The following was sent in by Ray Griffin, a Republican State Central Committee member from Plaquemines Parish…

It must be great to be Vance McAllister, the wealthy, self-funding political novice who made the run-off for Congress in LA-05.  Serving as his campaign manager, however, must not be so great.

McAllister finished second in the October 19th congressional primary, promising, “I will stand up and fight every single day to stop Obamacare.” On October 20th, however, he told the Monroe News Star that it’s time to give up on stopping Obamacare and to begin fixing it instead.

“Realistically, we’re past the point of repealing it,” McAllister said. “Now we have to try to make it better. That’s isn’t waffling; it’s reality,” he explained.

Just one day later, Vance detailed his presidential ambitions to a live statewide radio audience. He explained to host Moon Griffon that he would like to serve ten years in Congress and then run for president of the United States.

“I’ll either go to my house or the White House,” McAllister said. “I’ve got to start with one seat at a time.”

His frequent discussion of running for president–and his move to the left–actually started during the final days of Louisiana’s “open primary” election, as polls began to point to an all-Republican run-off between McAllister and conservative Senator Neil Riser.

At one forum, Vance compared himself to Ronald Reagan, saying that no one gave him a chance of becoming president, either.

“I think in ten years, there’s a choice to make. I either come to my house or I go to the White House. I think it’s as simple as that…I’ve got a beautiful family that I either want to come back to or I really want to make them proud…step up and try to turn this country around from the very top. I use the example of Ronald Reagan. They said he was just an old actor. I think he was one of the finer presidents we ever had.”

Les Miles can tell you that it’s important not to look ahead to the next game. Vance’s head coach, or campaign manager, just can’t seem to keep him on message. On Monday, he was at it again, talking about living in the White House in his speech to the Ouachita Republican Women. He had no apologies.

“Some people think it’s funny when I say this,” Vance told the GOP ladies. “But this is just how I do business.”

Vance McAllister has every right to prepare early for the 2024 Iowa presidential caucuses. It’s just not clear whether it’s the Republican or Democratic caucuses that are on his master calendar.

Vance’s dramatic move leftward was on display again last week before the News Star Editorial Board. He made it clear that he supports a “pathway to citizenship” for illegal aliens that sounds very much like amnesty. He has also taken a Pelosi-like position on raising the federal debt ceiling.

“We’ve got ourselves in a pickle,” McAllister said. “Sometimes you got to spend money to save money…so we’re in a bind…I think we’ve probably got to raise the debt ceiling,” he said.

“I don’t know about y’all, but we’ve all had that brother…that sister…that family member that gets themselves in a bind…and you want to shake your hand and say, ‘Come on man…you got more sense than that.’ But what do we do? We help them out of the bind and we hope they do right.. I think that’s what we have got to do with the debt ceiling. I think we’ve gotta bite the bullet…,” McAllister argued.

McAllister’s reversal on Obamacare could be an attempt to appeal to the 30% of voters in LA-05 who are African-American Democrats. But one wonders why Vance would now insert immigration reform and raising the debt ceiling into the debate. Is there really a large constituency in rural Louisiana for more federal debt or for putting illegal immigrants on public assistance?

About now, Vance must think that running for office is the toughest job in the world. He would be wrong. Serving as Vance’s handler is obviously much more difficult. For when the attacks come, and his own words are used against him, Mr. McAllister will have no one to blame but himself. He’ll soon find out that amnesty, Obamacare and the federal debt are no more popular in Mer Rouge than they will be in Des Moines.

Ray Griffin
RSCC District 105B