The Nungesser Debate-Ducking Flap (UPDATED)
Channel 2 in Baton Rouge is coming by in a little while to interview me about this business with Billy Nungesser and his decision to blow off tonight’s debate with Jay Dardenne at a Baton Rouge Pachyderms meeting (for either the 5:00 or 6:00 news tonight). Nungesser is also blowing off another debate with Dardenne at the Baton Rouge Press Club on Monday, and with a lack of big news coming out of the statewide elections this fall we’ve now got ourselves a good controversy to feed off.
Harold and Joyce LaCour at the Pachyderms are good friends of mine and they’ve had me speak to them a few times, so I’m naturally going to be very protective of them and my default position is that you mess with them and I’m going to call you out on it. So obviously Billy has gakked it by screwing the Pachyderms over.
Nungesser’s camp says they had a conflict tonight; namely that he’s set for a charity foundation event in New Orleans. And that he can’t do the Press Club debate Monday because he’s got a fundraising lunch instead.
That’s problematic stuff, though. Because Harold told me they did a lot of work to find a date that would work for Nungesser – they don’t usually do Pachyderms meetings on Fridays – and got him to sign off on tonight’s debate before they even got Dardenne on board.
To back out citing a scheduling conflict the day before the event, then, looks horrible.
The immediate speculation will be that Nungesser is afraid of Dardenne. Backing out of not just one debate but two only reinforces such a perception.
Or if you don’t think that’s what’s going on, an alternative explanation is that Nungesser’s schedulers are goofballs and he can’t run an organized campaign. And if that’s the case, does he have the managerial skill to run the Lt. Governor’s office? Managerial skill is Dardenne’s strong suit as an elected official – even people who think he’s a RINO/career politician/whatever concede that with Dardenne you get a smooth-running office when he’s in the big chair.
So this is a loser for Billy on two potential fronts.
What this thing reminds me of, though I don’t know that it’ll have the same effect, is Hunt Downer’s ill-fated decision to ditch a televised forum last year that the Baton Rouge Tea Party and the Tea Party of Louisiana put on for the Republican congressional primary. That was an immediate disaster, as Downer brought the wrath of the Tea Party all over southeast and south-center Louisiana down on himself for making a last-minute cancellation, and what was expected to be a close race between Downer and Jeff Landry turned into a 65-35 rout in the latter’s favor in the GOP runoff, after Landry just missed getting to 50 percent in the first primary.
Will this debacle have a similar effect on Nungesser’s momentum? It’s impossible to say. But when you have $1.66 million on hand for a Lt. Governor’s race compared to your opponent’s $630,000 you don’t need a fundraiser event, and when you’re running for statewide office the charity folks will understand the importance of a debate as a reason to skip out on them (even though they’d be irritated at your scheduler just like Harold and Joyce are right now).
Dumb move.
I haven’t talked to Jason Hebert, who handles all of Dardenne’s media stuff, this morning, and I imagine I don’t have to. Hebert is in all likelihood going to say Billy’s obviously skeered and that he needs a dog a lot more than the Lt. Governor gig. Or that this just proves he’s not serious about the job, which Jay is. Or that it’s an example of why you want somebody reliable in this job, which Jay is.
And while a lot of that would be typical campaign-speak, guess what? He’s entitled to say it if he wants. Billy gave him the opening, and right now none of it looks wrong.
UPDATE: The Dardenne camp didn’t read this piece before putting out their release on all this, but they might as well have…
NUNGESSER BACKS OUT OF MORE DEBATES
Nungesser runs away from a fight he doesn’t think is worth fighting for.
It appears that the man who said he would never run away from a fight is running away from debating Lieutenant Governor Jay Dardenne. Nungesser will be a no-show at a debate he committed to hosted by the Greater Baton Rouge Pachyderms tonight. Nungesser’s campaign even got the chance to choose the date of the Pachyderm debate and agreed he would attend. In addition, Nungesser has backed out of appearing at a debate with the Press Club of Baton Rouge on Monday, September 26th. “It appears that Billy Nungesser has trouble keeping his commitment to discussing the issues important to the voters of the state,” said Jason Hebert, spokesman for the Dardenne Campaign. “How can voters take him at his word or expect him to be a fighter for the state when he runs away from debating Jay Dardenne,” Hebert said.
Meanwhile, Nungesser’s campaign has Sen. Vitter throwing a few missiles in a fundraising e-mail today…
I wanted to tell you about the exciting energy gaining in Billy Nungesser’s campaign for Lt. Governor. As you know, I support Billy 100 percent because I believe he is the only candidate that represents a true conservative reform agenda.
With only about a month left in the race, Billy just announced that he has more than 1.6 million in funds – doubling his opponent Jay Dardenne’s. That’s not to say Billy won’t need more help. His opponent is a darling of the liberal news media and will benefit from the free media attention. Billy needs to keep building on that financial advantage to have a chance at equal time to get his message out.
I just don’t think Nungesser can win.
Outside of Plaquemines, who would favor him over Dardenne except those barely engaged in politics?Perhaps people that have seen Nungesser on TV during the crisis. He reminded me of Aaron Broussard during all that.
Also, with his donations to liberals in California, it is hard to know where Nungesser stands. His ‘fighting for Louisiana’ lines sound a lot like the Landrieu family’s understanding of how politics works: its an open trough of money, so you want someone ‘in there’ to get you as much as they can.
And Jindal’s tacit encouragement to run. Is this another one of Jindal’s endorsements of death, aka Lee Domingue?
Dardenne signs are popping up everywhere in Plaquemines Parish. Not too many people in Plaquemines Parish care for Nungesser and regret voting for that man for a second term.
As some of you may know, I’m no fan of Dardenne’s, having supported one of his opponents in each of his statewide elections. I do think Dardenne’s record in the legislature is that of a RINO. So I’d normally be inclined to support Nungesser, and I’m definitely not writing this as a Dardenne backer.
On Saturday, Nungesser and Dardenne both spoke back-to-back at the Republican State Central Committee meeting and then answered some questions from the audience. This didn’t have the back-and-forth that you’d see in a real debate, but Dardenne still wiped up the floor with Nungesser.
At that moment, I think that the Nungesser campaign realized that they would lose these debates badly and that Nungesser wasn’t anywhere near ready to debate Dardenne. Hence the cancellations.
http://thelensnola.org/2011/09/22/nungesser-vs-dardenne/
Will strange bedfellows come back to haunt Billy Nungesser?
At the hearing, attorneys on both sides said that the list of
brothel customers provided by the madam includes Billy Nungesser Jr.,
son of the former state Republican Party chairman.
These two times are not the only ones. On September 12th Nungesser also canceled an appearance before the Louisiana Federation of Republican Women Region I. Nungesser received his invitation September 6th and had RSVPed through his scheduler, Emily, and after numerous calls from her to LFRW Region I Vice-President Gisela M. Chevalier, the last call was at 4:00 p.m. same day of the event, one of his campaign representatives approached Mrs. Chevalier to inform her that “Billy cannot come”, after questioning why?? Mrs. Chevallier received this answer “He has to attend the funeral of a friend’s father”, but Mr. Nungesser sent his videographer to recordLt. Gov. Dardenne’s appearance, maybe to be used on one of his negative commercials. Last night he waited until Lt. Gov. Dardenne left the Jefferson Parish PAC endorsement meeting. Of course the PAC waited for him to cast the vote, nobody informed Dardenne that Nungesser was going to attend at a later time, it was poorly orchestrated, of course “Billy” got the endorsement, how that sounds??
Read this: http://theplaqueminescitizen.blogspot.com/
The Citizens of Plaquemines Parish know Billy Nungesser. We knew he wouldn’t show up to debate Mr. Dardenne, he won’t debate anyone, because he can’t. This isn’t the first time and it won’t be last.
It’s also disgusting that Nungesser would send out press releases about how much money he’s raise and then fails to tell people that he loaned his campaign $700,000 of that $1.6 million.
Nungesser is a liar and his administration is under Federal Investigation, why in the world would anyone vote for that man for Lt. Gov?
Love this article! While it’s embarrassing for us (the Pachyderms) to have Nungesser not show, it’s more embarrassing for him. He has a lot more to lose in this election by not showing up. Harold did a thorough job getting the two candidates for the same date. To suddenly say he’s not available reeks of cowardice.
Julie
I was at that SCC meeting as well, and while I will concur that Jay is a much more polished speaker, I’ll also mention that Jay’s pitch about cutting taxes rings a bit hollow from the man who was the floor leader for the single largest tax increase in the history of our state–the Stelly Tax.
I could go on, but who needs too? Jay always thinks the best way to solve a spending problem is by raising taxes. He’s just not going to get my vote this time.
Maybe Nungesser does not want to explain to the public why he gave money to Liberals such as Barbara Boxer and the Landrieu’s. He had been caught with his hand in the Cookie Jar and does not want to explain it. From the look of Nungesser he needs to leave the cookies alone by the way!!!!
As the ARPEC Chairman, I was excited about going to my first Pachyderms meeting. Harold and Joyce LaCour are the hardest working republicans in Ascension Parish. If Nungesser has the audacity to to pull a no show, his consultants told him he would be a wipped puppy had he attended. If he thinks outspending Dardenne will win him the race, he is wrong. Our people are smart enough to see his ways. I am just embarrased that Nungesser is a republican. He seems to have the characteristics of the democrats of the 70s, 80s and 90s.
I bet Nungesser could take Dardenne in a food eating contest. I bet Nungesser wouldn’t duck that!!!
Or maybe Billy isn’t wasting his time with a known RINO as you have commented above.
Nungesser is the RINO. Giving money to Liberals like Barbara Boxer and the Landrieu family. He will say and do anything to get elected. Ask Billy Boy to explain why he gave money to liberals so they could spread their message. Billy is all about Billy and we already have enough pigs feeding off the trough in this state.
At least Jay Dardenne pays his taxes. Nungesser has tax liens against some of his companies. Nungesser is lying to the public about his therapeutic riding center which is NOT opened and has been closed since August 2005. Nungesser is personally profiting off of the BP Oil Spill and off a very, very lucrative mud pit deal in Plaquemines. He is lying about employment in our parish, and gives most of the key positions and key contracts to outsiders.
Here’s a third alternative: Nungesser thinks he’s ahead and, being less polished than Dardenne, plus both of these forums being in Dardenne’s backyard, wants to play it safe. Dardenne’s attack behavior, which we rarely saw in his other statewide runs, appears to validate that Dardenne sees himself behind. See http://jeffsadow.blogspot.com/2011/09/candidate-behavior-suggests-coming-la.html
Please explain why Nungesser gave money to liberlas such as Barbara Boxer and the Landreiu family since Nungesser will not. Dardenne is man enough to go to a debate and be asked tough questions while it appears Billy Boy will not.
Are you troubled by the fact that Nungesser gave money to liberals, has tax liens against him, and now is accused of not paying his tab at a whore house?
All the more reason to strip the old polish off the furniture and start over with a new coat! I am sick and tired of these polished politicians that keep us under seige.
[...] lying and Dardenne’s telling the truth. We’re not taking a position on that. We criticized Nungesser for ducking debates because we thought it was a dumb move and because we’ll always take up for our friends Harold [...]
[...] Citizen (Sept. 23 blog entry) Publicity 11: BayouBuzz.com (Sept. 23 column) Publicity 12: TheHayride.com (Sept. 23 column) Publicity 13: NBC33TV.com (Sept. 23 article) Publicity 14: WBRZ.com (Sept. 23 article) Publicity [...]