After a contentious runoff election, Jefferson Parish voters selected Jaqueline “Jackie” Maloney to fill a vacant 24th Judicial District Court seat.
Maloney, who served as an assistant district attorney for 14 years in Orleans and Jefferson parishes before opening a private practice in 2012, received 55% of the vote with 10,501 votes. Her opponent, Lindsey Valenti, received 45%.
Just under 13% of the parish's voters turned out to the polls Saturday.
Maloney will fill the District D seat, succeeding Judge Scott Schlegel who left last year to take a post on Louisiana’s 5th Circuit Court of Appeal.
The judgeship race went to a runoff after no candidate in the primary election won more than 50% of the vote. Valenti received 39% of the vote, Maloney received 37% and a third Republican candidate, “Jerry” Smith, received 24%.
On the campaign trail, Maloney posited herself as the only candidate with adequate trial experience, while Valenti has argued that her experience with the sheriff's office managing multi-million dollar contracts and insurance prepared her for the job.
Most recently, Maloney was granted a temporary restraining order that barred Valenti’s campaign from running an ad that inaccurately claimed that Maloney had represented a client that was previously charged with raping a 9-year-old. That incident followed a back-and-forth with the Louisiana Judicial Campaign Oversight Committee that resulted in action against both campaigns.
Jefferson Parish voters also agreed to renew a 6.8-mill property tax that funds school district operations for ten more years. The tax has been on the books since 2004 and would have expired next year. Officials said it would generate $28.5 million in annual income for the school district.
A single Grand Isle town council seat made it to a runoff on Saturday. Grand Isle voters selected James Cheramie for the District A Town Council seat. He bested "Scooter" Resweber with 60% of the vote — 186 to 124 votes. Both candidates are Democrats. Grand Isle's voter turnout was 37%.