5 sign up for St. Landry House seat

• By RICHARD BURGESS
• Advocate Acadiana bureau
• Published: Jun 25, 2009 - Page: 1BA

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

Five candidates signed up Wednesday to run for House District 40 in St. Landry Parish.

The list of candidates so far includes former Opelousas Mayor Anna Simmons, Ronald Lavergne, St. Landry Parish School Board member Quincy Richard, Ledricka Johnson Thierry and former St. Landry Parish Police Juror Allen Guillory.

Qualifying for the open legislative seat continues through Friday.

The special election is set for Aug. 1. A runoff, if necessary, will be held Aug. 29.

The election is to fill the seat left vacant by Elbert Guillory, D-Opelousas, who won a May 1 state Senate election to replace Don Cravins Jr.

Cravins had stepped down as state senator to take a job with the U.S. Senate.

Allen Guillory had initially announced intentions to run against Elbert Guillory in the state Senate race earlier this year.

He later backed out and endorsed Elbert Guillory, no known relation.

Thierry ran unsuccessfully against Elbert Guillory in 2007 for the House District 40 seat — which also includes a small portion of Lafayette Parish.

Qualifying this week marks the official beginning of a brisk campaign that unofficially began soon after Elbert Guillory moved over to the Senate.