THE POLITICAL SCENE . . . Our District 3 Congressman Charlie Melancon announced last week that he will seek to unseat U.S. Senator David Vitter in next year’s congressional election. Melancon is the only Democrat among Louisiana’s seven U.S. representatives while Vitter is our only Republican senator (Sen. Mary Landrieu being a Democrat). You can bet the two national parties will throw lots of money into that race, with the Democrats fighting to increase their slight majority in the Senate and the Republicans working hard to stem the Democrats’ rise to power. Melancon’s announcement also immediately raises speculation on just who will seek to fill the District 3 seat, although I haven’t seen anything about early picks. LOCAL SCENE . . . That leads me to reflect on what local offices will be up for grabs a year from now. Of parishwide interest will be the school board races, with all 10 seats to be filled. And there will be municipal races in Breaux Bridge, Parks, Arnaudville and neighboring Broussard. The campaign for police chief in the Crawfish Capital promises to be a heated one, with two candidates (former assistant chief Rollie Cantu and former State Trooper/Parish Deputy P.J. Hebert) already lined up to challenge veteran chief Charlie Thibodeaux. Not much rumbling yet regarding the mayor’s post or the city council seats, however. The big statewide races are still two years off, and 2011 will also see the local parishwide offices as well as the nine Parish Council seats on the ballot. The Parish Council races should be interesting, as the three-term limit will kick in for four of the nine seats, with Mike Huval (Dist. 4), Lloyd “Red” Higginbotham (Dist. 5), Pat Cluse (Dist. 7) and Jim Hebert (Dist. 9) all reaching the end of their service. More of Pense Donc!! is in EDITORIAL