Monroe City Judge Roundup

Precinct Breakdown

We have published a spreadsheet showing the precinct breakdown of the Monroe City Court Judge’s race.

Monroe City Court Judge, Division B

Joyce’s Victory Celebration

Joyce’s two DWI’s were a big part of the just-finished campaign.

DWI arrests noted in judge race

Monroe City Judge Candidates Speak Out

Shhhhh! Let’s not talk about THAT! Jeff Joyce DUI Convictions

So it was of interest to see the 90 pic photo spread of the Joyce victory party that was held Tuesday night.

Jeff Joyce wins Monroe city judge race

Of particular interest was pic no. 66 that showed a whole tub full of iced down beer and another cooler at the ready in the background.

We suggest it reflects very poorly on a newly elected judge who is supposed to represent the law to the public to be caught in such an environment, especially one with past alcohol abuse issues.

True, we didn’t see any pics of Joyce with drink in hand.

But the Ouachita Parish law enforcement/legal “combine” has never worried too much about its public image, so we suppose no additional damage has been done to respect for the law – or lack thereof.

Latest Burkett Campaign Finances

The latest campaign finance disclosure for the Laurie Burkett campaign for Monroe City Judge is now online. It covers the reporting period of 9/13/10 – 10/13/10.

Summary
Contributions
Loans
Expenditures

New Joyce Campaign Finance Filings

There are several new campaign finance disclosure filings for Jeff Joyce, who is a candidate for Monroe City Court Judge.

Special Report – 09/28/10

Summary
Loans Received

Special Report – 10/22/10

Summary
Contributions

Reporting Period 09/13/10 – 10/13/10

Summary
Contributions
Loans
Expenditures

Letters Fly Between Monroe City Judge Camps

A flurry of letters is flying between the two camps in the runoff for Monroe City Judge. Laurie Burkett and Brian Crawford, (law partner of candidate Jeff Joyce) have exchanged letters about an article written last week in the Free Press of Monroe.

See the letters here:

10/8/10 – Burkett to Crawford
10/8/10 – Crawford reply to Burkett
10/11/10 – Burkett reply to Crawford
10/11/10 – Crawford reply to Burkett

In the first letter, Burkett asks Crawford who in the Joyce campaign told the Free Press that she was engaging in smear tactics.

From the Free Press:

The Joyce campaign complained that people associated with the Burkett campaign in the black community were distributing illegal materials accusing Joyce of being a racist and making unfounded claims not representing the character of a person seeking a judgeship.

Joyce claims that at least three Burkett campaign workers: Marie Brown, Greg “Chick” Glover and Vernon “X-man” Anderson distributed fliers at a Carroll High Football game containing the following message in large type.

“Who is Jeff Joyce? He is a republican. He is for long term jail time. His father sentenced a black man to 50 years for speaking to a white woman. He is a David Duke supporter. We do not need this type of bigot at the city courthouse. Please vote again (sic) him!”

Burkett’s denials were noted in the story.

Burkett denied any knowledge of the material. In a September 14th letter she wrote: “If I were to have any knowledge of any untrue and/or illegal material being distributed by anyone representing themselves to be from my campaign, I would certainly put an end to it immediately.

However, one of the men noted in the article (Vernon Anderson) was today revealed to be a paid election day campaign worker of Burkett’s.

Burkett also alleges that fliers bearing Joyce’s photo were distributed on the south side of Monroe, and were paid for by Kenneth Wilson, a Joyce campaign vendor. The fliers do not have proper attribution in accordance with the election code, Burkett said.

Burkett, Heck Election Day Finance Reports

The October 2 election day expenditures campaign finance reports for Monroe City Court Judge candidates Laurie Burkett and Charlie Heck have been posted online at the Louisiana Board of Ethics website.

Laurie Burkett

Election Day Expenditures – Summary
Election Day Expenditures – Advertising
Election Day Expenditures – Election Day Workers
Election Day Expenditures – Payments to Oganizations

Charlie Heck

Election Day Expenditures – Summary

Heck listed no expenditures, payments or advertising for election day.

Joyce Election Day Expenditures Released

The October 2 election day expenditures campaign finance report for Monroe City Court Judge Candidate Jeff Joyce has been posted online at the Louisiana Board of Ethics website.

Election Day Expenditures – Summary
Election Day Expenditures – Advertising
Election Day Expenditures – Election Day Workers

October 12 is the deadline for all the candidates to file reports for election day expenditures.

Monroe City Judge Campaign Flier

A copy of the campaign flier that Monroe City Judge candidate Jeff Joyce claimed was “racist” has been obtained by Lincoln Parish News Online (LPNO).

See here the campaign flier.

The flier was the subject of a KTVE-TV10 news report and press conference by Joyce the day before the October 2 primary election.

As we had suspected, persons unknown printed out our news stories of 9/22/10 and 9/27/10 and fashioned campaign fliers from them.

See here the earlier LPNO stories.

Joyce Pays King Dawson $5K for “Canvassing”
Who is King Dawson?

Joyce said he filed a complaint with the Louisiana Ethics Administration. Presumably, he’s alleging a violation of some provision of LA RS 18:1463

E. No person shall cause to be distributed or transmitted for or on behalf of a candidate for political office any oral, visual, or written material constituting a paid political announcement or advertisement, which is paid for by a third-party entity, without providing the name of the third-party entity on the face of the advertisement.

City Court Judge’s Race Precinct Breakdown

See here the voting precinct breakdown for the race for Monroe’s City Court Judge, Division B.

Here is the percentage breakdown among the three candidates for votes cast on election day.

Jeff Joyce: 43.2%
Laurie Burkett: 36.6%
Charlie Heck: 20.2%

Now note the percentage breakdown among the three for early voting.

Jeff Joyce: 46.4%
Laurie Burkett: 29.1%
Charlie Heck: 24.4%

This indicates one of two things. Either Joyce and Heck had a more effective strategy to procure early votes than did Burkett, or there was a a decided shift toward Burkett between the early voting period (Sep 18-25) and election day (Oct 2).

Joyce, Burkett in Runoff for Judge

In the hotly contested race for Monroe City Judge, Jeff Joyce and Laurie Burkett will be in a runoff Tuesday, November 2. Here are the vote totals.

Joyce: 2,544
Burkett: 2,056
Heck: 1,218

See here the precinct-by-precinct breakdown.

Among the races for Monroe City School Board, controversial District Seven’s Brenda Shelling was defeated by challenger Glynn Ludley, 336 to 259.

See here all the races in Ouachita Parish.

The Money’s Burning a Hole in Their Pockets

Monroe City Schools has a surplus.

City school system ends year with larger surplus

Business manager Derenda Flowers told board members in a finance committee meeting that among other things, lower than expected utilities costs and smaller expenditures for implementation of some of the district’s programs contributed to a $3.3 million surplus for the current year. Added to the district’s existing surplus, this year’s total surplus in the general fund will be $14.9 million.

The new superintendent Kathleen Harris already has plans for some of the money – hire three new deadheads in the central office.

Harris to ask board for new positions

Monroe City Schools Superintendent Kathleen Harris will ask the board Tuesday to approve three new positions which could ultimately cost the district about $375,000 yearly in salary and benefits.

The matter was discussed in a finance committee meeting earlier this week and generated much concern among board members.

Harris asked board members to consider hiring three chiefs, one each for operations, instruction and public information. Base salary would be $95,000 each plus benefits. These positions would report directly to Harris.

We have another use for the surplus money that Monroe City Schools has – send it back to the taxpayers. It’s a certainty that if Harris isn’t successful in the attempt to pad the payroll, she’ll find something else to waste the money on.

Politicians love spending our money. It’s what they do.

Harris’ request will be considered at the Tuesday, October 5 meeting of the board to be held at the media center, 2009 Auburn Avenue at 6:00 PM.

Here is the agenda.