Confirming what many had speculated for months, Metro Councilman John Delgado announced this morning that he’s officially in the race to be Baton Rouge’s next mayor.
In an eight-minute speech delivered at the Crowne Plaza hotel, Delgado announced a proposal to put 200 more Baton Rouge police officers on the streets, and said he wants to build on the success of the Green Light Plan to solve traffic problems and get the city-parish government more involved in education.
“We need to make BR a better place to live, to learn, to work and to raise our children,” Delgado said. “We need leadership to build the city and community that our future generations will inherit, and make sure they are also proud to call it home.”
Though there has been much speculation about who will jump into the mayoral race, the only other announced candidate thus far is Democratic state Sen. Sharon Weston Broome. Former Republican Metro Councilman R.J. “Smokie” Bourgeois—whom Delgado bested in 2012 for the District 12 council seat—has also suggested he may run.
Delgado, 41, a Republican first-term councilman, stressed a commitment to public safety, calling it his main priority. He pointed to the 78 homicides in the city-parish in 2015, a 25% jump from 2014.
“We cannot pretend crime is someone else’s problem or that it just happens in someone else’s part of the parish,” Delgado said.
He also spoke of plans to replace dilapidated bridges and create an alternative thoroughfare for people to cross the parish than the interstate system, as well as encouraging economic development along the large tracts of land adjacent to the Mississippi River south of downtown and getting the city-parish government more actively involved in education.
“For too long, we have acted like educating our kids is only the job of the school board, and the city-parish just washes its hands of it,” Delgado said. “We must commit our full governmental resources to educating our children. Every option must be on the table.”
In an interview following the news conference, Delgado said he would not push for a new bond proposal to fix the roads or build a new parish prison, something Mayor Kip Holden, who is term-limited and cannot run again, unsuccessfully tried multiple times in his 11 years as mayor.
“It’s about creating a framework encouraging businesses to thrive, not throwing money at the problem,” Delgado said.
He also said he would pay for the 200 new police officers by using the millions used to pay current Baton Rouge police officers overtime every year, along with some money the city-parish has in reserve.
If elected, he would stop practicing law—he has a solo law firm—and his business partner would continue to run the bars and nightclubs they own, Delgado said.
About 25 of Delgado’s friends and family joined him at today’s announcement, including Don Bergeron of Chef Don Bergeron Enterprises, pollster John Couvillon and Metro Councilman Buddy Amoroso.
Amoroso said his attendance at Delgado’s announcement is not an endorsement, but rather a way to support his friend. Amoroso also said he will seek re-election to the District 8 council seat.
—Ryan Broussard
