Caddo and Bossier Parish contests for school boards and judicial positions this fall will follow a maxim that if it doesn’t seem broken, don’t fix it.
In Caddo Parish, only one incumbent judge across the First District, Shreveport City Court, and Caddo Parish Juvenile Court drew a challenger. That was the embattled Democrat City Court Judge Sheva Sims. Earlier this year she drew another suspension, the first since 2015, for nine months from the state’s Judiciary Commission, but decided to run again. Two other black Democrats, lawyers Kharmen Davis-Taylor and Trinicia Leonard, have challenged her. The other two City Court incumbent judges plus newcomer Republican Amy Brainard faced no opposition.
For District Court, all but two incumbents will walk back into office. Another rookie, Republican Heather Courtney, also will get a free pass, along with her husband Republican Justin Courtney on the Juvenile Court bench and his two compatriots. The only competition here will occur for the other open seat where Republican Hugo Holland will face off against Democrat Treneisha Jackson Hill.
Election sections such as they are, Holland, who is white, is favored against Hill, who is black and an assistant First District attorney who worked with Holland early in her career, in the district with about equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans but with a solid white majority. Holland spent time also working in the neighboring Twenty-Sixth District, and in a career spanning nearly four decades became known as an effective if controversial advocate for uncompromising prosecution that opponents allege veered into illegality and was racially-tinged. Hill’s candidacy, which appeared as last-minute, will end up as a protest but unlikely to win.
In Bossier Parish, the fiefdom quality of judgeships is even more pronounced. All incumbents, none yet hitting the age ceiling unlike in Caddo, qualified without opposition.
On both sides of the river as well, term limits kicking in after a 2012 referendum will upend each School Board. In Bossier, the typical orderly unopposed flurry of newcomers joined all unopposed incumbents, except for the dynastic handoff in District 10 from current Democrat member Samm Darby (who took over from her brother) to her niece nonprofit administrator Democrat Jassery Darby where she picked up an opponent, retiree Democrat Carolyn Warmsley.
In Caddo, it also followed its pattern, in this case of at least some competition. There, no fewer than seven members will need replacing, and only two other incumbents and one newcomer will walk into their office. Of the other nine seats, six are contested intraparty and other a GOP/no party matchup in a Republican district.
Concerning the two major party matchups, one is a bit of a push. District 8 Republican Jeri Bowen was at first a Democrat, then no party as twice a majority of Board Democrats muscled their fellow-traveler into interim positions in the heavily-Republican district. Having adopted the label for this election and as an incumbent, that seemed to scare off other genuine GOP potential candidates and drew an even less district-friendly opponent: Democrat Emma Shepard, a serial candidate for education-related offices even more at odds with the present successful agenda from the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on down.
In a sense, this makes the outcome of the District 10 race much less crucial. With their past temporary advantage, Democrats had gerrymandered the districts to create a 7-5 majority with that district the linchpin with a near-majority black electorate. But in 2022 Republican Katie McLain thwarted them by winning it to give the board even partisanship. Not deterred, Democrats will try again in the form of black Democrat Michael LaFitte, former Shreveport NAACP president who resigned in part for his role in a controversial apartment managerial role.
Insofar as these contests go, only the Caddo board results could portend any meaningful policy change.
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