Ten candidates qualified in Shreveport’s mayor race last week — Anna Marie Arpino, Temecius Dixon, Steven Jackson, Kenneth Krefft, Adrian Perkins, Jeron Rogers, Lee O. Savage, Jim Taliaferro, Ollie Tyler and John-Paul Young.
If voters want a wide variety of choices, this slate certainly provides just that.
Five candidates are white — Arpino, Krefft, Savage, Taliaferro, and Young.
Five candidates registered as Democrats — Dixon, Jackson, Perkins, Rogers, and Tyler.
Two candidates registered as Republicans — Savage and Taliaferro.
Two candidates registered as "no party" — Krefft and Young.
One candidate registered as Independent — Arpino.
Two are elected officials — Jackson and Tyler. Three have been unsuccessful candidates— Arpino, Krefft, and Taliaferro.
And one already has said he will withdraw — Krefft — so that he can pursue a federal government job. He said he's already filed paperwork to withdraw.
Two candidates listed a post office box as their address — Aprino and Jackson. The qualification form allows this choice versus a home address.
Four candidates do not own the residence where they live — Dixon, Jackson, Perkins, and Taliaferro. (Four candidates for the city council also do not own the residence where they live — Quinton Aught, Joseph Carstensen, Cortez Collins and Levette Fuller.)
Two candidates are 32 years old (Jackson and Perkins). Young is 35, Dixon is 47, Arpino is 60, Rogers and Savage are 64, Taliaferro is 65, Kreft is 70, and Tyler is 73.
Yes, there are plenty of objective differences between the candidates. Some observers view this year’s mayors race as the “old guard” versus the “new wave”.
Other see it as a race between contenders and pretenders.
The chances of success for Arpino, Dixon, Rogers, and Young are between slim and none. (Young withdrew on Sunday, July 29).
Most politicos seriously doubt that a white mayoral candidate can ever be elected in Shreveport and especially this year.
Before Taliaferro entered the race, Savage had a decent chance of making the runoff.
Now it’s an open question if either of the Republicans can survive the November primary election.
Playing with house money as the incumbent, Tyler will most likely be in the December runoff.
The only real unknown at this time is who will be her opponent.