By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – There will be two runoffs still scheduled to decide positions from east St. Tammany in the Louisiana Legislature, but in the three other local races voters sent a clear message about who they wanted to represent them.
Former Louisiana Rep. Bob Owen will become the new senator in District #1 after he surprised many with an overwhelming victory over former state Rep. Ray Garofalo. Owen won the election with 65 percent of the vote, compared to only 35 percent for Garofalo.
Stephanie Berault won another runaway victory for the Legislature as she secured 79 percent of the vote for the District #76 seat in the House of Representatives, defeating Shawn Jones with 21 percent.
Berault, a first-time entry in politics, wasn’t your usual novice since she has worked on many campaigns previously, including U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, who came to Slidell for her meet-and-greet where he endorsed her.
“The fact I had been active in so many other campaigns got me a lot of help from people who wanted to return the favor,” Berault said. “And many of those people have already called to say they want to help prepare me for heading to the Legislature.”
Berault said she plans to take on the homeowners insurance problem in Louisiana, as well as address crime issues, as her top priorities.
“We’ve got to get help for people living in Louisiana with this insurance problem. A lot of people are electing to live in Mississippi and still work here since they can’t afford a house due to the homeowners costs,” she added.
In the District #104 House of Representatives election it was Jay Galle winning with 64 percent of the vote over John Raymond, who picked up 36 percent of the vote.
Two other seats in the House are still up for grabs in the Nov. 18 runoff as incumbent Mary DuBuisson will face off against Brian Glorioso in District #90, while Peter Egan will face Buffie Singletary in a runoff for the District #74 seat.
DuBuisson and Glorioso finished very close in their race, with DuBuisson leading in the primary with 48 percent of the vote, while Glorioso received 44 percent. The third entry, Heidi Alejandro-Smith, received 9 percent of the vote.
DuBuisson finished with 4,309 votes to 3,925 for Glorioso.
In the Pearl River-area District #74 election, Egan had 47 percent of the vote in the primary to come close to a victory, but now will face Singletary with 32 percent of the vote. Lou Dutel was the third entry there with 22 percent.
(Editor’s Note: It was incorrectly stated in an earlier story that Jay Galle did not respond to the Slidell Independent Candidate Profiles. Galle did respond and was published.)