The decision by many veteran East Baton Rouge Metro Council members not to run for re-election has opened the Metro Council to a new generation of leadership.
One of these impressive new leaders is Ronnie Edwards who is running in district 5, for Charles Kelly current seat.
District five is a north Baton Rouge district that is primarily African-American.
Even though this is the first time that Edwards has run for political office, she is no stranger to Baton Rouge politics. She is a closely associated with State Senator Sharon Weston Broome and has helped managed all of Broome’s campaigns. Edwards is the founding executive director for Broome’s non-profit Urban Restoration Enhancement Corp. that has been helping people to obtain homes for the last fifteen years.
In District 5, there are five people running for office. Edwards is the only candidate that is funded. She has raised over $15,000 in contributions and on her latest financial report, she reported that she had over $8,000 of cash on hand. Her opponents have only raised a small fraction of that amount and according to financial reports they have no cash on hand for the final phase of the campaign.
Edwards has not only raised that amount of money she knows how to spend her money effectively to get her elected. She knows how to identify her vote and get her vote out on Election Day.
Even though there are five people running for that office because of money and hard smart work it is very possible that she will win in the first primary.
If Edwards can win on October 4th this opens up Edwards and Senator Broome to get involved in other Metro Council races and help those candidates that are friendly to Edwards/Broome.
Ronnie Edwards has good political instincts and is very intelligent but more than that, she knows how to bring people together of all races. She sees can see the bigger picture while representing her District very effectively.
One of the first actions of the new council will be voting for a Mayor Pro-Tem. Mike Walker has expressed an interest in this job and I would except that Bones Addison if he wins would be interest in the job also. Both men are veterans to the Metro Council and both men carry baggage to the Metro Council.
Typically, the election for Mayor Pro-Tem falls between race lines of white conservative republicans verses black democrats. Mike Walker and Bones Addison are both leaders for their respective camps. Mike Walker with a relatively easy race has been helping in other Metro Council candidate’s races and will be more active in the general election. However, the new Metro Council in January will want to have their own leadership and will want to cut from the past that could leave both Walker and Addison out. This could set up for a compromise candidate and Ronnie Edwards could be the one who unites whites and blacks, republicans and democrats.
But, the story behind the store of Ronnie Edwards is that State Senator Broone is building her political machine to run for a bigger office. Maybe Mayor in four years?
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