Report: Savage Endorses Tyler After Perkins Denies Appointment

According to a report from the Shreveport Times, former Shreveport Mayoral Candidate Lee O. Savage has endorsed Mayor Ollie Tyler in the December 8th Mayor's runoff against challenger Adrian Perkins.

According to Times reporter Nick Wooten, Savage's endorsement for Tyler comes after he asked for, and was denied, the potential appointment as Shreveport Chief Administrative Officer in a Perkins Administration. Savage admitted to asking for the appointment in an interview with Wooten.

Perkins told the Times that Savage is "selling out his supporters for his own individual gain."

The endorsement of Tyler from Savage comes as a shock to some, because of how critical Savage was of the Tyler administration. During the campaign, Savage attacked Tyler's administration over "bits of corruption that people never have even dreamt of". Savage described his beliefs to KEEL in September:

Even after Savage lost in the primary, he continued being critical of Mayor Ollie Tyler and her administration. In his first interview with KEEL after the November Primary, he described the Tyler Administration like this:

"The under workings inside the city, I always suspected there was corruption, but what we actually uncovered was so much deeper than what I ever thought. And I also learned that, what, what some people really see as corruption, they think that 'I'll give you this contract if you give me a car' you know, and that's corruption. But what they really don't understand is that we're paying for the car."

In the same interview, Savage was asked if he was leaning towards endorsing Perkins based on the fact he challenged her in the first place. Savage left the door open for the possible Tyler endorsement at the same time:

After the primary, Perkins stated that he would be reaching out to all of the other candidates, not to offer positions in exchange for endorsements, or even for endorsements at all. Perkins stated in a KEEL interview the his intent was to ask the other candidates which parts of their platforms they would like to see him adopt to bring their voters into his campaign.

Shreveport Mayor Ollie Tyler will face challenger Adrian Perkins in a runoff election on Saturday, December 8th, with the winner being named Shreveport Mayor heading into 2019.