Jenkins: Get backers to polls

• By SARAH CHACKO
• Advocate Capitol news bureau
• Published: Apr 27, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Standing at a busy intersection at the end of the work day, Woody Jenkins is in campaign mode.

Surrounded by a dozen youths toting campaign signs and a “Homeschoolers for Woody” poster, Jenkins waves to drivers passing by, pauses as the light changes and shifts his group slightly to greet the new traffic flow.

“I want to be America’s hardest working congressman, and this is my way to show it,” he says.

Jenkins, the Republican candidate for the 6th U.S. Congressional District seat, said he has gone to a different corner every day since the April party primary runoff elections, which also advanced state Rep. Don Cazayoux, D-New Roads.

Cazayoux, Jenkins and three candidates outside of the major parties — Peter Aranyosi, Ashley Casey and Randall Hayes — will be on the ballot for the May 3 general election. 

Under a congressional election format new to many Louisiana voters, the candidate with the most votes — even if the total is less than 50 percent — will win outright.

Jenkins said that after spending the past few months talking about the issues, he feels his message is clear, adding he is focusing more on keeping potential voters aware of the election. A conservative, the 61-year-old Jenkins has leaned mainly on his 28 years as a state representative.

Jenkins said he was drawn to politics in 1970 when corruption in government, particularly by officials in Baton Rouge, was damaging Louisiana politics. The then 24-year-old Jenkins ran as a Democrat — he notes Louisiana lacked any real Republican presence at the time.

Jenkins said running for office then was hard work, as were his three attempts at the U.S. Senate. But then again, Jenkins said, hard work was usual among his family, neighbors and school mates.

“We just knew we had to make it by hard work,” he said.

Jenkins was born and raised in Baton Rouge. His mother worked at American Bank and his father in a plant until he served in World War II, which left him in poor health.

Jenkins attended Istrouma High, where he ran track, played football several few years, was elected student body president and was valedictorian.

He graduated from LSU with a journalism degree and went on to earn his law degree there. He is the editor of three community newspapers.