Republican Mayor Tom Arceneaux acquired another arrow in his quiver for reelection, even as he picked up his most serious challenger to date for that.
Last week, S&P Global announced a change in outlook for Shreveport’s credit rating. Maintaining its current call of BBB+ – the lowest investment grade category – it did cite a better outlook of “stable” rather than “negative.” The latter means a downgrade was more likely than an upgrade, which would have meant higher borrowing costs in the future, with the former meaning no change either way anticipated.
This declaration in and of itself doesn’t affect anything substantively, but it carries beneficial positive symbolism for Arceneaux’s quest, especially coming from the rationale stating why the rating agency made the change. The city has maintained a commitment to its 8 percent operating reserve target in the general fund, which he fought for in the 2026 budget, against some pressure to dip more into it for increased spending.
The ratings agency also cited, with perhaps this event triggering the changed call, last week’s announcement that Amazon was bringing data centers to the area, with one physically located in Shreveport. Arceneaux has served on the front lines of this controversy, with the Metropolitan Planning Commission having essentially blocked the siting initially and the mayor musing whether the time had come for the Legislature to fold the independent agency into city, which mostly controls it already. On top of that, after the Shreveport City Council overturned the MPC decision, other parties filed a suit calling that illegal, with Arceneaux consistently defending the process, decision, and outcome that manifested last week.
Thus, he can draw a straight line between his policies and the improved outlook, which plays perfectly into his theme of excising partisanship from the mayoral contest that increases his chances of a repeat term. Just in time, because he just drew his toughest opponent yet.
Also last week, Democrat state Rep. Tammy Phelps declared her intent to challenge him. Heretofore only having to square off against an unknown and a couple of nuisance challengers from the Caddo Parish Commission, Phelps will provide his first serious obstacle.
Phelps is in her second term, having no opposition in 2023 but having won narrowly in 2019 over future colleague Joy Walters (won in a different district in 2023 due to reapportionment). Her campaign at the end of 2024 (2025 reports were due this weekend) had around $36,000, well behind Arceneaux’s over half a million bucks. But she is a black Democrat in a majority black and majority Democrat city with several years of service in the state Legislature, giving her a demographic advantage and some experience in dealing with municipalities, with the additional background of having served on the Caddo Parish School Board.
At the same time, she isn’t exactly the greatest foil to Arceneaux’s theme of competence before ideology. As national Democrats have swung increasingly further to the far left politically, most of Louisiana’s have followed suit with Phelps being one of the most enthusiastic of the bunch going over the cliff. In her six years in the Legislature her average Louisiana Legislature Log score is 10, where 0 is considered to have cast all liberal/populist votes. In her first term, she was among the three lowest scorers in the House, and in her second she has the lowest average of just 2.5, neck-and-neck with Walters.
She also has cast votes that will raise questions among the base otherwise expected to support her. These include against a bill to prevent grooming children about their sexuality, against allowing greater flexibility in police staffing that is more likely to full staff the department, and arguing in Covidiot fashion for anti-business policies and curtailment of personal liberties during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.
Her time on the School Board also displayed some questionable temperament to run things. She declared a move to add as a finalist the then-interim school superintendent, who was white, to a search for the job that had black candidates already rejected finalists as racist, and when head of the Louisiana School Board Association balked at meeting with the state superintendent because she so disagreed with the choice and accountability agenda he spearheaded.
So, it’s clearly an exercise in cognitive dissonance when she comes out of the gate in the campaign saying things like she would direct more resources toward the Shreveport Police Department and asserting that she would engage in “producing and uniting” when her entire political career hasn’t shown much of the former and nothing of the latter with her truculent combativeness in the policy arena. As well, there’s a little vengeance involved as she backed Arceneaux’s major opponent among Democrats in 2022.
This political history may cause some activists who normally would support a black Democrat to shy away from her candidacy. That may slough off enough support from her, combined with the incumbent’s monetary arsenal, for him to hold her off. But certainly, with her entry the race became a whole lot closer.
No comments:
Post a Comment