[Editor’s Note: This is a continuing series profiling all candidates seeking political office in the Bossier Parish elections coming up this Fall.]
In the upcoming October 14, 2023 election, Bossier Parish residents in Louisiana House of Representatives District 9 will vote on who they want to represent them as their state representative in Baton Rouge for the next four years. The district map for Louisiana House of Representatives District 9 spans an area from the Caplis Sligo Road/Hwy. 527 area in Southwestern Bossier Parish (bordered by the Red River to the west and the Webster Parish line to the east) moving slightly north of Barksdale Air Force Base up to the intersection of I-220 and Swan Lake Road in Bossier City, continuing northeast from there up to Louisiana Highway 162 in Benton and then continuing east along Louisiana Highways 157 and 528 to the Webster Parish line.
In the race for District 9 state representative, voters will choose between incumbent “Dodie” Horton (R-Haughton) and “Chris” Turner (R-Haughton).
“Dodie” Horton:
Horton, a native of northwest Louisiana, is married to Gary Horton, a life-long resident of Haughton and a retired member of the Shreveport Fire Department. The couple has been married for over 30 years. They have three daughters and four grandchildren.
In January 2016, Horton succeeded Henry Burns (R), who left the House District 9 seat after two terms in order to seek the District 36 seat in the Louisiana State Senate. Horton served as Burns’ legislative assistant during his two terms as District 9 state representative (2008-2016).
Horton is a founding member of the Louisiana Conservative Caucus. And, she is a ranking member of the Labor and Industrial Relations Committee; the Transportation, Highways, and Public Works Committee; the House and Governmental Affairs Committee and the House Select Committee on Women and Children. Horton is also the chairwoman of the Legislative Bureau of the Louisiana State Legislature.
Questions:
- Why do you want to run for the political office you are seeking?
I am currently serving as State Representative for District 9, finishing my second term. So, I am running for my last and final term in office.
- If elected, please tell us what your priorities will be?
Going into my last term, my priorities are to first address the crime that plagues our cities/ communities and state.
Push responsible and effective Tort reform so that our state can begin to lower our auto and homeowners insurance rates. Working together with our new Republican Governor and newly elected Insurance Commissioner, adopting best practices from around the country we should be able to accomplish our goal. Many moving parts but by working with a coalition of experts/ business professionals/ citizens, we can increase competition which drives down our rates.
Need to cut red tape/ deregulate burdensome laws that make it hard for businesses to thrive.
Address juvenile crime/ need more facilities to house juveniles who have committed crimes – facilities that will provide the educational tools and mental health support they need in order to equip them to become productive citizens. We must provide them a way to rise above their circumstances, giving them hope and a future.
Work towards eliminating the state income tax. I am currently working with many of my colleagues on this issue. Must put a package of bills together that rewards success and allows more local tax dollars to remain local.
Also will pass legislation that will allow more of our locally collected severance taxes to remain local so the severance taxes that are collected can be used in the parish to fix roads/ infrastructure needs.
- There are several issues that are important to Bossier residents: transportation, economic development, infrastructure, etc. How will you go about ensuring that these issues of importance are addressed in your area and in Bossier Parish?
In order to provide an equitable way to prioritize our state’s infrastructure needs, we first must reform the Capital Outlay process. Each district should receive tax dollars based on transportation/ infrastructure priorities apart from the administration’s political agenda. For years, the Capital Outlay process has been used by administrations to buy votes/ and or to punish those legislators who refuse to be bought or compromise their district’s values or principles. For example, my district does not support the sales tax increases that the current administration sought to pass. I was told that if I did not vote in favor of the tax increases, they in turn would withhold infrastructure dollars from us. Far too many legislators go to Baton Rouge with the intent of voting for the wishes of the constituents district but when faced with immense pressure to conform to the demands of leadership (although the people they represent are adamantly against a particular proposal), they succumb to the pressure, due to fear of reprisal. This all must end!
Our district received over $205 million in completed infrastructure/ road/ bridge repairs. We secured one of five mega projects which is the funding for a new four lane Jimmie Davis Bridge. This is a huge economic development project. The contract has been awarded and is currently in the design phase.
The long awaited reconstruction of Interstate 20 through Bossier City will break ground on September 18th. I am grateful for the teamwork it took from our city/ parish and our state delegation which finally enabled this long awaited project to come to fruition.
I will continue to utilize my experience, relationships and knowledge of the legislative process to ensure that our tax dollars return to us in order to fund our future infrastructure projects.
- Why should someone vote for you?
I should be re-elected to serve my last and final term in office because I have the experience and a proven conservative voting record that proves beyond a shadow of doubt that I have truly been the voice of our people. I have never placed the demands of government over the will of our friends and neighbors that I serve. I have been endorsed by every conservative group that supports smaller government, individual liberties, small businesses, all industries including Oil and Gas, Timber, Logging, Transport carriers, the railroad association, the restaurant association, realtors, NRA and more. I have earned these endorsements due to a consistent voting record. I have voted/ co-authored pro-life legislation, constitutional carry, election integrity bills, pro-veteran legislation, police /fire/first responder pay increases / benefit increases / teacher pay increases/ paid down retirement debt and opposed tax increases and over regulation of businesses and various industries.
Going into my last term, serving alongside the new Republican Governor, I will have a leadership position that will greatly benefit our district/ Bossier City/ Bossier Parish.
For eight years, you have trusted me to be your voice in Baton Rouge and to serve you here at home. I am asking for your continued and loyal support to serve you for my final term in office. It is my sincere and expressed honor to serve you. Thank you for your consideration.
“Chris” Turner:
Turner has been married to his wife Cathy for over 30 years. They have two children, Will and Abby, who are both Louisiana Tech Engineering graduates and both work in the oil and gas industry in our area. All four members of the Turner family are graduates of Haughton High School. Cathy Turner is the principal at Platt Elementary School in Haughton. Chris Turner is a graduate of Bossier Parish Community College and LSU-Shreveport.
Turner is a retired U.S. Marshal and former Louisiana State Trooper, with over 30 years of experience in law enforcement. He served for nine years in the Louisiana Army National Guard. Turner was called to active duty and deployed to the Middle East for the Gulf War.
During his law enforcement career with the state police, he primarily worked highway drug interdiction and was on the SWAT team. During his 25 years with the U.S. Marshals Service, he worked in a lot of different programs. He helped to hide protected witnesses, protected U.S. Supreme Court Justices and threatened terrorist judges.
He led investigations for criminals on the 15 Most Wanted List and spent a large portion of his career chasing violent fugitives.
Later in his career, he was assigned to one of our four national Incident Management Teams, where he was eventually promoted to team chief of Team #3.
After his retirement, he and a friend opened Station 80 Daiquiris, Spirits and Specialty Meats on Highway 80 in the Haughton area.
Turner and his family attend First Baptist Church in Haughton.
Questions:
- Why do you want to run for the political office you are seeking?
Multiple statewide polls have shown that out of control crime rates in our state are the number one concern of voters. I will bring a unique background to the floor of the house that doesn’t currently exist, 30 years of “tip of the spear” law enforcement experience arresting the worst of the worst violent fugitive criminals across two-thirds of our state. I intimately understand Louisiana crime problems and know what needs to be done legislatively to help law enforcement officers on the street. Sadly, our current legislature passed a crime bill package in 2017 called the “Justice Reinvestment Act” or “JRA”. This ten bill package emptied a large number of prison beds in the Department of Corrections and allowed over $20 million a year to be siphoned away from critical public safety functions. The age of an adult as related to criminal prosecution was changed from 17 to 18 even though a large number of violent shooting crimes are being committed by 17 year-olds. Length of sentences were dropped drastically down to 25-35% on a lot of crimes and even some violent crimes such as car jackings. Effectively, a person convicted of carjacking in our state (by the time they go to trial) can now be sentenced to time-served and released back out on the streets in less than two years. My opponent “walked” her vote and was absent on two of these bills (HB249, HB680) which is apparently a common tactic used by legislators when they don’t want there to be a record of their vote on hot button issues. She voted to pass four of them (HB489, HB519, HB681, SB16) and voted against the last three (SB139, SB220, SB221).
Bossier Parish and District 9 continue to miss out on critical infrastructure funding. In the 2022 session, we lost out on a share of over $600 million in surplus funds and this year we personally lost over $170 million for critical projects such as the Haughton water system, Priority 1 road projects around the parish and $140 million alone in funding for the crumbling Jimmie Davis Bridge. All of this money will have to be put back into the budget at some point which could be detrimental, as we likely won’t see surpluses like we’ve had again. This will require working closely with other legislators to make this happen in the future, something which with my years of effective law enforcement leadership I will be well suited to do. Let me be crystal clear. I DO NOT support raising taxes, believe in fair flat taxes and would fully support any effort to do away with our state income tax. If we are to compete with surrounding states to draw in and keep businesses, we are at some point going to have to eliminate state income taxes. Rest assured all of this can be done without compromising on my core Christian beliefs and conservative principles.
- If elected, please tell us what your priorities will be?
If District 9 voters put their trust in me, my priorities will be to immediately tackle crime problems in this area by building a working group of other legislators, law enforcement leadership, district attorneys, judges, public defenders and clerk’s office personnel in order to build a strong crime bill package to address serious issues like transparency in sentencing, new sentencing guidelines, adult age determination, speedy trial logjams, and even constitutional carry (which has to get passed soon). I promise you all the bad guys are already carrying concealed weapons. It’s well past time for law abiding citizens to exercise the right to protect themselves and others around them. I will also work to identify the smartest people I can to help me work to figure out what can be done to address our skyrocketing insurance rates. I’m convinced there has to be a lot of give from both the insurance companies and trial lawyers so we can get it down to a level that is fair to the consumer. High insurance rates are effectively taking groceries (and even prescription medicines) off some struggling taxpayer’s tables.
- There are several issues that are important to Bossier residents: transportation, economic development, infrastructure, etc. How will you go about ensuring that these issues of importance are addressed in your area and in Bossier Parish?
Our roads are in pitiful shape and we are not a business friendly state. We must make these real priorities. I would support the establishment of a state “road board” similar to what they have in Virginia (Virginia Commonwealth Transportation Board) where for the most part, an independent body determines what road projects get funded based on multiple factors such as damage and usage. We have got to get the politics out of funding road projects and we have to instill ethics and integrity into that process. We’ve got to become more small business friendly and loosen restrictions and laws that discourage business development. As a small business owner, I ask other small business owners if they’ve ever been contacted by any government entity offering to help them get set up and running? While well intended, they instead go after the big companies dangling massive incentive packages with promises of lots of jobs in return. In addition, we need to work with small business owners and try to help them grow their business from four to eight employees. As the former president of Haughton Athletics, I worked as part of a great team where we successfully got the Lawson Bo Brandon Sports Complex built. Projects like this are critical to building great communities where people want to live and raise families.
- Why should someone vote for you?
The old adage of “the definition of insanity” is doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results applies perfectly to politics. Louisiana has three of the deadliest cities in per capita violent crime. After the last car insurance rate hike, we now likely have the highest car insurance rates in the country. Add to that our crumbling roads and other neglected infrastructure projects and then listen to our elected officials make excuses and point fingers at others for their inability to get important things done for our state. I’m results driven. I will hold myself to high standards and will use my extensive law enforcement experience to help fix our state.