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I have lived in Congressional District 5 since Gov. Jeff Landry changed the maps. I understand state Sen. Blake Miguez helped approve those maps, too. Miguez lives in New Iberia, maybe 100 miles west of my house, in Rep. Clay Higgins’ congressional district. He had announced he was running for the U.S. Senate and was raising money.
But then President Donald Trump endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow, and things changed. Speculation is that “Trump’s people” wanted to help Letlow and made a deal with Miguez to drop out and switch to the 5th District race, with Trump endorsing him. That is exactly what Miguez did at the 11th hour.
But wait. Miguez had raised money from those who thought he was running for the U.S. Senate, before he pulled a switcheroo. They may already have a candidate in the 5th District. Perhaps they were also angry about the purely political move of someone living in New Iberia running for the gerrymandered seat stretching from Baton Rouge to Monroe. In fact, a couple prominent executives did call Miguez, asking for the return of their large donations. Ouch.
If Miguez had wanted to represent the 5th District, he should have announced that from the start. Instead, he was told by the “Trump team” what he could run for and made a deal for the endorsement. Some might say he was “bought and paid for,” like 100% grade F beef.
Let me remind my friends and fans of Garret Graves, who live in East Baton Rouge and Livingston parishes, that Miguez was right there in the mix, drawing the current race-based maps that ended our successful congressman’s tenure. Thanks a lot, Blake.
Let me make it clear: This Republican resident of the 5th District won’t be voting for the “carpetbagger from New Iberia.” Let’s vote to send him home to New Iberia—not D.C.
Why can’t we plan ahead?
I read the story in The Advocate in which Transportation and Drainage Director Fred Raiford said the city-parish had finally decided on a traffic signal—instead of a roundabout—to address the dangerous intersection at Pecue Lane and Highland Road. Nearby residents say there are often accidents there.
But it could get worse before it gets better. The exit from Interstate 10 at Pecue just opened, and now even more vehicles will be heading to and from Highland.
I just don’t understand why our city doesn’t anticipate these changes. MovEBR was passed on Dec 8, 2018. DOTD began the interchange and ramps at Pecue in the spring of 2023. Now, almost three years later, it’s opening this exit.
And Raiford is just having the final meeting to decide on the solution. He says the plan is to begin construction on the light in January 2027. Add another year of accidents.
Tell me why our paid “experts” couldn’t have seen this coming and begun the solution and construction to be in place three years later when the exit opened. What is the excuse?
Something is wrong with our system and the leadership. Raiford is a retread and already retired once. It is time for his encore exit.
Privatize CATS
One of my wishes for 2026 was to reform CATS. I had opposed its past tax renewal despite all the elected officials and Baton Rouge Area Chamber—now The Partnership—leadership lining up to support it like “apple pie.”
Now we have had multiple indictments handed down by our attorney general charging public officials with stealing money from CATS, including one of our Metro Council members.
The so-called leaders in our community can support mass transit without endorsing incompetent and corrupt people who were running the agency right under their noses. The “go along to get along” philosophy has not served Baton Rouge well.
The voters were fooled into giving more tax money to a failing system. We should finally consider privatization—along with new leadership and a new board—as they did at BREC. Why not this legislative session? I heard that Rep. Dixon McMakin has a bill this session to address CATS’ finances.
What did we learn?
We should all learn from history. Look at the chart on population growth of Austin versus Baton Rouge since 1950. Baton Rouge was larger than Austin in 1960 and in 1970, when it had 52,000 more residents. But Austin began to surge in 1990 and hasn’t looked back. In 2020, Austin had 1,425,000 more people than Baton Rouge. Wow! That’s 2.66 times the population of the Baton Rouge MSA.
How did they do it? Like Austin, we are a capital city with a flagship university: LSU. Southern University, too. We also have the Mississippi River. So what’s the reason? I asked ChatGPT why. The answer was very interesting and detailed. Try it. It begins with this: How Austin did it (and why Baton Rouge didn’t).
A man of character
Louisiana Rep. Paula Davis served the people of District 69 very well. She resigned recently which initiated a special election—with early voting this week. Election day is March 14. I have known Paul Sawyer for many years and he is well prepared to follow in Davis’ footsteps representing the interests of District 69.
Sawyer has experience in the public and private sector. He worked at Albemarle, LED and was chief of staff for Congressman Garret Graves. He currently serves as the Executive Director of the Amite River Basin Commission.
Sawyer is smart and knows how to get things done. He will be a leader we can trust to put Louisiana first and a great addition to the Louisiana Legislature.
