People – Baton Rouge would be Dullsville without your favorite people and personalities. In other words, they keep things interesting…

Vann’s community participation isn’t reserved solely for the boardroom—she also participated in (and won) last year’s local version of Dancing with the Stars.

Whitney Vann 16.38%
2nd place: Pat Shingleton 14.40%
3rd place: Sylvia Weatherspoon 13.53%

Before most of us take our first sip of coffee, Whitney Vann is wide awake, primed to let us know what’s up in the Red Stick. Co-anchor of WBRZ’s morning 2une In program, she’s been the friendly face greeting Baton Rouge early risers for more than 10 years. With several local and national awards under her belt, this Mississippi native is an accomplished news commentator and heavily involved in her adopted community. She doesn’t just report on the news; she tries to make the town better, serving on boards of directors for Capital Area United Way and the Baton Rouge Crisis Intervention Center.

Gary’s artwork isn’t just local anymore—her art hangs in galleries in Europe and Asia as well. In 2007 the U.S. Botanical Gardens in Washington, D.C., held a special exhibition of her artwork paired with C.C. Lockwood’s photographs as part of a series on vanishing wetlands.

Rhea Gary 26.83%
2nd place: Lauren Barksdale 22.59%
3rd place: Lisa diStefano 21.67%

Although the majority of Baton Rougeans couldn’t name a favorite local artist, the hyper-saturated oil landscapes of Rhea Gary emerged as the clear winner among those in the know. A true Louisianan, Gary focuses on the unique and lovely vistas of her home state for inspiration and has worked closely with other popular natives (and past winners) like C.C. Lockwood to capture our state’s fragile beauty. Second-place winner Lauren Barksdale’s work is more geometric than organic; some of her work evokes early Picasso, while third-placer Lisa diStefano evokes an ethereal in-between of the first two. Our city isn’t short on talent.

Although they broadcast out of Houston now, New Orleans was the first to host Walton and Johnson’s skit-based radio humor in 1983. The pair moved into a bigger market in 1986 and now reach millions of listeners all over the country.

Walton and Johnson 25.13%
2nd place: Murphy, Sam and Jodi, 96.1 “The River” 15.10%
3rd place: Jim Engster, NPR 89.3 12.26%

Walton and Johnson’s dedicated “10 percenters” have put Houston’s syndicated comedy jockeys into the top tier by a margin of just that. Their repertoire, rife with character bits and crass humor their South Louisiana fans love, keeps them at No.1. The more family-friendly Baton Rouge-based Murphy, Sam and Jodi place second this year, while local NPR radio host and journalist Jim Engster places a strong third with his popular morning news and interview show.

Bobby Jindal 24.07%
2nd place: Warrick Dunn, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 16.35%
3rd place: Shaquille “Shaq” O’Neal 12.34%

A controversial pick, sure, but Bobby Jindal continues to make a splash on the still-highly-charged national political scene. After rumors flew last year of a Republican VP nomination, he’s now being fingered as a front-runner for the presidential nomination in the coming years. A Louisiana governor in the nation’s spotlight for something other than corruption or a natural disaster? Love him or hate him, you have to give him credit for that.

Benjy Davis 21.89%
2nd place: Chris LeBlanc 18.15%
3rd place: Tabby Thomas 16.64%

The Benjy Davis Project, with lead singer—of course—Benjy Davis, sweeps both the Best Band and Favorite Singer categories this year. Davis’ soulful folk-rock harmonics and swooping vocal arrangements are what great music is built on. Chris LeBlanc, edged out of first place by just a few votes, brings a hard-edged rock-funk sound to his vocals, and living legend Tabby Thomas, precluded from playing guitar by a stroke he suffered in ’04 but still just as good a singer as he ever was, places third on our list.