Parish Leaders Embrace Sawyer for Congress

Press Release

Parish officials and community leaders used to working with former U.S. Rep. Richard Baker are now turning to his former chief of staff as the best alternative to replace him.

Paul Sawyer of Baton Rouge, who worked 16 years for Baker as the man behind the scenes on critical appropriations battles for the Juban Road interchange and the Comite River Diversion Canal, is running for the vacant seat of his former boss against a sizeable field.

Wednesday the Republican picked up some key support in Livingston Parish where he has campaigned over the past two weeks, including the endorsements of Parish President Mike Grimmer and former Denham Springs Mayor Jim DeLaune.

Grimmer said that while he was urged by supporters to consider running for Congress, he finds Sawyer to be a better alternative. As he did for Gov. Bobby Jindal when he was a candidate, Democrat Grimmer is crossing party lines to support the Republican Sawyer.

"I forget the Republican-Democrat issue when it comes to what's good for the parish," Grimmer told a dining room packed with Sawyer supporters at Sharp's Restaurant in Denham Springs.

"I have known Paul Sawyer for several years in his career serving the Louisiana 6th Congressional District and Richard Baker," Grimmer wrote in an endorsement statement. "Paul is now running for election as our next Congressional Representative and is without a doubt the strongest and the most qualified candidate in the race."

Sawyer had hands-on involvement in getting funds for local highway projects and plans to seek a post on the House Transportation Committee if elected.

"I can hit the ground running," Sawyer said during an interview at the News office last week. "I'm not going to have to build new relationships."

The main selling point for the 38-year-old is his familiarity with Washington as well as the needs in the 6th District.

"Washington is such a small town, it doesn't matter who the next president will be, I know them all (the staffers working in government). I also know what the people in the 6th District want and I've been getting it for them."

Next year will be critical for local highway projects since the transportation bill funding such work across the nation comes up for renewal in 2009.

Sawyer said he will continue to work to get funding for an interchange at I-12 and Pete's Highway and an extension of Juban Road to Lockhart Road. That last promise has won over community leader Gerald Burns, chairman of the Juban North Association, a community organization campaigning for that project.

Julie Dyason-Norris, a local business owner and community activist, has worked with Baker's office on transportation issues as well as seeking reform of the rules used by the Army Corps of Engineers to regulate land use through the expensive and time-consuming process of wetlands permits. She also sees Sawyer as the best choice for parish Republican voters on March 8.

Grimmer and parish Grants coordinator Karla Cormier said Sawyer's intricate understanding of the political process was the reason he was able to obtain a federal grant for the parish to begin an extensive GIS mapping project, a necessary component in modernization of infrastructure and economic development.

Grimmer also noted the recent loss of several lawmakers leaves the Louisiana delegation weaker on seniority than it has ever been.

"I'm nervous about future funding for our area because we're losing so much seniority," Baker said.

Sawyer joked that his 16 years as an aide to Baker gives him more seniority than the entire state delegation, with the exception of indicted Congressman William Jefferson.

DeLaune, also a Democrat, said he is eager to endorse Sawyer as a way of paying him back for all the good things he has done for Livingston Parish.

Sawyer in turn complimented the parish leaders for their part in making his job easier.

"You don't sit back on your couch and wait for your problems to be fixed," he said. "That's what makes it so rewarding to work with Livingston Parish."

Sawyer is also committed to seeing the Comite Diversion Canal project to completion. Political infighting between bureaucracies in Washington has been a problem, but Sawyer said he will be there to remind Katrina-conscious
public servants that flooding in the Amite River Basin is huge catastrophe waiting to happen as well.

"The biggest flood in Louisiana history was in 1983 in this area," Sawyer said. "Somebody has to be there to remind them it will happen again. We need the Comite Diversion Canal."

While the project has been under construction since 2003, various emergencies from the war in Iraq to Katrina-based flooding in the New Orleans area have slowed the needed funding to stay on schedule.

Sawyer, a Catholic High School and SMU graduate with a master's degree in English from Johns Hopkins, said he has been fascinated by government service since taking a family trip to Washington, D.C., as a teenager.

He is a traditionally conservative Republican on most issues, with the following positions in his campaign:

- Pro-life/pro traditional marriage
- Pro-Second Amendment
- For building a strong national defense
- For lower taxes on working families
- For conservative Supreme Court justices
- For a balanced budget amendment
- For a strong domestic energy policy
- For protecting Social Security
- For affordable healthcare and against socialized healthcare
- For a regulated alien worker program and against amnesty for illegal aliens
- For investment in technical training
- For student vouchers and charter schools

Sawyer is married to the former Lisa Folse of Raceland and the Sawyers have two young children, daughter Gillian and son Holden.

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