MONROE, La. – Ouachita Parish Police Juror Scotty Robinson sat down with KNOE on Friday to talk about his campaign for the Louisiana Congressional District 5 seat.
“I’m your local guy who knows he can go to Washington and work for you. I’m a businessman. I’m a dad,” he said.
Robinson currently serves as the police juror for District A. He served as the Jury’s president from 2015-2018 and was also recently sworn in as president of the statewide Louisiana Police Jury Association.
Robinson said he was planning to run regardless of who was in the race. However, after incumbent Rep. Ralph Abraham announced his decision to not seek reelection, Robinson said things started to speed up.
“We’re moving forward maybe a little faster than we were, you know, a lot of phone calls, you know,” he said. “And some folks that I had talked with about my campaign in the past were wanting to wait and see what he was actually gonna do, and now that he’s announced that he’s out we’ve had a lot more support coming in, people saying ‘Now that we know for sure, we’re with ya.'”
Robinson said he’s running as “the local guy that you can count on,” someone who gives out his phone number so people can come to him with their problems. He said that won’t change if he goes to Washington.
“Everyone on my staff’s gonna know, you answer every phone call. You call everybody back. Even if we have bad news or it’s something they don’t want to hear. I want to talk to everybody. I need to hear from the people,” he said.
Robinson said he favors smaller government, and he wants to work on local issues, mentioning infrastructure, water issues, and addressing farmers’ needs as examples.
He said his work on the police jury has given him experience dealing with a range of issues, and he thinks he’ll work well with others.
“I like to tell people ‘Potholes aren’t Democrat or Republican.’ I happen to be a Republican but, what we deal with, the people that call me don’t call and say ‘This is who I voted for and can you help me.’ It has nothing to do with politics. I tell people I love public service, I don’t necessarily love the politics sometimes, you know? I want to go to work,” he said.
Sandra “Candy” Christophe from Alexandria has also announced her campaign for the seat. KNOE has reached out to Christophe but has not yet heard back.
