Incumbent state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson faces a challenge from political newcomer Allen Borne in an effort to hold to the seat which represents areas of Orleans Parish as well as parts of Jefferson Parish’s East Bank.
Allen H. Borne Jr.
Allen H. Borne Jr. says he decided to run for state Senate to bring change to District 5. Borne believes that his experience as an advocate for his clients, during 34 years of practicing law, has prepared him to successfully advocate for residents of the district.
Borne says he knows when to fight, when to negotiate; and he understands the district’s needs, adding that he will be accessible, responsive, honest, transparent, passionate and humble in doing the people’s work.
Borne’s legislative agenda includes infrastructure, quality education, economic growth and opportunities, equal pay, ethics reform, women’s rights, access to mental health, sensible gun control, criminal justice reform and legal representation for senior citizens.
He says he will advocate for an Independent Redistricting Commission, to stop voter suppression in the state’s gerrymandered districts.
A practicing attorney and adjunct professor of Law at Tulane University, his affiliations include civic and volunteer work with the New Orleans Pro Bono Project, Louisiana Association for Justice, Legal Services Grants Committee for the Louisiana Bar Foundation, and Lymphoma Leukemia Society’s Fundraising Committee.
He is a graduate of De La Salle High School; and he earned a bachelor’s degree in business management from Southern Missionary College. He earned his law degree Tulane Law School. He is a member of the Louisiana and Washington D.C. Bar, a former member of the Orleans Parish Democratic Executive Committee, and a former commissioner of the Orleans Levee District.
Karen Carter Peterson
Working with and helping people has been incumbent state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson’s focus for the past 20 years in the Louisiana State Legislature, she says.
Most recently, Sen. Peterson worked with Mayor Cantrell to get much needed state resources for New Orleans’ infrastructure repairs.
In an interview with The New Orleans Tribune, Peterson explains how she has worked with Gov. John Bel Edwards to pass legislation that put thousands on the Medicaid expansion rolls and cites her work on the White House Task Force for the Affordable Care Act, then coming back to the Legislature and helping it to come to fruition, as one of her greatest accomplishments.
If re-elected, Peterson says she will work to restore access to mental health treatment for Louisianans; promote equal pay for women; fight to raise the minimum wage to a living wage; work to save Louisiana’s coastal wetlands; and encourage employers to institute paid family leave.
Peterson most recently came under fire for authoring Act 91, which put New Orleans charter schools under the Orleans Parish School Board, which brought former Recovery School District-New Orleans schools under the umbrella of the local school board while allowing these schools to operate as their own local education agencies, giving the locally elected school board no control of over the day-to-day operations of the schools. She says she would be open to amending the legislation, however.
Peterson graduated with a degree in International Business and Marketing from Howard University School of Business in 1991. She later earned a law degree from Tulane University School of Law.
