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EBR mayoral race candidates look for last campaign push before Dec. 5 election
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BATON ROUGE – The mayoral run-off election for East Baton Rouge Parish is less than a week away.
Incumbent Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome is up against former state representative Steve Carter. Like many things, the way they are campaigning is different from years past.
"I really enjoyed knocking on doors, meeting people, and talking to people but we are just not able to do that,” said Carter, who was a house representative for 12 years.
Their campaigns are focusing on TV ads and phone calls, rather than the traditional door-to-door approach.
"I'm very optimistic, but of course we want everyone to show their voice through their vote,” said Mayor Sharon Weston Broome after she cast her vote on Saturday.
Their messages are getting out though. Around 33,000 people early voted.
Steve's campaign is focusing on how the city-parish can improve.
"I feel like the city is in a little bit of trouble,” said Carter. “I think the direction we're going is not a healthy one because of a few things. The first is crime. Every day you look in the paper or watch WBRZ, you have a person injured, or going to the hospital and possibly dying and that's sad."
Carter says flooding, and a racial divide are other issues he'd like to improve as well. Money, though, is the biggest hurdle in doing that.
"I can’t touch the libraries, I can't touch BREC or Council on Aging those are dedicated funds, but on the other side if we go through them and see if they have a surplus or if they want to give back to the community I have to go to the legislature to get that done,” he said.
Mayor Broome, on the other hand, says she's already made major milestones in improving the city and plans to continue those projects if re-elected.
"I’m very glad about the accomplishments and achievements we’ve made over the past four years as it relates to infrastructure and MOVEBR, as it relates to flood mitigation efforts, the funding we secured from federal partners and state partners for the five tributary projects, implementing the first stormwater master plan and of course the efforts we have made in law enforcement reform,” said Broome.
The candidates are now relying on one last day at the polls on Dec. 5. Early voting ended Saturday.
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