By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – The political landscape in St. Tammany Parish has certainly changed in recent years, with several of the top ranking public officials being removed by voters.
Jennifer “Hap” Werther is hoping this is the time for the Libertarian Party to make its move in St. Tammany and be among the new faces represented on the North Shore.
Werther, 48, is running for sheriff in St. Tammany for the Oct. 24 election, taking on incumbent Jack Strain, Slidell Chief of Police Randy Smith and former U.S. Customs agent Scott Illing.
She acknowledges she has plenty of work to do since she has never been at the forefront of the political scene and has never run for office before.
But after getting involved in the growing Libertarian Party nearly four years ago, she has watched the organization put forth more-and-more entries into the political scene across the country, and now wants to be one of those people to step forward in St. Tammany Parish.
“I got involved with the party in 2012 because I agreed with their agenda of fighting for our civil liberties and being fiscally conservative,” the longtime Lacombe resident said. “I think they are the best of both worlds (referring to Republicans and Democrats).”
Werther served for 23 years in the U.S. Navy after signing up at the age of 17. She retired in 2007 and has worked several different jobs, also becoming active in the volunteer world with groups such as Louisiana Spirit, Volunteers of America and parish government.
She returned to college and finished a degree at Tulane in Information Technology and currently works as an IT instructor, but only as a part-time job, which gives her the needed time to run for sheriff.
“I realize I’m the underdog, but I’m still confident,” she said. “I have a lot of backing, especially through the Libertarian Party. When I go out and talk to people they want change, and they don’t want someone who has been in office for 20 or 30 years.”
Since getting involved with the Libertarian Party, Werther said she has attended different national and state conventions and seen more candidates from her organization entering elections across the country. It got her thinking about what public office she could hold in St. Tammany, where she has lived most of her life.
“I went to a convention in Alabama and there were three people running for sheriff as Libertarian candidates,” she said. “We’re always looking for qualified candidates and I thought the sheriff’s job here fit me since I have the military service.”
As for changes in the current Sheriff’s Office she said she would “return our parish to more of a small town jail. I would send the state prisoners back to the state. The only reason we take them here is for the money.”
Even though she acknowledges “crime is pretty good here now” she said she wants “more attention to violent crime that goes on around here. I also think we need more attention to getting recovered theft items back to the original owners.”
Werther said she would start a public campaign to educate people about documenting all their personal goods, in the event they are stolen.
“But my primary goal is violent crime,” she said. “It’s what the police are there for.”
She also said she wanted to remove “the corruption from the parish” even though current Sheriff Jack Strain has never been charged with any ethical or criminal wrongdoing in his 20 years in office.
“I realize there is no evidence of coverups in this department, but I still want to remove all the corruption in our parish,” she added.
Werther graduated from Slidell High in 1984 and said she always wanted to be a policeman “since it’s about serving the public.”
In the Navy she served as a Cryptologic Technician and in Communications, participating in the Gulf War among many other stops in her 23 year career—20 of it in active duty after she was in the reserve right out of high school.
“The sheriff’s job fits me,” she said. “We need to take the huge government out of the department—not buying all this land and building all these big buildings—and that’s what the Libertarian Party stands for.”
Werther is single.