As The Hayride reported last week, State Sen. Norby Chabert (R-Houma) drew himself a primary opponent. Oil man Mike Fesi, Sr. announced he was challenging Chabert.
Fesi kicked off his race by putting $319,000 of his own money into his campaign account. $319,000 just happens to be the amount Norby Chabert has spent in his campaign account since 2011, when he was unopposed. However, Chabert was not exactly spending all that money on signs, pushcards, fundraising, and direct mail. He was spending that money on things like concerts, LSU and Saints football tickets, golf tournaments, travel, and dubious consulting fees.
The Hayride has found Chabert has spent $80,645.32 on consulting fees, $47,552.40 on donations to organizations, $44,744.62 on fundraising expenses which is mostly his annual golf tournament, and $24,796 on LSU and Saints football tickets. In contrast, Chabert’s campaign only spent $26,136.74 in advertising to constituents and voters through 2010-2014.
Among the highlights in Chabert’s report:
A total of $14,024.92 in phone and cell phone bills.
Nearly $1,400 in expenses to Cajun Enterprises out of Houma for when served as Grand Marshal of the Krewe of Mardi Gras parade
A $1,000 contribution to a PAC called Coastal ImPAC. More on that PAC in a bit.
Like steak? Almost everyone does. Norby is just like you in that he likes steak. He likes it so much that his campaign has bought himself a few dinners.
He was also nice enough to buy meals for constituents. I’m glad Norby is nice enough to buy meals, even after raising taxes by $700 million in the past session. I obviously have the wrong state Senator.
Not just Ruth’s Chris, but also at Galatoire’s
LSU tickets? Yep, he got those.
Saints tickets? Yep, after all the contributors are paying for them.
Finally, want to go see a concert? No problem! Just have the contributors pay for it too!
Those must have been some great seats. He also decided to just go ahead and stay overnight as well.
That must have been the best room in New Orleans that night.
Finally, ex-Democrat Norby used some of this money to build his conservative Republican credentials by donating to candidates, such as New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu.
But we’re not done because Norby has a couple of PACs too. He formed the Coastal ImPAC and the Geaux Forward Louisiana PAC in 2014. As of the last report in May 2014, it only has $614.00 in the bank. It hasn’t been formally dissolved either.
The Geaux Forward Louisiana PAC raised $3300 in its short lifespan. $2,791 of that money was paid in either consulting fees or reimbursements to his political director, Toby Gascon. Gascon was also paid another $28,500 from the campaign fund itself.
People in Senate District 20 need to ask themselves if they want to be represented by a playboy who uses his campaign fund to party or do they want actual conservative leadership in Baton Rouge.
