Republicans will add to their Public Service Commission majority

Republicans were on pace to win the two open seats on the Louisiana Public Service Commission in Tuesday’s election, which would expand the party’s majority to four on the five-member body that regulates power utilities, telecommunications and transportation companies in the state.

Democrats are losing the District 5 seat covering North Louisiana that they have held since 1974 when it was created in a revised Louisiana Constitution, which expanded the Public Service Commission from three to five districts.

The history-making Republican is John Atkins, who defeated Shreveport City Councilman James Green with 60% of the vote from the 24 parishes in the district with 90% of votes counted. 

Atkins, a Shreveport businessman in the timber and investment industries, won a six-year term and will take over in January from Foster Campbell. The conservative Democrat has represented District 5 since 2003 and was grandfathered in when voters approved term limits for the Public Service Commission in 2008.

The other Republican winner was Stephanie Hilferty in District 1, which covers six full parishes and parts of four others.  She had amassed 60% of the vote with nearly 90% of precincts reporting. She defeated Chris Justin, an engineer and small business owner from New Orleans with no party affiliation, and Democrat Connie Norris, a retired educator from Slidell.

Hilferty is a state representative who’s represented portions of Orleans and Jefferson parishes since 2016. She will take over from Eric Skrmetta, a Metairie Republican who’s reached his term limit on the commission and was a reliable vote for the state’s major electric utilities. Since July, Skrmetta has been an undersecretary with the U.S. Department of Energy.

After qualifying to run in February, Atkins promised not to accept contributions from the utility companies he will regulate. State campaign finance records show Atkins loaned his campaign $640,000, accounting for the vast majority of his funding for the election. The largest of his few donors was the political action committee of the Environmental Defense Fund, a group that typically gives to Democratic candidates.

Green, who was the Louisiana Democratic Party’s endorsed candidate in District 5, never had more than $15,000 in his campaign account.

Campaign finance records show Hilferty accepted $27,000 in campaign donations from power and telecommunications companies and their political action committees, Verite News reported. She has insisted these contributions will not influence her decisions as a PSC member.

Hilferty’s voting record in the legislature features a strong moderate streak, as she frequently aligned with the rest of the New Orleans delegation composed almost exclusively of Democrats.

She and Atkins join fellow Republicans Mike Francis of Crowley and Lafayette’s Jean-Paul Coussan. Davante Lewis of Baton Rouge is the lone Democrat on the commission.

The six-year terms of PSC members are staggered, with elections every two years. Francis and Lewis face re-election in 2028, and Coussan will have to run again in 2030.