With all but one contest at the state and local levels resolved, elections this cycle in Bossier Parish demonstrated that to come close to beating its political establishment, you had to have a pretty organized effort behind you.
At stake were all the seats on the Police Jury as well as two state Senate and two state House of Representative slots, with a couple of House posts already decided when House District 10 incumbent Republican Wayne McMahen and House District 5 newcomer Republican Dennis Bamburg didn’t draw opponents, as well as a few juror positions with just incumbents filing. Among the others, in all but one Jury and one House seat establishment forces had a rooting interest in, if not intense involvement supporting, a particular candidate.
The House race it didn’t particularly care about was the District 2 matchup between Caddo Parish Democrats Terence Vinson from the School Board and Steven Jackson from the Parish Commission. It offered a contrast in styles both in terms of candidates and campaigns: Vinson utilizing traditional canvassing methods and with a steady record in office, while Jackson spent more overall and more on media to go with his more controversial personality, most recently being convicted for impersonation of a police officer. That apparently didn’t faze enough voters, who gave him a narrow win.
Bossier political powers-that-be did care about the House District 9 race between Republicans state Rep. Dodie Horton and businessman Chris Turner, with them backing the challenger. Horton decisively turned him back, in part because of the assistance she received from the Louisiana Freedom Caucus through its political action committee, a group of consistent conservative House members of which she is a member and is led by another area House member, Republican Alan Seabaugh.
Seabaugh himself was on the ballot and in the crosshairs of the establishment – not just Bossier’s but of other big government, get-along-go-along politicians and special interests across the state – for Senate District 31. Those forces aggravated at his reform and smaller government agenda propped up to oppose him retired basketball coach Mike McConathy running under the GOP label. Seabaugh prevailed in a contest that, when all is said and done, likely in terms both of dollars spent by the campaigns and by others on their behalf, will end up as the most expensive in state history.
Thus, strong candidate organizations and allied interests could maintain their foothold against the establishment. That lesson also was the case in the other Senate contest, District 36, that turned into a big establishment win, but not so much because of its efforts. There, GOP incumbent Robert Mills lost handily to Republican Bossier Parish School Board member Adam Bass.
Mills had angered conservatives by voting in the Senate this year not to hold back surplus money to pare down pension obligations and deposit more into the state’s Budget Stabilization Fund savings account, against the preferences of Horton, Seabaugh, and the Freedom Caucus. The politically ambitious Bass, who had been testing the waters for Bossier City mayor in 2025 with establishment backing, stepped into an ideal situation where he could have that support and benefitted from some conservatives deserting Mills (for example, Seabaugh, busy with his own campaign, didn’t aid Mills as he had in 2019). Despite the Mills campaign gaining an advantage monetarily in the closing weeks of the campaign, conservative acceptance of Bass and local powerbroker backing (in a district that had changed to his favor through reapportionment) was more than enough to make Mills the only incumbent senator to lose this cycle.
That establishment success, minus reformist or small government conservative backing with one possible exception, was more pronounced in Jury races. All but one incumbent ran again, and in the District 10 exception former School Board member Democrat Julius Darby, the incumbent’s brother, qualified, with most finding success without great difficulty
Given their level of campaigning, resources committed, and district demographics, three Republican challengers – all reformers and conservatives – had the best shot to win of all challengers. In District 1, small businessman Mike Farris took on GOP incumbent Bob Brotherton; in District 5, former juror Barry Butler faced off against GOP incumbent Julianna Parks; and in District 12, small businessman Keith Sutton squared off against GOP incumbent Mac Plummer.
Brotherton looked vulnerable given his health that made him difficult for him to attend Jury meetings, much less campaign. He and Parks both served, likely illegally, on the parish-appointed Library Board of Control and certainly illegally had appointed Parish Administrator Butch Ford as interim director of libraries for several months. They and Plummer had made Ford administrator in full knowledge legally he didn’t qualify, a matter still in doubt nearly two years later.
Yet Brotherton supporters are dug in like ticks in a district that swings north to south along the eastern edge of the parish – his wife represents a very similar district on the School Board – and his surrogates campaigned well enough for him to win without a runoff. And Parks was able to draw upon her connections – her husband Santi is Bossier City’s elected judge – to seal a comfortable win.
Perhaps overconfidently given those demographics, Gray concentrated on outdoor advertising while Glorioso ran a more retail-oriented campaign. Also hurting Gray was dispirited turnout by black Democrat voters, who weren’t excited by their party’s offerings at the state level, and possibly reputationally in being a Library Board of Control member likely serving illegally who also approved of Ford’s illegal service in two different capacities. So, Glorioso won a low-turnout contest, but she won’t join any reformist efforts Sutton might back.
Sutton might get help from an unlikely source. In District 10, despite the Darby’s family hold over that area of town (brother Jeff is on the Bossier City Council and sister Samm is on the School Board), Julius got pushed into a runoff by Democrat military retiree Mary Giles, who herself courted controversy with careless placement of campaign signs. It’s the only legislative or local race left to be decided on Nov. 18.
Even if Sutton remains the only juror not tied into the Bossier good-old-boy-and-girl network, at least citizens will have one voice on the Jury to question orthodoxy and bad decisions such as those surrounding the library and Ford’s employment. And that this cycle attracted more competition than any since 1987, even if most challengers lost, foists more pressure for accountability onto the nine returning incumbents, knowing that questionable actions will provoke a need to campaign ending possibly in losing.
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