Taffaro unseats Rodriguez for St. Bernard presidency

St. Bernard Parish Councilman Craig Taffaro Jr. won the parish
presidency Saturday, beating Henry "Junior" Rodriguez, who was
saddled with having to defend the parish's slow recovery from
Hurricane Katrina.

The race for the presidency had become increasingly bitter in the
final weeks of the campaign, as Rodriguez's camp unleashed a barrage
of newspaper advertisements trying to cast Taffaro as a self-serving
politician who blocked Rodriguez's recovery efforts for political
purposes.

But just as they had during the Oct. 20 primary, when Taffaro led the
five-candidate field and nearly won the office outright, voters
largely weren't buying Rodriguez's message and swept Taffaro into
office with 59 percent of the vote, bringing to a halt Rodriguez's 32-
year run in elected office.

"This is a win, not for me, but for you and all of St. Bernard
Parish," Taffaro told his supporters gathered in the Sicilian Room at
Rocky and Carlo's in Chalmette. "I am no more than an instrument in
this process of rebirth."

In St. Bernard Parish's other featured political race -- this one
every bit as nasty as the Rodriguez-Taffaro contest -- voters
returned Sheriff Jack Stephens to office.

Stephens defeated Larry Landry, an insurance salesman and former
justice of the peace, by more than 1,400 votes. That's a much more
comfortable margin than in 2003 when Landry came within 115 votes of
unseating Stephens, who has held the office since 1984.

With both candidates in agreement that the parish is largely devoid
of violent crime, the issues of the campaign became personal.

Landry, 54, of Chalmette, hammered away at Stephens, calling him an
absent sheriff, questioning Stephens' St. Bernard Parish residency
and making note of an expensive home the sheriff's wife recently
purchased in Mandeville. Stephens parried with questions of his own
about Landry's performance as a justice of the peace, where he was
suspended in 2001, and Landry's 29-year-old son, Maxwell, who was
charged by federal authorities in April with conspiracy to distribute
more than 500 grams of cocaine.

Stephens, 58, who lives in Shell Beach, worked to remind voters of
St. Bernard's relatively low crime rate, often emphasizing the murder
rate in neighboring New Orleans. He said he does not plan any major
changes in the way he runs the office.

Saturday marked the second consecutive runoff Rodriguez had faced for
the parish president's post. Unlike the 2003 runoff, when he beat
Scott Wolfe to win his first term, Rodriguez was unable to fend off
Taffaro's challenge.

Seeking to put the best face on Saturday night's defeat, staffers at
Rodriguez's headquarters in Chalmette unfurled a banner that
said, "Happy retirement, Junior.'

"We're having a happy retirement party," Rodriguez said. "I'm going
to start enjoying life again."

Taffaro, 42, alluded to the bitterly fought campaign in his victory
speech.

"Unfortunately, there were forces in this election that tried to
divide the parish again," he said. "But those forces were crushed
tonight."

Taffaro, a self-employed psychotherapist from Meraux, pounded the
Rodriguez administration during the campaign about the slow pace of
hurricane recovery. Taffaro characterized the president as an
absentee leader, claiming he missed countless meetings with the
council and had failed to move forward with FEMA-approved projects
worth tens of millions of dollars.

Rodriguez, who had won eight consecutive elections dating to 1975,
complained that Taffaro and other members of the Parish Council had
derailed many of his recovery efforts by micromanaging his
administration. Rodriguez said his efforts the past two years have
laid the foundation for long-term recovery.

Taffaro, who fell 32 votes short of winning the race in the primary,
is completing his second term representing the council's District D.
He held the post from 1996-2000 and won it again in 2003. In 1999 he
lost the race for an at-large council seat to Rodriguez.

Taffaro has called for fast-tracking recovery projects for which FEMA
has obligated money, having an internal auditor to oversee parish
finances and using a computerized system to track public complaints
to ensure they are resolved.

PARISH PRESIDENT

36 of 36 precincts | Votes | Pct.

Craig Taffaro Jr.-R | 6,545 | 59

Junior Rodriguez-N | 4,518 | 41

SHERIFF

36 of 36 precincts | Votes | Pct.

Jack Stephens-D | 6,258 | 56

Larry Landry-N | 4,855 | 44