FERRIDAY — Loren Lampert knows the race for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals isn’t — in his own words — a very sexy one.

“Everybody knows there is (a court of appeals), but they don’t know where it is or what it does,” Lampert said.

A candidate for a seat in the court, Lampert, who lives in Deville, made his comments at the Ferriday Rotary Club’s meeting late last week.

Even though it is less visible than the state supreme court or the local district court, the court of appeals has a lot of impact on the everyday person, Lampert said.

“This is what people are talking about when they talk about judicial legislation,” Lampert said. “Most of the judicial policy — or the lack thereof — happens at the court of appeals level.”

That is part of the reason he decided to run, Lampert said.

“I am not willing to stand by and let anyone else have a say in the mores and the way I raise my children,” he said.

But Lampert doesn’t want to become a judge to change the state’s laws through judicial activism, he said.

“I believe in the separation of powers,” Lampert said. “The legislature legislates and the judges judge.”

A former Rapides Parish Sheriff’s deputy and Alexandria city policeman, Lampert has worked at the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office and has been a Louisiana prosecutor for the last 12 years.

One thing Lampert has a passion for is to make a difference with youth, he said.

“All the time I see good people raising good kids who have gone astray,” he said.

As a prosecutor, he usually has to deal with people who have committed crimes, but Lampert said running for office has opened his eyes.

“I have been awakened to the fact that 98 percent of the people in our district are good people,” he said.