Kenny Bowen - Bowen and The GOP

Bowen and The GOP

Bowen had been the Republican mayoral nominee in 1968, the last in Lafayette under the commission form of government. He lost the general election to Democratic incumbent J. Rayburn Bertrand (October 1, 1918 - March 6, 2005). Bowen had been a delegate to the 1964 Republican National Convention in San Francisco, where he cast his ballot for the party's nominee, then Senator Barry M. Goldwater.

Ironically, Bowen was defeated by a conservative Republican Lastrapes in 1980. In that election, Bowen barely polled a fourth of the ballots cast. A Lafayette insurance agent, Lastrapes would serve three consecutive four-year terms through 1992. Lastrapes also defeated Bowen in 1988.