Louisiana Senator (and announced candidate for U. S. Senate) Blake Miguez and his family.
On Monday, July 7, 2025, Dadrius Lanus, who is a Member of the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board and the subject of an ethics investigation for an alleged violation of Louisiana’s nepotism law, which he characterizes as a “frivolous attack,” was the guest speaker at the Baton Rouge Press Club (BRPC).
Lanus focused almost all of his opening remarks on lambasting the recently-passed One Big Beautiful Bill championed by President Donald Trump. Much of his other commentary focused on procuring a Democrat to defeat U. S. Senator Bill Cassidy in his quest for a third six-year term in office next year.
Radio talk show host Jim Engster posed an interesting question of Lanus in asking, “Would you rather run against Cassidy or another Republican?” Lanus had to seek a repeat of the question.
Once Engster repeated the question with an emphasis on the fact that, with a closed primary, there is “no guarantee” that Cassidy will be the Republican nominee, Lanus responded with a three-minute, 31-second (3:31) ramble that seemed to last forever without really answering the question of who the preferred Republican opponent would be. Let’s watch his response:
7/7/25: Dadrius Lanus responds to Engster’s question of whether the Louisiana Democratic Party would rather face incumbent U. S. Senator Bill Cassidy or one of his Republican challengers in an election.
When this blog was formed, founder Robert Burns committed that, under no circumstances, would he accept advertising of any kind. He further resolved himself that, under no circumstances, would he accept funds to defray the costs of obtaining court records, the cost of public records requests, travel expenses to attend court hearings, etc.
What Burns never committed to doing was to refrain from endorsing candidates and/or providing financial support to a candidate for office. Burns has done plenty of the former but precious little of the latter.
Once in a blue moon, however, a candidate comes along whom Burns believes in strongly enough to both endorse and provide financial support to and, in the interest of full disclosure, Burns has done both already in the case of the recently-announced candidacy of Blake Miguez, Republican State Senator from New Iberia, for U. S. Senate.
Sen. Miguez is an early follower of Sound Off Louisiana, and he has frequently spoken with founder Robert Burns about features we have published. When we say that, we don’t mean that he gave superficial glances at these features. He knew the material covered very well before he initiated communication with Burns.
Miguez was diligent in following the blog in its earliest days when, as Burns briefly mentioned in the video accompanying this feature, Burns very seriously considered shutting the blog down in its early days (as in the first several years) because it was attracting so little attention.
As also mentioned on that video, however, a good friend called Burns as he had all but decided to shut the blog down and said, “I’m asking you not to do that, Robert, because I need to tell you that some very important people follow your blog.” Burns soon realized, through Miguez contacting Burns both by phone and by text, that Miguez was one such very important individual.
Burns would also be stunned a few months after his friend convinced him not to shut the blog down that current U. S. Senator John Kennedy, in addressing the East Baton Rouge Republican Women, prepared to tell a joke, and he looked directly at Burns and said, “Robert has already heard this one.”
Stunned that Sen. Kennedy would even know Burns’ name, Kennedy said to him moments after the event ended that, “Robert, I follow your blog!” Furthermore, Kennedy even asked how Burns’ mother was doing as he even recalled her presence with Burns at meetings of the BRPC.
Of course, it may have helped that mom would always say, “I like him,” after Kennedy would greet her as he made the rounds to speak with everyone prior to the meeting. It may also have helped that Sound Off Louisiana had its debut on June 4, 2015 with then-Treasurer John Kennedy!
The interactions with Miguez and Kennedy mean all the more to us given that we very seriously doubt that, during the entire 10-year history of this blog, that either Burns’ State Representatives or his State Senators (with the notable exception of former State Senator Dan Claitor) have ever had a clue who he is.
Obviously, Burns is not a constituent of Miguez, nor has he ever been. The same holds true for the most reported upon person of this blog, Billy Broussard. Even though Miguez is not Broussard’s Senator (nor was he his State Representative), we know with 100 percent certainty that Miguez has done more to try and aid Broussard in reversing the wrong that was imparted onto him so many years ago. Miguez’s efforts include attending the entirety of this meeting with the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office during which Broussard played an audio file of arguably the most intriguing quote that has ever been published on a Sound Off Louisiana feature.
What can Miguez really gain by expending such extensive time and energy with Broussard on the his matter? We would submit that the only thing that Miguez can derive is the satisfaction of knowing that he played a role in trying to reverse one of the most shocking and devastating financial tragedies that we’ve ever seen bestowed upon anyone that was not caused by a natural disaster. Instead, that financial devastation resulted from improprieties (and that’s a very kind characterization) of numerous governmental officials both at the State and local level. Furthermore, we contend strongly that the coverup of those activities continues to this very day!
As any decent evangelist would say, we need to say one more thing as we close: Blake Miguez is a fiscal conservative! While social conservatives in the Louisiana Legislature are a dime a dozen, true fiscal conservatives (emphasis on the word “true”) are few and far between.
Miguez’s stand is firm: He will not support a fee increase unless it is authoritatively demonstrated that it is warranted. He followed our recent features on the Cosmetology Board diligently and, like us, he was intrigued at the assertions that it would cost over $1 million in building repair costs at the Cosmetology Board’s building.
To the Members of the Senate Commerce Committee’s credit, none of them asserted “privilege,” and we were notified on Friday afternoon that our requested records were ready.
We will have much to say about the numbers contained on page two (2) of this document. Due to the length of this feature, however, for now, we’re just going to put those numbers front and center and remind everyone reading this feature that it was stated before that Committee that the costs to repair the building exceeded $1 million. Here are those numbers:
We aren’t making any comment at this time other than to say the numbers speak for themselves and they are what they are, but let us once again reiterate that statements were made that building repair costs were stated to, “exceed $1 million.” By our math, the total for such repair costs is $199,500.
So, it’s small intangibles like Miguez’s dedicated following of our blog, even for matters such as the recent fee increase for the Cosmetology Board, which we’re pleased to report he voted “NO” on, together with his steadfast proven history of being a true fiscal conservative that cause us to have such loyalty to Sen. Miguez. We are therefore making it clear and unequivocal our strong and emphatic endorsement of him in his quest to replace Bill Cassidy in the U. S. Senate.
For those who may want to learn a little more about Sen. Miguez, here’s his introductory video from his campaign website:
Introductory video of State Sen. Blake Miguez in his quest for U. S. Senate to replace incumbent Bill Cassidy.
CLICK HERE for Louisiana Democratic Party Director Lanus’ presentation in its near entirety (we were running about two minutes late, and what he said in that two minutes was that the Trump One Big Beautiful Bill was not a matter of, “right vs. left,” but rather a matter of, “right vs. wrong.” Everything else he said is captured on the just-linked video.
We need good men like Sen. BLAKE MIGUEZ to lead the charge in Washington. We cannot allow what is referenced in this article and or FEMA and or GOHSEP fraud to continue!!!
We need to hold these companies and or individuals making these false “Eligible” calls accountable, and not to collude with them or cover it up!!!
https://www.kiplinger.com/retirement/medicare/prior-authorization-coming-to-traditional-medicare