Democratic candidate Henry Whitehorn insists he remains the Caddo Parish Sheriff-elect. That’s despite election results are now voided and a new election was ordered by retired Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Joe Bleich, serving as an ad hoc judge in lawsuit proceedings in Caddo Parish District Court. The case all stems from a one-vote victory [from 43,241 votes] in the November 18 runoff election between Whitehorn and Republican John Nickelson.
He is now calling out his Democratic opponent for comments Whitehorn has recently made. Nickelson characterizes them as “dangerous and irresponsible.”
By last week, Whitehorn had been designated as “Caddo Parish Sheriff-elect.” That’s because election results showed Whitehorn received a single vote more than his Republican opponent.
Then, after a partial recount resulted in the same one-vote margin, Nickelson filed a lawsuit challenging the results and the rejection of his hand recount request, blamed on a concern about time constraints before the Thanksgiving holiday.
A one-day trial took place last week [Thursday, November 30] at the Caddo Parish Courthouse in downtown Shreveport. The judge then ordered legal briefs from both sides, Nickelson’s deadline came Saturday, and Whitehorn’s by Monday. By the next day [Tuesday, December 5] Bleich ruled in Nickelson’s favor, saying that trying to determine a winner, “defies logic.” The retired justice voided the election results and called for a new election.
Nickelson told us, “one of the most disappointing things to be released to the public in the past 24 hours is the press release my opponent put out, in which he [Whitehorn] continues to call himself ‘sheriff-elect’ and claims to have won the election two times already [referring to the partial, machine recount held on Monday, November 27]. He and his lawyers were in court last week, just as I was there with mine. They heard the same evidence we did. They received the court’s judgment. He knows that there is no winner of the election that occurred in November. And every time he says otherwise to the public, he’s just not being truthful with the public.”
Nickelson and others fear Whitehorn’s false claims of election victory could inspire a supporter to respond rashly, potentially even violently – especially if people come to see Whitehorn as a victim of some kind of conspiracy.
Along that same line of logic, some political observers have questioned exactly what Whitehorn meant, at the very end of his legal brief for the judge, when he wrote, “The voting was influenced by political and cultural considerations. To overturn this election promises to create tension among the electorate.”
The apparent warning has not set well with a number of analysts and observers who say the statement comes out of nowhere in this race.
So, Nickelson has a warning of his own for people who make false claims to generate public support. “It is dangerous and irresponsible to suggest that any of us, candidates or members of the public, other interested parties, would do anything other than to accept the court’s decision once a final decision is made.”
Once again, we reached out to Whitehorn and his campaign – and are still awaiting a response. Recently, responses by Whitehorn and his team have been made for all media at the same time. The special election to decide who will serve as the next sheriff in Caddo Parish is expected to be on the Louisiana Primary ballot for Saturday, March 23, 2024.
But all of this could change if the Second Circuit Court of Appeal agrees to hear Whitehorn’s case. If that proves unsuccessful, the next step would be to take the case to the Louisiana Supreme Court.
