Scott Angelle running for governor

St. Martin Parish has a favorite son in the governor’s race for the first time since then Secretary of State Paul Hardy made a bid for the mansion in 1979.
Just when many political observers had decided he was not going to do it, Scott Angelle of Breaux Bridge has announced his candidacy.
There are perhaps as many others who saw it coming ever since Angelle’s rousing “Cheramies and Callais” speech against the drilling moratorium at the Cajundome in 2010.
“I’m excited to share after prayerful consideration and consultation with family and friends across the state that I will be a candidate for governor next fall,” Angelle said in his formal announcement.
“I am convinced Louisiana’s best days are still ahead of us. Now is the time for leadership that will be more focused on getting us across the goal line rather than grabbing the headline. “I will be a workhorse, not a show horse. I have a history of putting Louisiana first by working across party lines and labels, as I believe no one person or group has a monopoly on great ideas.”
Angelle, 52, trails fellow Republicans U.S. Sen. David Vitter and Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne in name recognition and certainly in funds, but he is unmatched on the stump. With his Cajun accent, humor and lyrical rhetoric, he elicits admiring comparisons to Huey Long and Edwin Edwards.
He also comes with impressive creds. A former oil and gas land manager, Angelle was on the St. Martin Parish Police Jury and became the first parish president when the switch was made to home rule. Gov. Kathleen Blanco, a Democrat, appointed him secretary of the Department of Natural Resources, and Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican, not only kept him in the post but subsequently – and concurrently – made him his legislative liaison. Jindal went on to name Angelle interim lieutenant governor when Mitch Landrieu resigned to become mayor of New Orleans. Jindal also put him on the LSU Board of Supervisors.
He was elected to the District 2 seat on the Public Service Commission last year.
Angelle switched from Democrat to Republican in 2010.
His father, J. Burton “Burt” Angelle, served on the St. Martin Parish Police Jury, the Louisiana House of Representatives, and was secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
“I intend to campaign with a certain joie de vivre spirit because Louisiana deserves a positive campaign focusing on people, not just policy,” Angelle says in his announcement.
The Louisiana gubernatorial election is set for Oct. 24, 2015.