BATON ROUGE – Councilman LaMont Cole seemed to crawfish on his and his colleague’s plan to attempt to railroad the likely appointment of the late Councilman Buddy Amoroso’s wife to his seat temporarily.

Hours after a council clerk released a statement that Cole and council members Chauna Banks, Erika Geen and Donna Collins-Lewis would not vote in a call to appoint Amoroso’s wife to the seat, Cole said the group would visit with Denise Amoroso and “revisit… the decision.”

The initial idea to sit out a vote was controversial and met with a firestorm of controversy earlier Tuesday.

The group avoiding a vote could force the governor to get involved in naming someone to fill Amoroso’s seat until a special election.

The group – all four Democrats and African Americans – was likely making a political statement. There has been unrest over the political and racial makeup of the council – a white, Republican sway.

“Politics has its place and time and that is not today,” Denise Amoroso said in a statement released to The Advocate.

“I look forward to visiting with each of them...”

Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome also said politics should take a backseat.

Cole's entire statement:

Prior to Denise Amoroso making any public comments, a number of people residing in district eight reached out to us relative to being appointed to the vacant seat.  We wanted all of them to know we will not vote to appoint anyone to the seat.

Now that we know Mrs. Amoroso is strongly considering filling the seat, we too look forward to having a face -to -face discussion with her about the best path forward in terms of representation for the district.

We will revisit our decision after our conversation with Denise Amoroso.