Chief St. Bernard Parish Deputy James "Jimmy" Pohlmann rose to the top of a heated four-person fight to succeed Sheriff Jack Stephens but fell short of winning outright and will face St. Bernard Parish Councilman Wayne Landry in the Nov. 19 runoff. Pohlmann, a Democrat from Meraux, received 45 percent of the vote and Landry, a Democrat from St. Bernard, slid in second with 30 percent. Candidates in the primary need one vote more than 50 percent to win outright.
Chad Clark, head of the Sheriff's Office special investigations division, came in third with 18 percent, and former FBI intelligence analyst Barry Bernadas trailed the pack with 7 percent. With the three top-financed candidates together raising about $1 million, Bernadas ran the thriftiest campaign with less than $10,000.
Stephens, 62, the longest-serving current sheriff in Louisiana, did not run for re-election. He has held the post since 1985.

Both Pohlmann and Landry, a wealthy businessman who has served parishwide in his at-large council post the past three years, were the butt of attack ads during the brutal campaign, with Landry financing a barrage of television commercials against Pohlmann, accusing him of helping to kidnap a member of the parish's wealthy Meraux family in 2002 and thereby aiding Stephens and others in usurping a piece of the Meraux fortune.

Pohlmann, currently the Sheriff's Office's top-ranking nonelected official who runs its day-to-day operations, says the Meraux heiress came back with him and others from a trip to Chicago of her own free will.
Landry found himself the subject of a YouTube video that caught him aggressively kissing a blond woman -- not his wife -- at a Bourbon Street bar a few months ago. The clip quickly amassed more than 20,000 views.

The other candidates denied posting that video.

Landry, 52, who has no law enforcement experience except some criminal justice classes in college, touts his administrative ability and his track record turning around struggling businesses in metro New Orleans. Pohlmann points to the parish's low felony crime rate under his tenure.

With career law enforcement officers Clark and Bernadas out of the race, many believe their law-enforcement base will throw themselves behind Pohlmann. Landry, though, has said he and Clark have a strong base in eastern St. Bernard and that, with Clark out, he would reap a much larger chunk of that vote.
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/10/in_st_bernard_parish_sheriff_r.html