FERRIDAY, La. – Iincumbent Bryant Hammett, known for finding grants for local governments, beat Ferriday Councilman Sammy Davis Jr. 68 percent to 32 percent for the District 21 state representative’s seat.

With all precincts reporting, Hammett had 9,315 votes versus Davis’ 4,369 votes.

District 21 covers most of Concordia and Tensas parishes and parts of Madison and East Carroll parishes.

Hammett said that, before the election, he really could not predict how the votes would stack up.

&uot;I couldn’t read it at all,&uot; Hammett said. &uot;You can’t take (a victory) for granted. So we ran really hard.&uot;

Hammett, who has served District 21 in the Louisiana Legislature for eight years, said that leading by such a margin shows that his constituents like what he is been doing in Baton Rouge.

&uot;Next, I’ll just keep doing what I’ve been doing – focusing on education and getting more jobs into this region,&uot; Hammett said from his engineering firm’s office outside Ferriday.

There, he and staffers were keeping up with the latest vote totals.

&uot;Those are the top issues in my district,&uot;&160;he added. &uot;We’ll just continue to work on what we’ve already started.&uot;

Davis could not be reached for comment Saturday night.

Hammett is best known in Concordia Parish for helping local governments get tens of thousands of dollars in grants for a variety of projects.

He is also chairman of the Capital Outlay Committee, which doles out money for infrastructure projects throughout the state, and a member of the Natural Resources and Ways and Means committees.