House Resolution 202 of the 2025 Regular Legislative Session directed the Board to "report on the filings of all elected justices of the peace for the years 2020 through 2025, indicating those elected officials who have and have not filed their campaign finance reports."
Pursuant to R.S. 13:2582, justices of the peace shall be elected at the congressional election to serve a six-year term. The most recent election for justices of the peace occurred on November 3, 2020. Accordingly, staff used data from the Secretary of State to prepare this report on each justice of the peace elected in the 2020 election cycle or elected during a special election between November 3, 2020, and December 31, 2025.
The Campaign Finance Disclosure Act ("CFDA")(R.S. 18:1481, et. seq.) requires that each candidate for district office is required to file reports of contributions and expenditures pursuant to R.S. 18:1484. A "district office" level candidate is expressly defined by R.S. 18:1483(9). As such, only certain offices for justice of the peace meet the definition of "district office" level and were required to file reports for the 2020 election cycle. For example, certain offices within Jefferson Parish, as well as both elected offices within West Feliciana Parish. Those candidates are marked as "District" and designated as required to file ("Rtf") for the purposes of this report.
Any candidate for justice of the peace that was not classified by the CFDA as a "district office" level candidate was considered an "Any Other" office level candidate. As such, R.S. 18:1484 provides that an "Any Other" candidate in the 2020 election was only required to file campaign finance reports if the candidate made expenditures in excess of $2,500 or received contributions in excess of $200.
(NOTE: Act 398 of the 2025 Regular Session increased the reporting threshold amounts for both contributions and expenditures to $5,000 for "any other" office-level candidates effective June 20, 2025.)
As evidenced by the report, the majority of candidates for justice of the peace were not required to file reports unless they met these thresholds. Those candidates are marked as "Any/Other" and designated as not required to file ("NRtF") for the purposes of this report. However, any candidate who met the initial reporting thresholds was required to continue filing all subsequent reports for the 2020 election. Those candidates are marked required to file ("Rtf").
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