By Thursday afternoon, there were no real surprises in the list of candidates who qualified with the Louisiana Department of State to run for several offices in Slidell and in the Mandeville mayoral race for the March 27 election.

Qualifying ends today at 5 p.m. and St. Tammany News will have a complete list of candidates in our Sunday issue.

So far, the race for Slidell mayor has three candidates who all declared their intent weeks ago. In the race to fill former mayor Eddie Price’s unexpired term, Council member Trilby Lenfant and School Board member Donald Villere both signed up during the first day of qualifying Wednesday as they had stated they would.

Current Slidell Police Chief Freddy Drennan, former St. Tammany Sheriff Chief Deputy Jay Trainor and current District B Councilman Richey Hursey have qualified for the Slidell Police Chief position. If there were any surprises, it was Hursey, who decided to throw his hat in the ring several weeks ago, long after Drennan and Trainor announced their intentions.

For Slidell police chief, Lt. Randy Smith of the St. Tammany Sheriff’s Office and Lt. J. J. Jennings of the Pearl River Police Department have qualified. Also running is security company employee Jason Zar who qualified Thursday afternoon. This is Zar’s first try at a political office. Everybody is waiting to see if Slidell Mayor Ben Morris will add his name to the slate by today’s deadline. He announced in December that he would run for his old office. Morris was Slidell police chief from 1990 to 2002.

In the Slidell City Council races, there are a couple of new faces that are vying for nine council seats. So far, neither incumbent at large council members, Kim Harbison and Landon Cusimano are facing any competition. Since there are two at large members on the council, if there are no more candidates, both would continue to serve. Both are finishing up their first terms on the council and can run one more time under term limits. Cusimano served as the District C representative, and ran for the at large seat after Pearl Williams died. Harbison was the District F council member before she ran for the at large seats left vacant by the death of Kevin Kingston.

So far, incumbents Lionel Hicks in District A, Joe Fraught in District D and Bill Borchert in District G are not being challenged.

Also not being challenged is former Slidell Mayor Sam Caruso who has qualified to run for the District E council seat that is being vacated by Ray Canada who cannot run again because of term limits.

In Hursey’s District B, Richard Reardon, an appraiser in the St. Tammany Assessor’s Office and retired schoolteacher, Sam Abney are going to battle it out for the council seat. This is the first time either man has run for political office.

Two other political newcomers, Jay Newcomb and M.T. “Terry” Youngs will go head to head for the District F seat. When Harbison won the at large seat, the council appointed local engineer James Devereux to fill the seat with the stipulation that he could not run in this election.

So far, the only incumbent facing any competition is District C Councilman Warren Crockett who will go up against local businessman Dwayne “Buddy” Lloyd.

As of 4 p.m. Thursday no one else had qualified for the Mandeville race.

Lenfant and Villere had both publicly announced their candidacy and have been pounding the pavement meeting with residents.

Lenfant has served on the City Council since 2000, when she was elected without opposition to represent District One, which covers the western side of the city.

In 2004, she ran and was elected to one of two at-large seats on council.

Lenfant has lead the city’s movement toward stronger reforms in city government by initiating the creation of an internal audit committee, a code of conduct committee and a citizen’s review committee.

Lenfant said if elected, she will continue to work on re-establishing the citizens trust in local government.

Villere has served on the St. Tammany Parish School Board for 12 years, two of which he served as president of the board. He currently serves as chairman of the board’s Business Affairs and Administration Committee.

Previously he served as a board member of Fourth Ward Recreation, where he was active in the effort to build what is today Pelican Park; and as chairman of the Fire District 4 in Mandeville, where he led the district to initiate an emergency transport service and improved fire and emergency response. 

Villere said he has a strong vision to move Mandeville forward beyond the headlines of the recent past and to restore confidence in the office of the mayor and city government.

Also on March 27, the residents of Sun will elect someone to fill the seat vacated when longtime alderman and former mayor Floyd Stanley Mizell died last fall. As of Thursday afternoon that race had netted only one contender. Will Talley qualified for that race Wednesday.