Running for Office: City Court Judge Division E
Lawyer Cliff Ivey is seeking the Division E seat on Baton Rouge City Court in the Nov. 6 election.
The election district includes the southern and eastern parts of the city.
Ivey faces incumbent Judge Suzan S. Ponder and candidate Tiffany Foxworth.
Ivey and Ponder are Republicans. Foxworth is running as a Democrat.
“I have dedicated my entire life to our community, never once thinking that I might someday be seeking a seat on the Baton Rouge City Court,” Ivey, 39, said in a prepared release.
“But, as I watch more and more of our neighborhoods become training grounds for young criminals and victims of crime, I realize much, much more must be done to protect our families and also prepare our young people for a better future.”
Ivey was born and reared in Baton Rouge by his mother, a public high school teacher, and father, a Baton Rouge police officer.
Ivey lives only a few blocks from his childhood home in Kenilworth, attended Runnels and McKinley middle schools and graduated from McKinley Senior High School.
Ivey, who earned his law degree from LSU’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center, served as a law enforcement officer with the Baton Rouge Police Department and the Pointe Coupee Parish and West Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s offices.
“I realize this race will not be an easy one to win, but I am working every neighborhood, walking door to door, and everywhere I go and virtually everyone I speak with is encouraging me. People want a change in the way their City Court and judge operate. We cannot simply incarcerate our way out of our problems. If we could, Baton Rouge would be crime-free,” he said.
“The seat does not belong to one person. It belongs to the people, the families of Baton Rouge. They want a judge who will work tirelessly, every day of the week.
They want a judge who is strong, who is fair and who has not made up his or her mind before the case even begins,” he added.
“They want a judge who will give people before the City Court a hand up, rather than a shove down. “That is the kind of judge I will be if elected.”