A wide variety of choices await voters

Ten candidates qualified in Shreveport’s mayoral race last week – Anna Marie Arpino, Temecius Dixon, Steven Jackson, Kenneth Krefft, Adrian Perkins, Jeron Rogers, Lee O. Savage, Jim Taliaferro, Ollie Tyler and John-Paul Young.

If voters want a wide variety of choices, this slate indeed provides just that.

Five candidates are white – Arpino, Krefft, Savage, Taliaferro and Young.

Five candidates registered as Democrats – Dixon, Jackson, Perkins, Rogers and Tyler.

Two candidates registered as Republicans – Savage and Taliaferro.

Two candidates registered as No Party – Krefft and Young.

One candidate registered as Independent – Arpino.

Two are elected officials – Jackson and Tyler. Two have been unsuccessful candidates – Krefft and Taliaferro.

Two candidates listed a P.O. box as their address – Aprino and Jackson. The qualification form allows this choice versus a home address.

Four candidates do not own the residence where they live – Dixon, Jackson, Perkins and Taliaferro. (Four candidates for the city council also do not own the house where they live – Quinton Aught, Joseph Carstensen, Cortez Collins and Levette Fuller.)

Two candidates are 32 (Jackson and Perkins). Young is 35, Dixon is 47, Arpino is 60, Rogers and Savage are 64, Taliaferro is 65, Kreft is 70, and Tyler is 73.

Yes, there are plenty of measurable differences between the candidates.

Some observers view this year’s mayor’s race as the “old guard” versus the “new wave."

Other see it as a race between contenders and pretenders.

This “scorecard’ should give one a start in deciding which horse to bet on in the mayor’s race. Or which nags should have stayed in the stable and not bothered to saddle up.

John E. Settle Jr. has been a resident of Shreveport since January 1977. His articles appear regularly in local publications. He can be reached at 742-5513 or e-mail to: John@jesettle.com.