And Now…John Young For Lt. Governor

The announcement hit this morning in a press release. Young, the Jefferson Parish President whose name has been rumored for a statewide office for quite a long time, put out this missive…

Today, Jefferson Parish President John Young announced his campaign for Lieutenant Governor in a new ad titled, “A Stronger Louisiana.”

“John Young has the experience, drive and the values to ensure that tomorrow’s Louisiana is even better than today,” a voiceover says in the ad. “As Jefferson Parish President, he brought hope, reform, new jobs and an economic resurgence to his community,” the ad continues.

“I have a proud record of standing up for Louisiana and I am running for Lieutenant Governor to be a strong voice on economic development, tourism and to preserve our unique Louisiana way of life,” Young said.

Young was elected parish president in 2010 after serving on the Jefferson Parish Council.

As an elected official, Young has consistently balanced budgets, fought to keep taxes low and increased transparency in local government.

Young also serves as President of PACE, Parishes Against Coastal Erosion, where he is leading a group of 20 coastal parishes to coordinate important efforts to fight for coastal protection and restoration. And when politicians in Washington, DC raised the cost of flood insurance, Young helped to lead the fight to keep flood insurance affordable for the people of Louisiana.

As a former Assistant District Attorney and prosecutor, Young has helped to keep Jefferson Parish safe. John Young is the father of five children and is dedicated to making Louisiana an even better place to live, work and raise a family.

And the video…

Young is a significant candidate in the race, as he was sitting on a war chest of just under $1.5 million as of his filing in January, seven months ago. And as the president of Jefferson Parish he has a fairly high-profile job – though historically, being president of Jefferson Parish has been a better qualifier for federal prison than statewide office.

Barring any revelations along those lines Young could win. The other two major candidates in the field, Plaquemines Parish president Billy Nungesser and Baton Rouge mayor-president Kip Holden, have their problems – Holden probably makes the runoff but as a Democrat has little chance of winning a majority once he’s in it, while Nungesser already ran for the office once and faces some local questions surrounding the ethics of Plaquemines government. State senator Elbert Guillory was a candidate at one time and could have been a good one, but Guillory’s fundraising has been nonexistent and it now appears he won’t run.

One senses, however, that the field is by no means set. Should there be a reliable conservative in the race from, say, North Louisiana, we might have a new favorite. Young and Nungesser would seem to split the New Orleans-area vote, while Holden would have the Democrat vote. The north-of-I-10 vote is wide open, and it’s more than enough to get into the runoff.

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