The clean sweep of Bossier City’s elected majoritarian branch officials, which began in 2021 and concluded last week, also resulted in a near-total ousting of Bossier political insiders in favor of reformers. The latest city elections completed this shift.

Exactly four years ago, the city was run by a mayor with 16 years in office and a set of city councilors with a combined 127 years of service. As of July 1, it will have a mayor with just four years in office and a council whose total tenure amounts to only 12 years. No council member will have served more than four years.

Moreover, this rolling revolution will give a majority on the Council to reformers outside the traditional political establishment—a first in the city’s history. In their rookie terms, Republicans Chris Smith and Brian Hammons left no doubt as to their reformist chops. They will now be joined by GOP newcomer Cliff Smith, whose civic activism as a concerned citizen made his reformist stance clear.

Two additional newcomers could further solidify this majority. Republican Joel Girouard campaigned on all the right reformist principles—though he ran unopposed for a vacated seat. His political donation history is sparse, with only two contributions: one to GOP state Sen. Adam Bass, a former Bossier Parish School Board member who is part of that in crowd, but also to Republican state Rep. Michael Melerine, who has reformist credentials from his time in the Legislature and on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Republican Craton Cochran, on the other hand, has a less clear reformist background. While he echoed reformist rhetoric during his campaign—securing endorsements from Smith and Hammons—his political history raises some questions. He previously ran as an independent for the Bossier Parish School Board in a district that largely overlapped with that of his father Jimmy, a longtime Democrat. Additionally, during his brief tenure on the school board, he consistently voted with the entrenched establishment.

Given the uncertainty surrounding Cochran and Girouard, the election of Democrat Debra Ross over independent incumbent Jeff Darby is particularly significant for reformers. The Darby clan—two of his siblings currently hold elected office, and another recently retired from one—has been dug in like ticks on a hound since the 1980s in the District 2 area. Yet Ross not only defeated Darby but waxed the floor with him, much like how District 1 ousted its longtime Republican incumbent Scott Irwin in 2021, paving the way for Hammons. Ross was a strong supporter of the term limits coalition that dismantled the old guard.

This means at least four of the seven council members are confirmed reformers, with the potential for as many as six. And the election came within 40 votes of a full sweep, with GOP incumbent Vince Maggio barely staving off Republican challenger Ruth Pope Johnston. Maggio, who spent at least $25,000 of his own money on the race, is likely on a trajectory to set a record for the most money spent per voter, as well as most ever spent on a Council race. In 2017 Irwin spent just over $20 a voter to win his last reelection. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Maggio go over $50 a vote.

This widespread rejection of the political establishment started in 2021 with the election of Chris Smith, Hammons (who won a special election later that year), and GOP Mayor Tommy Chandler. Their victories were driven by public frustration over perceived dynastic rule—dumping 39 years of councilor experience and 16 years of mayoral experience, represented by an octogenarian who wanted a fifth term that would have taken him to 91 years of age. All three ran on a platform supporting term limits as a solution to that entrenched power.

Then, that struck something of a chord with voters, which went on steroids over the next four years when the four Council graybeards who had reentered office teamed with Maggio to conduct the most over-the-top, scorched-earth campaign (that eventually drew judicial disapprobation) to block citizens efforts to enact strict term limits. The Bossier City public, disproportionately transient and newer to the area that made it notoriously apathetic, was roused enough by such an arrogant display of self-interest that they began paying attention to a raft of policy decisions that also smacked too much of insider elected official self-interest and not enough in the people’s interest, resulting in several determined candidates all of whom–except Johnston–triumphed by ballot or by discouraging incumbents to continue their careers.

Much more can be said about the city’s future now that reformers have seized, perhaps decisively, control of the Council, as well as the voter rejection of the proposed “amended and restated” Charter. For now, however, the big question is this: does the solidly reformist Council now “free” Chandler to act as a reformer that arguably having five votes against him squelched this to the point that he didn’t even try? Or is the cypher Chandler who might as well have been a cardboard cutout in his office except to acquiesce apparently in stupid decisions who will govern the next four years. Inquiring voters would like to know.