Laurie Schlegel.jpg

Laurie Schlegel

Licensed therapist Laurie Schlegel nosed past Metairie business executive Eddie Connick Saturday to win the vacant 82nd District seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives, voting returns show. 

Schlegel got 52% of the vote to Connick's 48%. Turnout was fairly low: about 17% of the eligible voters turned out, according to the Secretary of State's Website.

The win will send Schlegel to Baton Rouge in the middle of a legislative session to take the spot vacated by Charles Henry, who resigned earlier this year to take a job in the private sector after just one year in office.

The two ran close in the general election last month, with Connick finishing first with 40%. Schlegel followed with 36% of the vote.

Eddie Connick, Laurie Schlegel

Laurie Schlegel and Eddie Connick will meet in the April 24 runoff for the 82nd District House seat

Both candidates have political connections. Connick counts as cousins current Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick and state Sen. Patrick Connick. Harry Connick, a longtime New Orleans district attorney, is an uncle. Schlegel's husband, Scott, is a state District Court judge in Jefferson Parish's 24th Judicial District Court.

Schlegel and Connick both touted their credentials as conservative Republicans, and vowed to make the state more business friendly. But ideological similarities were not enough to prevent the race from getting heated, especially as it lurched toward the runoff. 

In the final month, both went on the attack: Connick put out a mailer calling Schlegel, a licensed professional counselor, a "social worker," and saying that sending a social worker to Baton Rouge would be like pouring money down the drain. 

Schlegel fired back, saying that voters in the district couldn't afford to send "another Connick" to the Legislature and, in a later mailer, compared Eddie Connick to a faceless mannequin who carries a famous name.

The sniping culminated in a contentious April 18 appearance on WDSU-TV's Hot Seat during which Connick angrily denounced Schlegel's mannequin comments and Schlegel fired back that he only appeared on the show in the first place after she called him out on Facebook. 

Email Faimon Roberts III at froberts@theadvocate.com.