The Washington Parish School Board will have a new member from District 4 following John Breland’s win over incumbent Linda Thomas in Saturday’s election.

Breland garnered 662 (67.62 percent) votes to 317 for Thomas, who was appointed to the seat following her husband’s election as parish president.

In Franklinton, it was a Democratic sweep for the town council as voters chose five aldermen from a field of seven candidates.

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Richard Dillon led all candidates with 601 (17.48 percent) votes, followed by John Daniel with 569 (16.55 percent), T.J. Butler with 560 (16.28 percent), Brad Orman with 497 (14.45 percent) and Florence Manning with 429 (12.47 percent). Just missing election was Republican Wayne Bryant, who had 426 votes, while Franklinton High School principal Beverly Young finished seventh with 357 votes.

In other elections in the parish, Willie Spears defeated Edgar Jenkins 460-256 in the election for constable, Justice of the Peace Ward 8 while Gilbert Hartzog beat Paul Scott 53-32 in the race for police chief in Angie.

Also in Angie, Roxie Fornea (66 votes), Gilbert Ball (64 votes) and Bryan Stogner (46 votes) were elected as aldermen in Angie. Garnet Fornea finished fourth with 64 votes.

State and federal elections

In Congressional District 1, Jim Harlan may have beaten perennial candidate Vinny Mendoza, 37,878 to 14,252, but he was running against incumbent Steve Scalise. In Washington Parish, Harlan won by a wider margin, 3,822 votes to 939 votes.

In the race for the District 1 seat on the Public Service Commission, former commissioner John Schwegmann led the voting Saturday and will face attorney Eric Skrmetta in the general election on Nov. 4.

In 1981, Schwegmann succeeded his father on the commission and served for 15 years before being defeated by Jay Blossman in 1996. Blossman, who had come under increasing pressure and criticism for his actions in office, dropped his reelection bid earlier in the year but backed Skrmetta.

Schwegmann garnered 61,711 votes to Skrmetta’s 34,206. Ken Odinet finished third with 33,470 votes while Bruce Kincade finished fourth with 18,440 votes.

In Washington Parish, Schwegmann led with 2,343 votes while Odinet had 1,572, Skrmetta 1,419 and Kincade 942.

In the election to fill the District 1 seat on the state supreme court, Judge Greg Guidry of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeal and Judge Jimmy Kuhn of the 1st Circuit Court of Appeal finished ahead of Judge Roland Belsome of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal.

The two will face off in the general election after Guidry led with 45,354 votes to 32,890 for Kuhn. Belsome finished with 31,107 votes.

The winner will succeed Chief Justice Pascal Calogero, who is retiring at the end of the year. Calogero was sworn in as chief justice on April