QUALIFYING ENDS: Dragna, 2 council members are in; 3 council races coming

Morgan City Mayor Lee Dragna and two City Council members will return to office after a qiualifying period that also set up three council races.

One St. Mary School Board race will also appear on the Nov. 5 ballot.

Qualifying ended at 4:30 p.m. Friday.

Dragna qualified without opposition to return to City Hall for a second term. Tim Hymel in District 1 and Steve Domangue in District 4 also qualified alone.

The City Council races:

--Eriq Blanchard was a Friday qualifier to run against incumbent Lou Tamporello in District 5.

--Julia "Blaze" Johnson qualified to run against incumbent Councilman the Rev. Ron Bias in District 3.

--Councilwoman Bonnie Leonard is being challenged in District 2 by Jean Paul Bourg.

Interim School Board member Guienzy Brent qualified to run for the District 1 seat she's held since the death in December of longtime member Joseph Foulcard. She'll be running against Don A Foulcard Jr. Both candidates are from Franklin.

In U.S. House District 3, which now covers all of St. Mary Parish, four-term incumbent Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Lafayette, has three challengers: Lafayette Democrat Priscilla Gonzales, Lafayette Republican "Xan" John and Westlake Democrat Sadi Summerlin.

Assumption Parish is now in U.S. House District 2. There, incumbent Rep. Troy Carter, D-New Orleans, is running for re-election against New Orleans Democrat Devin Davis, Gonzales Republican Devin Lance Graham, New Orleans Republican Christy Lynch and St. Rose Republican Shondrell Perrilloux.

Early voting will be Oct. 18-29, excluding the two Sundays during that period. The deadline to register to vote in person or my mail in time for Nov. 5 is Oct. 7. You can register until Oct. 15 using the GeauxVote online system.