When Baton Rouge voters went to the polls on Saturday, they mayhave seen several familiar names on the ballot.
Many candidates running for office this fall have been involvedin local politics for years, but one new name voters may have notrecognized was that of University senior Jason Wesley.
Despite his efforts to get his name recognized and votes to comehis way, Wesley, who was running for the District 12 Metro Councilseat, came up only 225 votes shy of advancing to November’s runoffelection.
Wesley said he thought he had a legitimate chance at the seat.His hopes were justified, as Louisiana has a record of electingyoung politicians. Sen. Mary Landrieu, Congressman Richard Bakerand state Rep. Louis “Woody” Jenkins all were elected to politicalpositions before the age of 25.
But Wesley’s campaign proved not all early risers to politicsfind success. He received 26 percent of the vote, coming in thirdbehind Mickey Skyring, who received 31 percent, and Greg Accardo,who received 29 percent.
Wesley came out ahead of local business owner Smokie Bourgeoisby 12 percent.
When Wesley first entered the race last spring, some thought hemay not have a chance in the election because of his age. ButWesley said he did not think it had a big impact.
Although Wesley said voters often inquired about his age andmarital status, he said most people actually listened to him andliked his message.
“Some voters probably wrote me off as a wasted vote because I amso young or because I’m a Democrat, but I wasn’t going to get thosevotes anyway,” Wesley said.
But getting his message out was not easy.
“We walked six days a week for nearly two months and spoke toabout 150 voters a day,” Wesley said. “We hit a lot of houses.”
He said he and 40 to 50 volunteers walked more than 70 percentof the district with a population of about 35,000.
After all that walking, a week before the election, Wesley saidhe felt confident.
He said there had been a lot of late nights and homework leftundone, but he was ready and thought he could make the runoff.
“I lost it on election day,” Wesley said. “The big dogs playedpolitics and I wasn’t ready.”
Wesley said he counted on getting the votes from thepredominately black Mayfair neighborhoods he had visited severaltimes during the campaign and on Saturday.
But Wesley said on Friday, Accardo had a free barbecue in theneighborhoods, and on Saturday, Accardo paid workers to wear hisT-shirts and pass out push cards.
Wesley said Accardo also bought his way on a sample ballot withstate Sen. Cleo Fields, who was running for Public ServiceCommission, and other candidates. Their campaign workers thenhanded out the ballots to voters on Saturday, Wesley said.
“He knew that was my base and went after it,” Wesley said ofAccardo. “That’s a good political move.”
For now, Wesley said he is okay, considering Saturday’sletdown.
Wesley said he thinks he ran a great campaign especially becausehe only lost to Accardo by 225 votes and spent about $36,000 lessthan him.
Now that the election is over, Wesley can go back to life as acollege student.
He said he is going to get a job and focus on graduating.
“Oh, I might go on a couple of dates this semester too,” hesaid.