A Man Who Inspires People

Lloyd Dennis

Lloyd Dennis 5.0

Election Ejection

Election Ejection


Several Years ago Congressperson elect, Troy Carter, was in the same way that Karen Carter Peterson finds herself now. He had lost the support of too many of the voters in his district and found himself out of office. He was an easy target. In our community people pointed out to then Troy Carter that we noticed that when we had community meetings, he would send his aid, but when the people in the French Quarter had a meeting he would show. We told him so, when he wondered out loud "what happened".

You see it is hard to keep your humility when people who need something from you continually treat you like you are something special. Most elected officials have a line of people waiting to kiss they're asses and it can really blur one's vision and distract you from the main thing, serving the interests of those who elected you, as defined by them, and being sure that they know. It's called constituent work and you have to show up in community to do it.

Jim Singleton was one of the best with constituents. If one of his voters was celebrating something special and invited Jim, he would come, walk the room and see and be seen, take some pictures with the honored guests, beg pardon for having to see some other people, take a plate of food and jump in his vehicle which was probably double parked outside. Jim always understood who punched his ticket. Constituent work is the cost for political power.

Even though I don't endorse candidates, put signs on my lawn or work with political candidates anymore, some, including Troy, have sought my opinions and what some call "wisdom". After being out of elected office for some time, he asked to talk to me about running for his current State Senate seat. We met, and only because he asked for honesty, I shared the opinion that he had forgotten that he was a servant. We had allowed him to exercise our power and he mistook it for his. He didn't argue. He explained that his election ejection had taught him several things, two of the most significant being that he had lost his servant leader humility and second that being out of office showed him that people who had been fawning over him, had little interest in him after we took our power back.

He satisfied me that he had matured through the process and has been much more accessible to constituents. Hopefully, he will take a page from Cedric's book and when not in session, be in church, roll through community events and circulate in places where people gather, maybe even let them buy him a drink. Congratulations Troy, but remember, forget who you work for and they will forget you.