I don’t think I’ve ever seen an actual election with real candidates where one won with 91 percent of the vote. That happened Saturday when Newell Normand won election as sheriff of Jefferson Parish. He defeated Peter Dale, chief of Harahan’s force.

Normand actually ran the sheriff’s office through much of Harry Lee’s years as sheriff, we’re told, and Harry had groomed him to be his successor, sending him to the FBI schools and such. From all reports, he’s an able leader and we’re fortunate to have him. Apparently, the electorate agreed.

A political analyst on television last night was awed by the numbers, as were the rest of us. “Even Harry Lee himself would not have pulled 91 percent of the vote!”

In other elections….

Junior Rodriguez is out as president of St. Bernard Parish. If you ever saw him or met this man, you would not forget him. Bigger than life, personality coming out the pores of his skin, and with no restraints on anything his mind thought of saying, the stories about Junior are legion. Craig Taffaro, Jr., inherits the rebuilding tasks for this parish just downriver from Orleans.

The whites now have a majority on the New Orleans City Council, for the first time in who knows how long. No one knows what this means for the future, if anything. One commentator says the main thing it means is that only 11 percent of the blacks bothered to go to the polls yesterday. Jackie Clarkson edged by Cynthia Willard-Lewis for the at-large seat on the council. The other at-large is Arnie Fielkow, presently serving as president. Again, the first time in memory two whites have been the at-large members.

Buddy Caldwell was elected attorney-general for the state. He beat a young man, Royal Alexander, whose political experience consisted of serving as a chief lieutenant for one of our U. S. Congressman. Alexander burned his britches some months ago when he sent out letters to companies trying to get his help with Washington matters by saying he did not have time to help anyone who was not going to contribute generously to his campaign. That smacked of the old politics in Louisiana of pro quid pro. “I don’t do nothing for nobody for nothing.”

Caldwell is a longtime district attorney and had the support of almost everyone that mattered except the Republican Party.

It’s amazing to me how the electorate will turn out in huge numbers for a primary, then hardly bother to go to the polls at all for the runoff. It took thousands of votes to get into the runoff for some of these candidates and only hundreds to win election.

I’d like to say to my fellow Americans: 1) study up on candidates and be informed; 2) go to the polls and vote; and 3) go every time there’s an election because the fewer people who show up to vote, the more your vote counts.