It would seem that there are people holding themselves out there as knowledgeable on Louisiana politics and work for the legacy media outlets here who haven’t particularly put that knowledge on display so far in this gubernatorial race taking shape in the Bayou State.

Take, for example, an Advocate piece appearing a week ago about the fundraising totals released in the middle of July. Those numbers showed that Jeff Landry is dominating the Louisiana governor’s race in a way virtually nobody has in recent memory. He was sitting on some $9.1 million in cash on hand as of the latest filing period, which is a massive advantage compared to John Schroder, the next best-funded candidate, who had $2.2 million in the bank.

Followed by Hunter Lundy at a self-funded $2.1 million and Stephen Waguespack at $1.8 million. Shawn Wilson, the only Democrat in the race, was all the way down the ladder at a little under $600,000.

Landry raised $4.5 million in the second quarter, a massive number which clearly dwarfs anything the others raised. His total fundraising and cash on hand are more than the rest of the field combined.

So how does Sam Karlin, the Advocate’s political reporter who supposedly understands Louisiana politics, characterize those numbers?

Well, here’s Karlin’s lede…

“Attorney General Jeff Landry has continued to far outpace his competitors in fundraising for this fall’s governor’s race, but several challengers have made significant gains as the competition enters a new phase.”

Significant gains compared to what?

Not compared to Landry. He’s outraising all of the rest of the field combined. Exactly how does that translate into “significant gains?”

Karlin then went to Dillard University’s Robert Collins, who’s about as loyal a Democrat as you can find, and got this…

While Landry’s campaign cash dwarfs that of the other candidates, some observers believe it’s too early to say whether Landry is a lock for the runoff. Voters generally don’t start paying attention to the race until after qualifying, in August.

Robert Collins, a professor of urban studies and public policy at Dillard University, said Wilson should be a lock for a runoff spot unless another major Democrat unexpectedly enters the race. He said Landry is the favorite on the Republican side, but added that things will become clearer after TV ads and televised debates begin in earnest.

“It’s still very early in the race,” Collins said. “The voters have not started paying attention yet. The voters will not start paying attention until after qualifying when the field is officially set. Most of the candidates have not started their television campaigns yet.”

Yes, it’s only July and yes, interest in gubernatorial races generally ramps up after qualifying. But Collins is flat-out wrong when he says that the race hasn’t taken shape and voters don’t care yet.

That’s a Democrat narrative. It’s not reality. This gubernatorial race has more interest than we’ve seen in quite a while, mostly because people are horrified at the condition Louisiana is in. But the people horrified by the state’s decline aren’t generally folks that Robert Collins talks to.

It’s Republicans who are engaged. And in particular it’s conservatives who are engaged. It’s obvious Karlin is trying to downplay that with his phony lead and his propaganda article. Karlin buries the lede until the second-to-last paragraph, when he notes that in 2015 David Vitter was sitting on only $5 million at this point; Landry’s war chest is nearly double that at $9.1 million.

An honest piece would note that Wilson is John Bel Edwards’ chosen candidate with the full support of Edwards’ machine and he’s sitting on just a little more than half what Edwards had in the bank.

It would also note that Lundy’s $2.1 million is all his own money and zero evidence of any support whatsoever from the public. Instead Karlin calls Lundy “formidable.” There is virtually zero evidence that self-funded candidates win statewide races in Louisiana. Eddie Rispone went through $25 million of his own money and couldn’t buy the 2019 gubernatorial race; Walter Boasso and Karlin’s boss John Georges failed miserably to buy the 2007 gubernatorial race for far more than Lundy has loaned his campaign. But Lundy is “formidable?”

This is not “objective” reporting. It’s barely even a facsimile of journalism. A piece with any real respect for truth and reality would note that Landry’s money advantage is more pronounced than any candidate in a supposedly-contested gubernatorial race in modern memory, and he’s teetering on the brink of turning the campaign into a rout.

It would also note that Wilson’s paltry fundraising is or should be raising concerns about his viability in a runoff, and what the second straight major statewide election (coming off the disaster of last year’s U.S. Senate race against John Kennedy) in which Democrats are uncompetitive might mean for their future.

That isn’t discussed at all, which is pretty telling. It’s not that the Democrats have to win this race or they’re dead; it’s that right now they look like they’re going to get reduced to a rump party with no influence in state politics at all – which would be a hell of a political legacy for John Bel Edwards, wouldn’t it?

And we don’t really understand the head-in-the-sand stance here by the state Democrat Party’s house organ. What good are these guys doing themselves pretending they’re not in trouble?

We even see this elsewhere. For example, Shreveport pollster Bishop George was interviewed by LAPolitics.com’s Jeremy Alford last week, and he dropped this quote about Wilson…

George: “It’s hard to predict a trajectory at this stage. Shawn Wilson, the lone Democrat, has received solid Democratic support, but his campaign lacks a strong impression. Jeff Landry, as attorney general, has higher name recognition than other candidates, but he’s polling around 30 percent in published polls. There is no reason to think all the people who say they will vote for him in this early poll will stay with him throughout the campaign. Just look at Gov. Edwards eight years ago—few people gave him a chance at this stage. With less than 100 days to go, anything could happen, especially if another viable Democrat enters the race. That would spell trouble for both Landry and Wilson as it could potentially make way for a Republican runoff.”

Say what?

What “viable Democrat” is he talking about? It’s the end of July – if there were any other “viable” Democrats out there, they’d be in the race by now. And we already went through the phantom of New Orleans DA Jason Williams getting into the governor’s race; that was largely a fantasy spun by Waguespack’s camp which didn’t go anywhere.

By the way, there is plenty of reason to think the people telling pollsters they’re voting for Landry will stick with him. For one thing Landry has Donald Trump’s endorsement and we know how loyal Trump voters are to that brand. For another, Landry has the endorsement of the state GOP, which is sitting on almost $2 million that Landry raised them, and the party is going to make that endorsement very well known. And for a third thing, there’s the obvious – Landry has won two landslide statewide elections as Attorney General. He’s demonstrated by far that he’s a vote-getter.

We’re not here to cheerlead Landry or to say the race is over. Historically speaking George is correct – Louisiana voters more often than not will embrace some “flavor of the month” candidate late and elevate them from the pack to frontrunner status at the end of a campaign. It’s still possible somebody will do that in this cycle, and while Landry seems to be inching up from the high 20’s to the low 30’s as the race goes along, he hasn’t closed the door altogether to someone making a run at him. Yet.

Except historically speaking you don’t have the circumstances you have now, with a Democrat Party so decimated that it can’t put up a candidate able to raise a million dollars before July and a Republican frontrunner so thoroughly outworking the competition. And that – the fact that Landry has set such a high bar of activity and funding for the competition to meet – is the real story of the race so far.

Not that anyone seems willing to tell it.