By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – Voter turnout—it can really play a huge role in who wins elections.
Sean Morrison is hoping to change some of those numbers in his favor when he faces Nick Disanti in a runoff for the Slidell City Council District ‘D’ seat, acknowledging it is the key to rallying from a big showing Disanti had in the Saturday election.
Four candidates qualified to run for the ‘D’ seat on the City Council after the position became vacant following the death last summer of former Councilman Val Vanney.
Not only did Vanney’s wife, Bonnie, qualify to run for the seat, but she was joined by Mark “Choppy” Daeumer, along with Disanti and Morrison.
Disanti almost won the seat outright in Saturday’s vote as he received 298 votes for 47 percent, needing only a few more votes cast his way to get over 50 percent to win in the primary.
Instead, he must now face Morrison in the runoff on April 30 after the second place finisher had 24 percent, compared to 17 percent for Daeumer and 12 percent for Vanney.
Disanti believes his strong showing was due to 10 years of public service when he served as a homeowner association president on two occasions for five years each. The most recent time was the past five years as president of the Palm Lake Homeowner’s Association, where he was a leader in getting dozens of homes raised above flood level in that area of Slidell which was previously flood prone.
“I think people remember those who are volunteers, and perform public service,” he said. “That’s how we did so well with four people in this race. I’m blessed to have so many great people in my life who helped in this campaign since I could never have done so well on my own.”
Disanti added that “in politics talk is cheap. People want to see what you are doing and I think all the years of volunteer time I put in is something people remembered. That’s how we got such a good vote total.”
Morrison believes the key to rallying from his second place position is to get out the large percentage of people who never voted this time. Voter turnout in District ‘D’ was only 23 percent of registered voters.
“The vote turnout was really abysmal overall, but that means there are a lot of people who didn’t go vote,” he said. “We will focus on those people, plus all those who voted for the other two candidates.”
Some suggestions were raised about the fact Disanti is a Republican and Morrison is a Democrat in a parish where there are twice as many registered Republican voters as Democrat. But Morrison said he doesn’t believe that has much impact in a City Council race.
“If you can just talk to people they see we aren’t dealing with national issues here,” he stated. “I really didn’t have any problem walking the streets and talking to people because I was a Democrat. Once I was able to talk to people face-to-face I could see them listen. There is no real ideology from your party that comes into play at all in Slidell government.”
Morrison said he made 200 phone calls on Saturday morning trying to get his supporters out.
“People want to be heard and that is what I tried to do—meet them and listen to them. People want to know who their leadership is, and they like to meet you,” he said. “We did that the first time around and did well, and we will focus on that strategy again in the runoff.”
Disanti said his goal from the beginning was to make it a positive campaign, including public thanks to those who have served before him.
“Not only did we commit to a positive campaign, but I also wanted to thank the elected officials who have served up until now,” he said. “From here, we plan to keep that rolling the same way in the runoff.
“Our main message is safety for the public—both flood safety and protection, and public safety. We have an incredible police department and I want to support them in any way I can,” he added.
Early voting for the runoff will be held from April 16-23.