Litchfield's Accomplishments
During his almost six terms in office, Litchfield required all deputies to reside in East Baton Rouge Parish and canceled all special deputy commissions. He improved the parish jail system to the point that it was called one of the “most constitutionally operated system in the state", according to the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate.
Litchfield was not the first Republican to run for sheriff in East Baton Rouge Parish. In 1975, the then Republican mayor of Zachary, Louisiana, Jack Louis Breaux, Sr. (1926–1980), ran for sheriff and nearly won a runoff slot against the Democratic incumbent J. Al Amiss, who served from 1972 until his death in office early in 1983.
Where Breaux fell short, Litchfield made winning the office of sheriff seem easy. Litchfield's reelection margins ranged from 82 percent in 1987 to 85 percent in 1991, 68 percent in 1995, 83 percent in 1999, and 78 percent in 2003. Such totals indicate that he obtained large majorities except from those who either objected to his tenure as sheriff or who vote straight Democratic tickets.
Republican sheriffs are rare in Louisiana: in many of the sixty-four parishes, no serious Republican candidate has ever fared strongly in a sheriff's election. In a few parishes, no Republican has run for sheriff in modern times. The sheriff collects property taxes and enforces the law in parts of counties outside corporation limits. Many Louisiana voters consider the sheriff one of the most important public officials.
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