Sen. Cheryl A. Gray Evans (D)
District# 5,

• District # 5: House District 0
• Party: Democrat
• Caucus Membership: --
• Occupation: --
• Education: --
• Spouse: --
• Year Elected: 2010
• Last Year Eligible(Term Limit):2016
• 2007 Election
  

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• A personal friend of President Barack Obama and formerly the House speaker pro tempore, Karen Carter Peterson has earned a reputation for being the driving force behind Democratic policy in the Legislature and for serving as the heart and soul of the Legislative Black Caucus. As the state grapples with record budget shortfalls, Peterson has emerged as a voice for revenue-generating measures, often facing off against Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration. In recent years, she has pursued taxes on cigarettes and a delay in certain income tax breaks to help the state find badly-needed revenues.
• Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, she played an instrumental role in consolidating the area’s levee boards and repeatedly introduced legislation to stabilize and reign in the chaotic state insurance industry. Both issues continue to be policy goals for Peterson. In her upcoming term, she hopes to secure money for the rebuilding of government buildings, such as fire and police stations and libraries, and tackle long overdue renovations to hospitals and schools. Education is an important issue in Senate District 5. Peterson’s past initiatives in this area include requiring social workers to be employed in failing schools and mandatory continuing education for certified teachers.
• Her knowledge of the law and the political process is practically unparalleled, especially in the New Orleans region. Her father was one of New Orleans’s first African-America tax assessors and a prominent political figure in the city, and she is a political protégé of Jim Singleton, a former city councilman and the leader of the powerful Black Organization for Leadership Development, also known as BOLD. An attorney who started her public career as politician opposing the establishment, Peterson is now one of the powerbrokers in the Crescent City.