DA Taylor wins fourth term; Caswell, Meche get district judgeships

St. Landry voters said resoundingly in Tuesday's primary that they are satisfied with how District Attorney Earl Taylor administers his office, re-electing him to a fourth six-year term.
Taylor had 58.9 percent of the vote in his re-election race against former District Judge Ellis Daigle, a margin considered surprisingly wide by most observers.
Daigle tried to convince votes that Taylor's policies allow too many accused criminals to escape equitable punishment; Taylor countered that was not so, and that his office was as concerned about victims as it is about criminals.
Both candidates spent in the neighborhood of $200,000 to persuade the electorate to their point of view.
In contests for district court judgeships, Gerard Caswell won the Eunice-based subdistrict with 74.8 percent of the vote over Scherri Guidry. He will fill the post vacated by Daigle in January. Justin Meche got 69 percent of the vote to Frnk Olivier's 31 percent in the race to fill seat formerly held by the late Judge Donald Hebert.