Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D-Amite), who was the lone partipant at the Baton Rouge Press Club’s forum for Louisiana Governor on Monday, October 28, 2019 as his opponent, businessman Eddie Rispone (R-Baton Rouge) opted to pass on attending.
Controversial Louisiana political power broker and businessman Lane Grigsby, whom Gov. Edwards laid bare his campaign’s intent to tie to the hip of his challenger Eddie Rispone as being Rispone’s “corrupt puppet master.”
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D-Amite) served as the lone participant at the Baton Rogue Press Club (BRPC)’s meeting of Monday, October 28, 2019. He was the lone participant because his challenger, businessman Eddie Rispone (R-Baton Rouge), took a pass on attending. Let’s take a look at a few highlights of Gov. Edwards’ presentation:
Edwards responds to a question of his “chances of winning over Ralph Abraham’s supporters.”
Edwards takes a few jabs at his absentee rival Rispone and emphasizes that he (Edwards) should not bear the responsibility for outlining Rispone’s position on redistricting.
Edwards teletypes his campaign’s very obvious strategy of tying controversial political power broker Lane Grigsby and Rispone at the hips in referencing Grigsby as a “corrupt puppet master.”
Former Republican (he withdrew from the GOP last week) and U. S. Senate candidate (2014) Col. Rob Maness has been the most outspoken critic of the Rispone-Grigsby connection; however, he’s far from alone as this article by The Advocate’s Tyler Bridges (a/k/a “The Twit” per conservative talk-show host Moon Griffon) makes clear.
The reality is that the Grigsby-Rispone connection has for a protracted period been known to be a weapon readily available at Edwards’ disposal should Rispone make the runoff, which he obviously now has.
What’s not known is whether, in deploying a scorched-earth approach (which is the only approach Grigsby knows and was likely the motivating factor behind Rispone’s own scorched-earth approach entailing Abraham) will have so alienated enough folk like former BESE member Lottie Beebe and former East Baton Rouge Parish Councilman and LSU Economics professor Dr. Pat Culbertson to sway enough voters off Rispone to give Edwards the win:
“I’m a Christian,” Beebe said recently. “It’s wrong what he’s doing.” (Grigsby, who calls himself a life-long Christian, was raised Methodist but worships at the multidenominational Grace Life Fellowship.)
Beebe added that she won’t support Rispone in next month’s runoff because of his connection to Grigsby. “He will more or less rubber-stamp Lane Grigsby’s education policies.”
In 2007, Grigsby created Our Louisiana PAC, which targeted at least six legislative candidates. One mailer tarred Pat Culbertson, a Republican member of the East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council, as “a tax-and-spend liberal.”
“I’m all about freedom of speech, but it amazes me that people could just lie and distort my record,” Culbertson told The Advocate then, adding that he didn’t know why Grigsby attacked him.
At any rate, Grigsby’s close association with Rispone most assuredly won’t be an asset for Rispone, and our advice would be get ready to be peppered with both attack ads and debate questions Wednesday night regarding Grigsby and have some good explanations. Obviously, “The Twit,” as Griffon is fond of reference Bridges, clearly saw the benefit of strategically exploiting former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal by making sure he appeared on prominent display on the photo of the feature linked above!
Edwards is asked if he’s “concerned at all” by the support of President Trump and Vice President Pence for his opponent Mr. Rispone.
Edwards responds to a question by BRPC Secretary-Treasurer John Hightower entailing Louisiana’s high automobile insurance rates.
Edwards is asked to respond to Rispone’s support of a Louisiana School Voucher Program implemented under the administration of former Gov. Bobby Jindal.
For the record, Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns, who never refrains from posing a question at a BRPC meeting, intentionally refrained from even raising his hand for today’s meeting. He is choosing to keep his reasons for doing so to himself, but he’s making it crystal clear there was no avoidance whatsoever on the part of Gov. Edwards in not calling on Burns for a question as Burns never even made that a possibility.
CLICK HERE for the “forum” in its entirety.
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