The endorsement actually came last week. It wasn’t a particular surprise, but it did make us chuckle. What do we call an alliance between Edwards and Broome, who have combined over the last eight years to trash the state and its capital city in so demonstrative a way?

The Axis of Suck? The League of Blight?

Anyway, Edwards had to work awfully hard to make that endorsement not laughable…

Former Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has endorsed Sharon Weston Broome as she seeks her third term as mayor-president of East Baton Rouge Parish.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Edwards praised Broome’s leadership during their overlapping tenures, which lasted from 2016 to 2024, and highlighted her handling of the city’s “most challenging crises,” including multiple natural disasters and the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Time and time again I’ve seen her on the frontlines. I’ve seen how effective she is,” said Edwards. “I’ve seen how much she loves the people of East Baton Rouge Parish.”

He also commended her MoveBR initiative, an ongoing $46 million project aimed at improving transportation infrastructure.

“It’s a large reason why Baton Rouge has the strongest, most resilient economy in the state of Louisiana today,” said Edwards.

“Gov. Edwards understands the importance of experienced committed leadership and I’m humbled to have your endorsement, thank you so much,” said Broome.

Edwards joined New-Orleans based Law Firm Fishman-Haygood LLP, shortly after leaving office. The endorsement follows a tight Nov. 5 general election where three candidates nearly split the vote. Republican and rookie politician Sid Edwards shocked many after receiving the most votes, despite polling in single digits and limited fundraising.

Gov. Edwards also applauded Broome for improving public safety in the city, despite opponents like Sid Edwards claiming otherwise.

“The Baton Rouge police department is larger, stronger, more capable today than it was before she became mayor,” he said.

It’s funny that Edwards would put that obvious lie out there given that Baton Rouge is literally the most dangerous city in America now, but let’s remember that John Bel Edwards supervised the state police being some 300 officers short of its funded strength by the end of his time in office.

So he isn’t exactly an authority on “stronger, more capable” law enforcement.

Broome celebrated the JBE endorsement by going to a debate televised by WAFB-TV Tuesday night and utterly failing to articulate any reason why anyone should give her four more years.

She acknowledged the city’s crime rate is through the sky, but it’s OK, she said, because she bought the Baton Rouge Police Department a new fleet of cars. Sid Edwards, her Republican opponent, hilariously popped her by noting he’d recently interacted with a BRPD officer whose patrol car was covered with duct tape.

Edwards talked about an old project that Baton Rouge’s leaders have neglected for years to expand Airline Highway and US 190 from the old Huey Long Bridge all the way to I-12; Broome then bragged about the MovEBR project and its billion dollars spent on traffic improvements – but acknowledged traffic is as bad as ever.

She said the biggest challenge Baton Rouge has is telling its story. People just don’t know how awesome the place is!

Then moderator Greg Meriwether brought up Broome’s hilariously terrible “Summer of Hope” program, which was aimed at getting a handle on crime, and got her to admit she wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on it.

Sid Edwards didn’t have to do much to win that debate. Simply standing up straight was enough. When Broome got a chance to ask him a question her best shot was to attack him because records show he hadn’t voted. The coach responded by saying that he became apolitical for about eight years because he was disgusted with politics, but that he was wrong to have acted – or refuse to act – on that disgust.

And just like that, an argument Team Broome thought was disqualifying got thrown back in their faces.

For an hour she brought up one promise after another, and over and over again never addressed the fact she’s been mayor-president for eight years. It was like watching Kamala Harris pretend she had nothing to do with the failures of the Biden administration.

Meriwether made her look stupid on the question of St. George and the $18 million – at least – that the city-parish owes the new city. She tried to say she didn’t contest the election which established the new city back in 2019, which was a lie, and that it didn’t cost the taxpayers any money to prosecute that lawsuit.

Yeah, OK. When everyone knows it’s the opportunity cost of not working out a suitable cooperative arrangement is the real harm in that suit.

Everything about the Axis of Suck was on display in that debate. We’ll see if anybody cares that John Bel Edwards is advocating for Baton Rouge to continue its current decline.