Lake Charles mayoral race headed to runoff
Published 11:00 pm Saturday, March 29, 2025
The race for Lake Charles mayor will be continued.
On Saturday, voters in Calcasieu Parish sent incumbent Mayor Nic Hunter, a Republican, and Marshal Simiem, an independent, into a runoff. That vote is scheduled for May 3.
Hunter garnered 6,663 votes, or 47 percent, while Simiem received 4,051 votes, or 29 percent, according to complete but unofficial results from the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office.
The other candidates in the race were Wilford Carter II, who received 2,590 votes, or 18 percent; Khalid Taha, who received 504 votes, or 4 percent; and James Steward, who received 314 votes, or 2 percent.
A runoff has also be declared in the race for Lake Charles City Council District C. Tommy Bilbo received 894 votes, or 41 percent. He will face Priscilla Sam, who received 589 votes, or 27 percent, in a May 3 runoff. Both are Democrats.
The other candidates were Amanda Fontenot Johnson, who received 529 votes, or 24 percent; and Charles Gallien, who received 191 votes, or 9 percent.
Lake Charles City Council member Luvertha August was unseated during Saturday’s race. Her opponent, Donald Fondel, received 733 votes, or 52 percent. August received 687 votes, or 48 percent.
Voters in the town Vinton elected a new mayor. Bonnie Jo Bahnsen unseated incumbent Mayor Marcus Renfrow. Bahsen received 274 votes, or 54 percent, while Renfrow received 233 votes, or 46 percent.
Calcasieu Parish voters were also overwhelmingly against all four constitutional amendments on the ballot.
Amendment 1, which would have given state lawmakers the power to create specialty courts, was rejected in Calcasieu 15,496-9,756, or by 61 percent.
Amendment 2, which would have revamped the state budget, was rejected 16,042-9,211, or by 64 percent. Hunter Lundy, a Lake Charles attorney and former candidate for governor who staged a campaign against Amendment 2, said “the language in the bill was left off the ballot and people were being deceived.”
“I’m thankful for the churches that spoke out, and for the teachers who realized that they were being misled and spoke out, and for the people who went to the polls and voted no for Amendment 2 — so we will not remove exemptions from the constitution for real estate owned by the churches and nonprofits,” Lundy said in a statement to the American Press. “There was so much misleading being done by commercials, by legislators, by the governor, and others. That this misleading messaging was done by various legislators and the governor was quite unfortunate — but the voters read the statute, and they listened, and they voted against it.”
Gov. Jeff Landry, however, said he didn’t see the amendment’s rejection as a failure.
“We realize how hard positive change can be to implement in a state that is conditioned for failure,” he said in a statement to the American Press. “We will continue to fight to make the generational changes for Louisiana to succeed.”
Amendment 3, which would have given the Legislature the power to decide which juveniles could be prosecuted as adults, was rejected 16,439-8,722, or by 65 percent.
Amendment 4, which would have changed the timeline for elections for vacant and newly created judicial seats, was rejected in Calcasieu 15,084-10,051, or by 40 percent.
