At $7.85 a vote, taxpayers look toward Round 2 of election

While the candidates for the District 20 state Senate seat search for campaign dollars, taxpayers will shell out $210,000 to fill the post, according to state election officials.

The Secretary of State’s office calculated the cost by projecting all the printing, dredging (transporting machines from storage to voting precincts), paying election commissioners, election workers, custodians and other incidental costs.

Terrebonne’s Clerk of Court Bobby Boudreaux said about $77,000 was spent on the Aug. 1 special election in the parish and about the same amount would be spent for next Saturday’s runoff vote.

Although a scheduled election date was set for Oct. 17, state Senate President Joel Chaisson (D-Destrehan) called for the Aug. 1 special election to fill the seat vacated by Reggie Dupre to become Terrebonne’s levee director.

“The cost of this special election and the one in St. Landry Parish (state House District 40) is why I recommended to the Legislature that they wait six weeks until the regularly scheduled election in October,” said Secretary of State Jay Dardenne.

“I have written letters outlining why I thought they should take place on Oct. 17,” he added. “But I didn’t have any further discussion with him. (Chaisson) has the prerogative to fix (election) dates and he did that.”

The special election had a three-person field – state Rep. Damon Baldone (D-Houma), Brent Callais and Norby Chabert.

Callais and Chabert got enough votes to be on the Aug. 29 runoff ballot.

Given the 13,371 votes cast and the projected election cost, Louisiana taxpayers spent about $7.85 for each vote.

Baldone defended Chaisson’s decision to call an earlier special election, while Chabert was highly critical of the move.

“It was utterly ridiculous that they called this election this early. We had too little time to campaign and to get our message out,” Chabert said. “This is going to hurt taxpayers when we already had an election date scheduled for the fall.”

“Hopefully, we’ll have a sitting senator before the end of the hurricane season,” Baldone said. “You don’t want to wait until the end of November or December. It’s too important a position to wait that long.”

In theory, had Baldone advanced to the runoff election and won, another special election would have had to be called to fill his state representative seat, according to Dardenne.

According to former Nicholls government professor Dr. Joshua Stockley, in a representative democracy there is not a better option to the conundrum than a special election.

“If you wait until regularly scheduled elections, then the district has no representation,” he said

He contended the only other alternative to a special election is for the governor to nominate a replacement to serve the remainder of the term just as he does to fill a vacant U.S. Senate seat.

Since the next round of elections isn’t until 2011, a governor could pick anybody he wanted to serve in the state Senate for two years.

“As taxpayers, we might get upset the money has to be spent. However, if the ultimate value is representation, then a special election as soon as possible is the only adequate solution,” Stockley said.

Callais comes out swinging with negative flier

The quiet state Senate District 20 campaign turned noisy last week when Republican candidate Callais mailed fliers implying his opponent, Democrat Chabert, supports President Barack Obama’s health care reform plan.

Chabert said he has not taken a position on the various proposals floating through Congress and the flier was an attempt to distract voters from the local issues.

“Not once in this campaign have I said I supported the president’s health care,” Chabert insisted. “No bill has passed either the House or Senate and I’m not in favor of any of them.”

Callais defended the flier saying it is not a negative attack ad but an explanation about where the two candidates stand on the health care issue.

“Everything that is on that flier is factual and was said in the debate,” he charged. “This is a reply stating these are my views on healthcare.”

The dispute comes days after both candidates said at Thursday’s debate that they hoped the campaign for the Aug. 29 runoff election would be a clean one.

“Do you think dressing the president up in medical scrubs and saying I can’t be trusted on this important is clean?” Chabert asked.

Health care has been an issue since the beginning of the special election when Chabert made the full funding of Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center, named after his late father, a cornerstone of his campaign.

Callais said it was Chabert who distorted the record first by claiming the Republican candidate wanted to close the charity hospital.

Callais said he supports the role Chabert Medical Center plays in the Tri-parishes. He does, however, support privatizing as many services as possible without affecting the quality of care.

“This flier was sent out to show people I have no intention to close down the medical center,” Callais said. “I am 100 percent behind keeping Chabert Medical Center fully funded and fully open.”

Chabert contended any privatization of services would equal closure for the hospital.

In the flier, Callais states he supports funding all hospitals, which Chabert claims would actually hurt the hospital because it would a receive smaller share.

“Does that mean he also wants to give money to Terrebonne General, Thibodaux Regional and (Ochsner) St. Anne? he asked. “That takes money away from Chabert (Medical Center).”

Despite the controversy, both candidates said they plan to avoid mudslinging for the remainder of the campaign.