Out of a field of six, LaSalle Parish voters chose Scott McLendon and Lane Windham to face each other November 18 in the runoff for the position of LaSalle Parish Sheriff during the primary election held Saturday, October 14.
McLendon
Windham
McLendon was the highest man in the vote totals when polls closed Saturday, recording 1,873 votes or 37% of the total.
Windham was 522 votes behind at 1,351 votes or 27% of the total.
Both men or trying to fill the open seat of Sheriff as four-term Sheriff Scott Franklin is set to retire at the end of this term June 30, 2024.
McLendon, current Chief of Police for the Town of Jena, and Windham, retired Alexandria Police Department Lieutenant/Supervisor, will no doubt be busy in the coming weeks trying to persuade supporters of the other four candidates to join their campaign.
LaSalle Parish Sheriff’s Office (LPSO) Chief Deputy Jimmy Arbogast received the third highest total Saturday, with 21% or 1,045 votes.
LPSO Detective Brant King received 7% or 342 votes, Private Investigator Brian Andrews received 7% or 327 votes and Jena Businessman Deon Jones received 1% or 59 votes.
A closer look at the votes from Saturday night revealed that McLendon gathered 59% of the votes from the Aimoch precinct, 53% of the votes from the Crossroads precinct, and 50% of the votes from the Old River-Whitehall and the Cypress Bayou precincts.
Windham had his strongest vote totals in the Belah precinct with 58%, the Nebo precinct with 48% and the Eden precinct with 41%.
Arbogast had a strong performance on the north end of the parish, winning all four boxes in the Olla, Urania and Tullos precincts with 37%, 38%, 46% and 57% respectively.
In the Sheriff’s race, 57.2% of voters cast ballots, two tenths more than voters of LaSalle who cast ballots for Governor (57%).
The runoff election for Sheriff will be held Saturday, November 18, as part of the Gubernatorial General Election.
Early voting for that runoff election will be held November 3 and end November 11.
