The Hayride’s Endorsement Symposium, Runoff Edition – Lt. Governor, Attorney General

For our endorsements for Governor, click here.

FOR LT. GOVERNOR

MacAoidh: Not Kip Holden. Please, Not Kip Holden. Billy Nungesser is a good man and a hard worker, and he will do a creditable job as Louisiana’s Lt. Governor. But even if he were not, I would implore the voters of this state not to elect to an office a heartbeat away from the governor’s mansion.

Kip Holden has presided over 11 years of decline of Baton Rouge. He has accelerated the departure of the middle class from the city, he has bloated the public fisc, he has wasted effort and resources in pursuing constant tax increases and he has engaged in personal conduct of a continuous nature so unbefitting of an elected official as to make it an object of amazement that public scandal has not forced his early ouster. Perhaps the fact he is the first black mayor of Baton Rouge plays a role in this, but regardless he is an embarrassment.

I expected a blowout in Nungesser’s favor, and I still expect him to win. But the polls have been all over the place, which makes Saturday serious business. Do not let Baton Rouge’s problem become Louisiana’s problem.

Kevin Boyd: Billy Nungesser. I voted for him in the primary and I will definitely vote for him again in the runoff. He’s running against Baton Rouge’s town drunk Kip Holden. Holden is a disgrace.

John Binder: Billy Nungesser. Voters have two options in the Lt. Governor’s race. A liberal from the ever-screwed-up and mismanaged Baton Rouge City Government. Or a Republican from Plaquemines Parish that was influential in getting the state national attention after Hurricane Katrina.

The latter, Billy Nungesser, fought like hell after Katrina for his constituents in Plaquemines Parish and really put the state on the map. In some way, this is what the state needs in a Lt. Gov. because they largely do handle tourism. Nungesser has a proven record of doing that without breaking the budget.

Kip Holden, the mayor of Baton Rouge, has a record like every other Democrat in the state. Higher taxes, more regulation, more spending, more government.

Nungesser’s the conservative choice in this race and it couldn’t be more obvious.

FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL

MacAoidh: Jeff Landry. Jeff is a personal friend and a man of conviction who was willing to fight the Washington elite while a freshman member of Congress, and were it not for his being the odd man out of Louisiana’s redistricting fight Jeff would likely be a national rising star among the Tea Party/Freedom Caucus movement on Capitol Hill.

Instead, we’re fortunate enough to have a man with the courage to fight the establishment as a candidate for a public office which can matter a great deal in reforming Louisiana’s state and local governments.

Landry’s opponent, the “former” Democrat Buddy Caldwell, has castigated him for a supposed lack of experience as a lawyer. This is laughable. Caldwell has staggered into a courtroom only on a few occasions in two terms as Attorney General, and the last time he did he was arguing the wrong case in front of a judge. The Attorney General is a policymaking job, not a litigator’s position; you hire people to do those things. The AG directs their efforts. And Landry will direct his office away from its current iteration as the state’s largest plaintiff shop to a true public service operation which seeks out and prosecutes local corruption and lawlessness.

Kevin Boyd: Jeff Landry. Jeff Landry is a conservative who will bring some much needed integrity to the Attorney General’s office. Landry is pro-life, pro-gun, and doesn’t endorse Mary Landrieu and Barbara Norton. Buddy Caldwell is a crook who is a pusher of “legacy lawsuits” against the oil industry. Caldwell is exactly the type of faux conservative we need to get rid of in this state.

John Binder: Jeff Landry. Former Louisiana Congressman Jeff Landry has long been considered a kind of outcast. While in Congress, he managed to take on the GOP establishment for failing to stand up to the Obama administration on Obamacare and energy issues.

Even when Landry left Congress, he criticized former House Speaker John Boehner for basically being a lapdog to the White House. So, as you can see, Landry is much like Vitter in the sense that he is hated by everyone (Democrats, GOP establishment and media) except the voters, which is always a good sign.

Besides this, our current Attorney General Buddy Caldwell has used the office to help his political donors and rich attorney friends. As the Louisiana Lawsuit Abuse Watch has so perfectly tracked, Caldwell far-too-often uses private attorneys whom he is friends with to represent the state in litigation. It’s so bad, that the practice has been dubbed the “Buddy System,” as Caldwell’s office is really all about his buddies reaping the benefits of litigation on the backs of the Louisiana taxpayer.

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