By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – Slidell City Court Judge Jim Lamz was re-elected to his seat on the local court in a landslide vote on Tuesday, winning with 71 percent of the vote against his lone opponent.
Lamz, who was first elected to be Slidell’s city judge in 2004, was attacked on several fronts in local advertising by challenger d’Andrea Chatman, a Slidell attorney.
However, Lamz declined to ever respond to the criticism and ran on his record of establishing a strong Juvenile Drug Court, where he pointed to many instances of giving first-time offenders a “second chance at a better future,” while he also promoted the fact he has run the court without a financial deficit since he took over in ’04.
Lamz also created his own GED program when state funding was cut and threatened to end the local opportunity for those seeking a high school degree. And perhaps one of his more controversial victories was when he fought the ACLU to keep a picture of Jesus Christ in the Slidell courtroom.
Lamz initially won an election in 2004 to fill the final four years of an unexpired seat on the Slidell court, before he won his first full six-year term in 2008 unopposed.
In that ’04 race, Chatman also entered as one of six candidates, but finished fifth and did not challenge Lamz again in 2008.
But the 2014 election for the next six-year term brought a barrage of criticism from Chatman towards Lamz that touched on the firing of a deputy marshal in the court, along with other questions. Lamz declined to respond to those questions and ran on his record the entire campaign.
“It’s a shame that some people think you cannot run a positive campaign and still win,” Lamz said on Tuesday night. “We ran a dignified campaign and our community deserved that.”
In the end with all 64 precincts reporting, Lamz was overwhelming re-elected with 19,927 votes for 71 percent, with Chatman receiving 8,263 votes for 29 percent.
Lamz added that “I want to thank our volunteers, who worked tirelessly, especially my wife. I look forward to getting back to helping children and families in crisis.”