Dec 09 2024 13 mins
This past Saturday, December 7th, the citizens of East Baton Rouge Parish elected Sid Edwards as the new Mayor. Sid beat out incumbent Sharon Weston Broome who has been Mayor for the past 8 years. Very few gave Sid a chance. He had very little money, was new to politics and the big donor Republicans for the most part were backing Ted James, a Democrat. Ted did not make the run-off and endorsed Mayor Broome. Apparently is endorsement had little impact. Sid received 5% of the the black vote in the primary and gained another 5% in the run-off. Some of Ted's supporters perhaps really did want a change.
Coach Edwards is a fine man and now it is his time to see if he can bring Baton Rouge back to where it was. I truly hope he can and will continue to give updates on his progress. It is refreshing to see a non politician win and now have a chance to bring new ideas and put new people in positions to make a difference.
KF