This fall five Shreveport council members will seek re-election to the Council: Tabatha Taylor, Gary Brooks, Jim Taliaferro, Alan Jackson and Ursula Bowman. Councilmen James Green and Grayson Boucner are termed out. Green will run for the Public Service Commission.
The council horseshoe provides an open forum for council members to push their respective agenda, to criticize the Arceneaux administration, to appease constituents with recognition resolutions, and to get free media coverage with the streamed meetings and media interviews. Committee meetings also provide similar opportunities along with press releases from the council clerk’s office.
Councilwoman Taylor has a fundraiser scheduled for next week. Jackson held a fundraiser last month. Brooks, Taliaferro, and Bowman will probably follow suit with fundraisers.
The campaign reports posted by Taylor reflect $11,000 in funds as of 2025-year end and Jackson reported $6000. Reports for Brooks, Taliaferro and Bowman will be posted online soon.
To date the 2026 Council meetings have been filled with sweetness and niceness, almost to the extent that one expected a verse of kumbaya to close meetings. How long this overall prevalent mood will last is an open question.
The prospects of having a challenged fall election are certainly a factor for each incumbent in their comments/actions both at council meetings and outside the council chambers. Any attacks on the Arceneaux administration may be fueled more by personal campaign considerations than by actual reality.
Endorsements by the incumbent council members of mayoral candidates will no doubt have an impact, both publicly and privately, on council matters. Politics is politics, and in Shreveport race and party affiliations are always key factors in elections.
John came to Shreveport in January of 1977 when he was transferred to Barksdale AFB.
He’s been active in Shreveport politics since deciding to make Shreveport his home.
John practiced law for 40 years and he now monitors local politics. He regularly attends Shreveport City Council and Caddo Parish Commission meetings.
John is published weekly in The Inquisitor, bi-monthly in The Forum News, and frequently in the Shreveport Times.
He enjoys addressing civic groups on local government issues and elections.