more of those for Lafayette to continue to flourish and
bring in new residents.
Historically, the Parish has needs - especially capital needs - that far
exceed its income. What is your solution to this ongoing issue?
We need to aggressively pursue new development opportunities and
evaluate our current tax structure. We also need to discuss potential private-public collaborations and evaluate our existing cooperative agreements to ensure that they are aligned with parish goals.
