Is Gov. Edwards’ resignation imminent?

A flyer touting a fundraising event for State Sen. Katrina Jackson featuring Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards.

On April 19, 2021, we were invited to a statewide NAACP Zoom meeting.  Gov. Edwards was the guest speaker.  Louisiana NAACP President Michael McClanahan showered Edwards with the highest praise possible.  Let’s take a look:

After the invocation, Louisiana NAACP President Michael McClanahan gave a very strong and authoritative introduction of Gov. Edwards in which he (Edwards) was showered with praise and adoration.

Judging by this Business Report article, it would appear the bloom has come off the rose, so to speak, regarding Gov. Edwards with the Louisiana NAACP.  From that article:

Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin, called on Edwards to resign, saying he chose political expediency over justice in a man’s death.

“He needs to go,” Hardin told AP. “He was able to stand aside as all this unfolded and just remain mute. That’s shameful. … I hate that I’ve been lied to.”

Louisiana NAACP officials issued a statement calling the AP revelations “deeply disturbing.”

“The NAACP finds this severely demonstrates a need for our governor to be fully transparent with our great state. We feel that our governor has seemingly missed the mark so far,” the statement reads. “When did you learn the truth, governor?”

The final paragraph sure does fly in the face of the praise video above, no?  What a difference 287 days can make.

We feel compelled to point out that, as we made clear on our feature linked above, some in attendance at that Zoom meeting were far from happy with Edwards and McClanahan.  Specifically, Ms. Belinda Parker-Brown raised her virtual hand to ask Gov. Edwards a question (which would have entailed the arrest of Ronald Greene), only to be ignored throughout the meeting.  She resorted to sending a group-wide message at the bottom of everyone’s screen:  “I did not realize this was going to be nothing more than a cheerleading meeting for the Governor.”

In our opinion, it has gone beyond recovery at this point.  For the mother of Mr. Greene to make the statement she makes above, Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser may as well let the interior decorators know what color drapes he wants in the Mansion’s main living room.

When we reported upon Democratic Senate candidate Luke Mixon’s quest to defeat U. S. Sen. John Kennedy, we told his associates at the meeting that, in our opinion, it was incomprehensible that Mixon could be that out-of-touch regarding Ronald Greene and be that dismissive of the importance of the Greene matter to the African American community in Louisiana.

We also stated to them:  “Take this to the bank.  John Bel Edwards will leave the Governor’s Mansion more unpopular than Bobby Jindal.”  Their response:  “That would seem impossible!”  Our guess is that they find it much less “impossible” now than that short time ago.

Mixon’s timing on saying Edwards is, “the political leader with whom I feel most aligned philosophically,” could not have possibly been timed any worse than it was.  It also didn’t help that, the very next day, Gary Chambers announced his candidacy for Kennedy’s U. S. Senate seat.  Given the massive syphoning that Chambers will have on African American voters away from Mixon (and Chambers won’t hesitate to throw that video of Mixon’s response to our question in Mixon’s face), Mixon is now relegated to little more than a footnote in the race who will do very well to capture 8 percent of the statewide vote.

If we’re right and Edwards’ days in the Mansion are in fact numbered and very low at this point, we guess State Sen. Katrina Jackson still plans to squeeze the last little bit of milk from the “Edwards cow” that she can as evidenced by the lead photo for this feature, which we reproduce at this time:

We’ve already gotten reaction from a number of folk in the African American community in Louisiana about the above fundraiser, and let’s just say it hasn’t been pretty at all.  One African American prominent individual who had not even seen the flyer until we sent it to him mere hours ago stated:  “Do you know just how bad this looks?  She is going to have him come into the very town where they beat that poor black man to death and use him (Gov. Edwards) to raise money.  It was wrong for her to invite him, and it’s wrong for him to go!”

We can only wonder if the Bayou DeSiard Country Club charged a non-refundable deposit.  Even if they did, Sen. Jackson may wish to opt to “cut losses” and cancel the planned fundraiser!  We’ll see if it still transpires.

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