Lafayette Parish School System elections (2014)

2014 Lafayette Parish School System Elections
Primary Election Date November 4, 2014
General Election Date December 6, 2014
Table of Contents
About the district Method of election Elections Key deadlines Additional elections External links
See also
Louisiana Lafayette Parish School System Lafayette Parish, Louisiana ballot measures Local ballot measures, Louisiana

Nine seats on the Lafayette Parish School Board were up for election on November 4, 2014. Incumbents for all districts were up for re-election. The qualifying period for candidates ran from August 20, 2014, to August 22, 2014. A general election for District 1 was held December 6, 2014, because no candidate garnered a majority vote in the race.

Louisiana elections use the Louisiana majority-vote system. All candidates compete in the same primary, and a candidate can win the election outright by receiving more than 50% of the vote. If no candidate does, the top two vote recipients from the primary advance to the general election, regardless of their partisan affiliation.

For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article.

Incumbents did not seek re-election in three districts. "Coach Don" Gagnard (I), Redell Comeaux "Mama" Miller (D) and Mary Morrison (D) ran to fill the District 1 seat which was vacated by incumbent Mark Allen Babineaux (D). Gagnard lost to Morrison in the general election.

District 6 incumbent Greg Awbrey (R) did not file to run for re-election. Justin Centanni (R) and Kathleen Schott Espinoza (I) vied for the open seat, which Centanni won. Rae Trahan (D), the District 9 incumbent, did not run for re-election. Jeremy Hidalgo (R) and Brian West (R) faced one another in the election to take her seat on the board, which Hidalgo won.

Incumbents faced challengers in the other six districts. Tommy Angelle (D), the District 2 incumbent, won re-election against James A. Chavis (D) and Simon Mahan (I). Elroy Broussard (D) defeated incumbent Shelton J. Cobb (D) in District 3. District 4 incumbent Tehmi Chassion (D) defeated challenger Erica Williams (D). Britt Latiolais (R) unseated District 5 incumbent Kermit J. Bouillion (R). District 7 saw Dawn Morris (R) defeat incumbent Mark Cockerham (R). Hunter Beasley (I) lost his re-election bid to challenger Erick Knezek (R) in District 8.

About the district

See also: Lafayette Parish School System, Louisiana

Lafayette Parish School System is located in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana

Lafayette Parish School System is located in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana. The seat of parish government is Lafayette. According to the United States Census Bureau, Lafayette Parish is home to 230,845 residents. In the 2011-2012 school year, Lafayette Parish Schools was the sixth-largest school district in Louisiana and served 30,451 students.

Demographics

Lafayette Parish overperformed in comparison to the rest of Louisiana in terms of education achievement in 2012. The United States Census Bureau found that 27.5 percent of Lafayette Parish residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree compared to 21.4 percent for Louisiana as a whole. The median household income for Lafayette Parish was $49,705 compared to $44,673 for the state of Louisiana. The percentage of people below poverty level for Lafayette Parish was 16.6 percent while it was 18.7 percent for the state.

Racial Demographics, 2013
Race	Lafayette Parish (%)	Louisiana (%)
White	70.4	63.5
Black or African American	26.1	32.4
American Indian and Alaska Native	0.4	0.8
Asian	1.6	1.7
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander	0.1	0.1
Two or more races	1.4	1.5
Hispanic or Latino	4.3	4.7

Presidential Voting Pattern, Lafayette Parish
Year	Democratic Vote	Republican Vote
2012	31,768	64,992
2008	32,145	62,055
2004	31,210	57,732
2000	27,190	48,491

Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Voter and candidate information

The Lafayette Parish School Board consists of nine partisan members who serve four-year terms. All of the members are elected concurrently by district. This means that regular school board elections are held every four years with all nine members being up for re-election at that time. Additionally, all members are elected by an area or district which they represent. Board members elected after January 1, 2007, are limited to three consecutive terms in office. Any member who, at the end of his or her term, has served more than two and one-half terms in the last three consecutive terms cannot be re-elected in the following term. However, they can be re-elected following the one term break.

Candidate requirements

School board candidates were required to file a Notice of Candidacy or Qualifying Form during the qualifying period which ran from August 20, 2014, to August 22, 2014. At the same time, they were required to either pay a qualifying fee of $115.00 or submit a nominating petition with 100 valid signatures.

Election and voting

The primary election was held on November 4, 2014. School board candidates in Louisiana are elected by majority vote, which means the winner must receive more than 50 percent of the votes cast. Because no candidate in District 1 received a majority vote, the two candidates receiving the most votes in the primary election proceeded to a general election, which was held on December 6, 2014.

To vote in the primary election, voters were required to register by October 6, 2014. Early voting ran between October 21, 2014, and October 28, 2014. Voters were required to be registered by November 5, 2014, to vote in the general election. The general election early voting period ran from November 22, 2014, to November 29, 2014.

District 1

"Coach Don" Gagnard
Mary Morrison

Candidates defeated in the primary election:
Redell Comeaux "Mama" Miller

District 2

Tommy Angelle

• Incumbent

James A. Chavis
Simon Mahan

District 3

Shelton J. Cobb

• Incumbent

Elroy Broussard

District 4

Tehmi Chassion

• Incumbent

Erica Williams

District 5

Kermit J. Bouillion

• Incumbent

Britt Latiolais

District 6

Justin Centanni
Kathleen Schott Espinoza

District 7

Mark Cockerham

• Incumbent

Dawn Morris

District 8

Hunter Beasley

• Incumbent

Erick Knezek

District 9

Jeremy Hidalgo
Brian West

Election results

District 1

General election

Lafayette Parish School System, District 1 General Election, 4-year term, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Mary Morrison	59%	2,804
	Independent	"Coach Don" Gagnard	41%	1,948
Total Votes				4,752
Source: Louisiana Secretary of State, "Official Results," accessed December 30, 2014

General

Lafayette Parish School System, District 1 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Mary Morrison	44.6%	2,485
	Independent	"Coach Don" Gagnard	36.5%	2,038
	Democratic	Redell Comeaux "Mama" Miller	18.9%	1,053
Total Votes				5,576
Source: Louisiana Secretary of State, "Official Results," accessed November 6, 2014

District 2

Lafayette Parish School System, District 2 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Tommy Angelle Incumbent	66.4%	5,355
	Independent	Simon Mahan	19.1%	1,543
	Democratic	James A. Chavis	14.5%	1,170
Total Votes				8,068
Source: Louisiana Secretary of State, "Official Results," accessed November 6, 2014

District 3

Lafayette Parish School System, District 3 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Elroy Broussard	50.6%	2,642
	Democratic	Shelton J. Cobb Incumbent	49.4%	2,579
Total Votes				5,221
Source: Louisiana Secretary of State, "Official Results," accessed November 6, 2014

District 4

Lafayette Parish School System, District 4 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Tehmi Chassion Incumbent	57.2%	3,753
	Democratic	Erica Williams	42.8%	2,813
Total Votes				6,566
Source: Louisiana Secretary of State, "Official Results," accessed November 6, 2014

District 5

Lafayette Parish School System, District 5 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Britt Latiolais	60.5%	4,548
	Republican	Kermit J. Bouillion Incumbent	39.5%	2,968
Total Votes				7,516
Source: Louisiana Secretary of State, "Official Results," accessed November 6, 2014

District 6

Lafayette Parish School System, District 6 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Justin Centanni	51.4%	4,206
	Independent	Kathleen Schott Espinoza	48.6%	3,973
Total Votes				8,179
Source: Louisiana Secretary of State, "Official Results," accessed November 6, 2014

District 7

Lafayette Parish School System, District 7 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Dawn Morris	52.1%	3,996
	Republican	Mark Cockerham Incumbent	47.9%	3,675
Total Votes				7,671
Source: Louisiana Secretary of State, "Official Results," accessed November 6, 2014

District 8

Lafayette Parish School System, District 8 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Erick Knezek	75.3%	8,012
	Independent	Hunter Beasley Incumbent	24.7%	2,635
Total Votes				10,647
Source: Louisiana Secretary of State, "Official Results," accessed November 6, 2014

District 9

Lafayette Parish School System, District 9 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Jeremy Hidalgo	61.2%	5,935
	Republican	Brian West	38.8%	3,759
Total Votes				9,694
Source: Louisiana Secretary of State, "Official Results," accessed November 6, 2014

Past elections

Information about earlier elections can be found by clicking [show] at the right.

2010 General election District 5 Lafayette Parish School System, District 5 General Election, 4-year term, 2010 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Republican Kermit J. Bouillion 54.1% 3,636      Independent Dean Landry 45.9% 3,088 Total Votes 6,724 Source: Louisiana Secretary of State, "Official Election Results," accessed September 3, 2014 primary election District 1 Mark Babineaux (D) was re-elected without opposition. District 2 Lafayette Parish School System, District 2 primary election, 4-year term, 2010 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democratic Tommy Angelle 50.1% 1,813      Independent "Greg" Davis 49.9% 1,809 Total Votes 3,622 Source: Louisiana Secretary of State, "Official Election Results," accessed September 3, 2014 District 3 Shelton J. Cobb (D) was re-elected without opposition. District 4 Lafayette Parish School System, District 4 primary election, 4-year term, 2010 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democratic Tehmi Chassion 64% 1,559      Independent "Gwen" Poulard-Harris 36% 878 Total Votes 2,437 Source: Louisiana Secretary of State, "Official Election Results," accessed September 3, 2014 District 5 Lafayette Parish School System, District 5 primary election, 4-year term, 2010 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Republican Kermit J. Bouillion 49.9% 1,670      Independent Dean Landry 39.8% 1,332      Independent Junius "June" Andres 10.4% 347 Total Votes 3,349 Source: Louisiana Secretary of State, "Official Election Results," accessed September 3, 2014 District 6 Lafayette Parish School System, District 6 primary election, 4-year term, 2010 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Republican "Greg" Awbrey Incumbent 69.3% 2,219      Independent Dudley E. La Bauve, III 30.7% 982 Total Votes 3,201 Source: Louisiana Secretary of State, "Official Election Results," accessed September 3, 2014 District 7 Lafayette Parish School System, District 7 primary election, 4-year term, 2010 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Republican Mark Cockerham Incumbent 70.4% 2,456      Democratic Thomas H. Brown 29.6% 1,033 Total Votes 3,489 Source: Louisiana Secretary of State, "Official Election Results," accessed September 3, 2014 District 8 Lafayette Parish School System, District 8 primary election, 4-year term, 2010 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Independent Hunter Beasley Incumbent 87.3% 3,952      Independent Arlecia P. Hill 12.7% 573 Total Votes 4,525 Source: Louisiana Secretary of State, "Official Election Results," accessed September 3, 2014 District 9 Rae B. Trahan (D) was re-elected without opposition.

Key deadlines

The following dates were key deadlines for the Lafayette Parish Schools election in 2014:

Deadline	Event
August 20-22, 2014	Qualifying period for candidates
October 5, 2014	Campaign finance report due
October 6, 2014	Last day to register to vote in the primary election
October 21-28, 2014	Early voting period
October 25, 2014	Campaign finance report due
November 4, 2014	Election Day
November 5, 2014	Last day to register to vote in general election
November 22-29, 2014	Early voting period for general election
December 6, 2014	General election, if necessary
December 14, 2014	Campaign finance report due

Additional elections on the ballot

See also: Louisiana elections, 2014

This election shared the ballot with primary elections for the United States Senate, the United States House of Representatives, two down ballot state executive positions, 14 statewide ballot measures and judicial elections.

In addition to other local elections, the city of Youngsville voted upon a 1 percent sales tax re-dedication.

Recent news

This section links to a Google news search for the term "Lafayette + Parish + School + System + Louisiana"

Lafayette Parish School System News Feed

See also

• Louisiana
• Lafayette Parish School System, Louisiana
• Louisiana school board elections, 2014
• List of school board elections in 2014
• School board elections, 2014
• Lafayette Parish, Louisiana ballot measures
• Local ballot measures, Louisiana

External links

Suggest a link

• Lafayette Parish School System
• Lafayette Parish Clerk of Court