Five newcomers seek council seat

• By CHARLES LUSSIER
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Sep 17, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.
• Editor’s note: This is the ninth in a series of stories about the candidates for the 12 Metro Council seats in the Oct. 4 primary. Due to coverage of Hurricane Gustav, the Metro Council stories are not being published in numerical order by district. The interviews were conducted before the hurricane hit Louisiana.

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None of the five individuals running for Metro Council District 10 seat has ever been elected to political office, and two have no prior political experience.

This district, which includes downtown Baton Rouge, will get its chance to vote Oct. 4 to replace term-limited representative Lorri Burgess.

District 10 stretches down from LSU to Airline Highway, bounded on the west by the Mississippi River and on the east by Acadian Thruway and Plank Road.

Val Lowery came the closest to winning political office of the five. He narrowly missed a runoff in 2002 when he ran for East Baton Rouge Parish assessor, and lost again in a head-to-head contest a year later against assessor Brian Wilson.

Lowery also served on both the state’s Real Estate and Tax commissions, and worked the state’s Law Enforcement Commission.

Tara Wicker has some key government experience, having served as assistant chief administrative officer for Mayor Bobby Simpson for three years.

Michael Samuel has served on the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport Commission for the past nine years.

By contrast, Angela Bird, a juvenile services worker and Larry Selders, a social worker, are newcomers to politics.

Public transportation
Expanding mass transportation was a priority of all the candidates.

Bird and Lowery talked about the importance of a long discussed traffic loop around Baton Rouge. Bird also supports more toll roads.

Michael Samuel, however, suggests redirecting loop funding to expanding mass transit. The loop was a good idea 30 years ago, he said, but today it will take too long to offer too much relief, and comes at a time of higher gas prices and concerns about the effect of fossil fuels on the environment.

“For 20 percent of what it’s going to build that loop, we could have the system we need,” Samuel said. “Park and ride, trains and maybe even beyond that. You’re going to reduce the number of cars on the road and reduce the amount of fossil fuels.”

The proposed loop, which would ease traffic congestion by taking some motorists off the interstate system in Baton Rouge, is estimated to cost $4 billion and take 8-10 years to complete.