District 9 State Rep. Henry Burns made it official Friday. He has tossed his hat into the ring for the Dist. 36 state senate seat that will be up for grabs in October’s statewide elections.
Burns, who was first elected in 2007 to serve Dist. 9, is seeking to replace Benton Republican Robert Adley, who is term-limited after serving 12 years.
“I want to be as effective as Senator Adley has been,” Burns told a group of politicians and community leaders at Minden’s Exacta Inn, the site of a monthly lunch meeting.
Senate Dist. 36 includes all of Bossier and Webster and portions of Claiborne and Bienville parishes. The district was reapportioned following the 2010 census. Burns said he is already very familiar with the district and feels “at home anywhere” in the area he would serve.
“I was born in Haynesville (Claiborne), raised and went to school in Webster (Shongaloo), played basketball all over Bienville and live and have raised my family in Bossier Parish. And, to prove we were home to stay in Bossier, we bought a burial plot at Hillcrest,” Burns quipped. “We are very much committed that this is where we will call home.”
Several factors combine to make a good public official, Burns said, and interacting successfully with others is one of the more important.
“You want a person who can build relationships,” he told the group. “I love doing relationships and getting things done. Sometimes it takes awhile, but together we can get things done.”
For now, Burns said his focus will be on the 2015 fiscal session of the legislature where members of the House and Senate will tackle issues including falling oil prices, which have contributed to the state’s short fall, education, healthcare and transportation.
“Locally, in northwest Louisiana, two important and public issues are the safe disposal of M6 propellant at Camp Minden, and the scourge of Giant Salvinia on our bodies of water,” Burns said in a news release earlier Friday.