Angelle expected a lock on runoff spot in 3rd District race

Published 9:45 am Saturday, October 29, 2016

<span class="RACopyBody">BATON ROUGE — From the start, the race to fill Louisiana’s open 3rd District U.S. House seat was always about Scott Angelle and whether he would enter the competition. Once the third-place finisher in last year’s governor’s race announced he was in, the race largely remained about him.</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">The Republican member of the Public Service Commission has been in politics for nearly 30 years, as a former president of St. Martin Parish, an ex-state natural resources secretary and a one-time top aide to former Gov. Bobby Jindal.</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">Angelle is one of a dozen candidates vying for the seat representing southwest and south central Louisiana, which is open because Republican Charles Boustany is running for the U.S. Senate instead of re-election.</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">No candidate is expected to top 50 percent in the Nov. 8 election, so the race appears headed to a Dec. 10 runoff. Angelle, of Breaux Bridge, appears to be the only contender with a lock on a runoff spot. He’s raised from donors nearly as much as all his competitors combined.</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">"It’s his race to lose. He has a huge name advantage. He has a huge fundraising advantage. He’s really familiar to voters. Voters are comfortable with him. He’s kind of a true favorite son," said Pearson Cross, a political science professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">Considered possibilities for reaching the runoff with Angelle are four Republicans: Greg Ellison, a Lafayette oil and gas businessman; Gus Rantz, a Lafayette health care businessman; Brett Geymann, a former state lawmaker from Lake Charles; and former sheriff’s Capt. Clay Higgins, dubbed the "Cajun John Wayne" because of his well-known Crime Stoppers videos.</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">Democrat Larry Rader, owner of a New Iberia insurance agency and president of the Port of Iberia, also is seen as possibly making the runoff. He’s the only major Democratic contender in the district, though he’s reported no fundraising.</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">Few polls have been released publicly in the race, making it difficult to determine who may be gaining traction with voters in a region where many people are still repairing homes after mid-August flooding.</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">Angelle is pushing himself as a defender of oil and gas, one of the largest industries in the district. He’s promoting his fight against President Barack Obama’s oil drilling moratorium after the Gulf oil spill in 2010 and says he wants to protect the industry from burdensome regulations.</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">Ellison and Rantz have positioned themselves as outsiders, suggesting Angelle is a career politician. Ellison, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army, focuses on his military background. Rantz talks of building his business after being raised by a family that lived in public housing. In one ad, Rantz displays a calculator as he describes his parents scraping to pay their bills.</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">"In Washington, this calculator will sit on my desk every day as a reminder that our families live within their means, and our government should too," he says.</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">From the Lake Charles area, Geymann is trying to consolidate support in his southwestern end of the district, hoping that will propel him into the runoff. He’s running on his legislative record as a fiscal conservative and vocal opponent of the Common Core education standards.</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">"With so many strong candidates in the (Lafayette area) working from their home base, we believe that being the only major candidate from the west gets us out of the gate a little quicker," Geymann said.</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">Higgins largely is running on the strength of his personality — and his celebrity.</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">A reserve deputy marshal with the Lafayette City Marshal’s Office, Higgins produced over-the-top Crime Stoppers segments at the sheriff’s office that drew national attention, in which he mocked those suspected of crimes. Higgins left the sheriff’s office in a disagreement with the sheriff over the outsized rhetoric and concerns that Higgins was violating office policy with the mugs, T-shirts and other "Captain Higgins" items he sold.</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">Lafayette media have reported allegations that Higgins threatened his first wife and printed emails that suggest he broke sheriff’s department rules and was more interested with his own prominence than with his job.</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">Higgins responded with a YouTube video in which he says he’s being hit with "vicious lies" and evil spirit in an effort to "destroy me." He blames Angelle and the "Bobby Jindal machine," saying they want to position Angelle for a 2019 run for governor by getting him to Congress.</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">"That’s a desperate attack from a desperate politician," Angelle spokesman Ryan Cross replied. "When God closes doors, he opens windows. Last year, God closed a door to Scott being governor. Simultaneously, he opened a window for Scott to continue fighting for hard-working south Louisiana families."</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">Hitting different issues, Rader talks about expanding green energy, boosting job creation, reducing the prison population and increasing youth rehabilitation programs.</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">Other Republican candidates are Bryan Barrilleaux, a Lake Charles doctor; and Grover Joseph Rees, a former U.S. ambassador to East Timor. Also in the race are Jacob "Dorian Phibian" Hebert, a Lafayette Democrat; Guy McLendon, a Libertarian from Sulphur; Kenny Scelfo Sr. of Franklin, who has no party affiliation; and Herman Vidrine, a Lafayette Republican.</span>