Workplace tension is something a lot of us have to put up with. We may not like a particular coworker. They may not like us. You probably can relate in some way.
For Jefferson Parish councilman Scott Walker, the mood at council meetings for the past year have been less than ideal. Fellow councilman Dominick Impastato, who represents Council District 4 in Jefferson Parish, announced last year that he was seeking Walker’s At-large Division B seat.
Impastato was term limited. Two other council members were in similar situations.
All of that made for an interesting dynamic during council meetings. Coming off a convincing win over Impastato in last month’s election, Councilman Walker reflected on the past year with a bit of exhaustion.
“Tired. It was a long 11 months. My opponent declared against me last November and it makes for a long year. It’s a shame that you lose a year of your term after we kind of lost a year-and-a half of the first term with COVID then on the backend, you almost lose another year because of political foolishness.
As the council chairman this year, I run every meeting, so, everything you say is recorded and can and will be used against you. I ended up doing very well in this election, but the whole time there’s not a lot of real work that can get done, especially when you have four people on the council running against each other.
So, everybody has to kind of thump their chest a little bit, stand out and where you were maybe agreeable before you’re not as agreeable now. It just makes it challenging, but we got through it,” Councilman Walker told me.
Walker’s strategy to winning a second term in office didn’t follow the traditional political playbook, but he certainly followed his own. Walker said he didn’t worry about which endorsements came his way or which ones went to his opponent. He was comfortable with Impastato outspending him for political ads. He also paid little attention to what has been referred to as the “machine politics” in the parish. So, how was Walker able to win so handedly? Is it a sign of changes in JP politics? Listen to the conversation here.
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