Sound Off Louisiana

Keith Baudin, R-St. Martinville, who is running for Louisiana State Representative for District 46 against incumbent Mike Huval, R-Breaux Bridge.

Sound Off Louisiana subscribers may recall our feature from last week in which we touted the overhaul of one of our sister websites, No Penny Renewal, to assist challengers in their efforts to defeat incumbent Louisiana Legislators who voted in favor of Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards’ sales tax measures.

Today (Tuesday, January 29, 2019), we commence with making our first official endorsement of one such challenger:  Keith Baudin (R-St. Martinville).

Mr. Baudin is challenging incumbent State Representative Mike Huval (R-Breaux Bridge) for Louisiana House District 46.

The NoPennyRenewal website featured above now has a formal endorsement page for each individual candidate we endorse which features a brief interview with the challenger of an incumbent who supported Edwards’ tax increase measures.  Additionally, we provide a profile of the incumbent complete with direct links of that incumbent’s votes of “YES” on Gov. Edwards’ tax increase measures in order for viewers to confirm that the incumbent, Mike Huval in this instance, did in fact cast such votes.

We now replicate our first endorsement on the page, Keith Baudin in his efforts to defeat incumbent Mike Huval:

Official Endorsement:

House District # 46:  Keith Baudin

In his efforts to defeat incumbent Mike Huval, who is profiled below together with his votes in favor of Gov. Edwards’ tax hike measures:

Rep. Mike Huval, R-Breaux Bridge, District 46
Phone:  (337) 332-3331  [email protected]

HUVAL:  Voted YES on 5/25/18 (1/3 cent sales tax renewal) and YES on 5/28/18.

Stay tuned folks, we are expecting to make more endorsements in coming days and weeks to help ensure that Louisiana citizens are NOT subjected to more irresponsible tax increase measures after the conclusion of the 2019 election cycle has been completed!

Disclosure:

Neither Robert Burns, Sound Off Louisiana, nor any affiliate of same received one red cent in compensation for any endorsements; furthermore, no expense associated with any travel to videotape a candidate for an interview is being paid by the candidate. 

Our endorsements are made SOLELY and EXCLUSIVELY based off our commitment to ensuring the Louisiana Legislature’s composition is NOT conducive to ANY more tax increases after the 2019 election cycle has concluded.

If you would like to be added to our Sound Off Louisiana email list to be notified of future posts, simply go to our home page and scroll to the bottom (mobile devices) or to the top of the right-hand column (desktops).  Supply your email address within the subscribe box.  You’ll then receive an automated email from Word Press, and all you have to do is click on the blue “confirm follow” bar contained within that email, and you’ll begin receiving great posts such as the preceding one above.

Baton Rouge Businessman and Republican Candidate for Louisiana Governor, Eddie Rispone.

At the East Baton Rouge Republican Women’s meeting of Thursday, January 24, 2019, candidate for Louisiana Governor, Eddie Rispone, R-Baton Rouge, had some choice words for incumbent Governor John Bel Edwards, D-Amite.  Let’s take a look:

Rispone flatly states Edwards is “not a Governor we want to have,” and slams him on “not placing children first” on education.

Rispone references Together Baton Rouge as a “socialist group” and slams Edwards’ abrupt changes to Louisiana’s ITEP program (EBRP Councilmen Dwight Hudson and Matt Watson pose questions entailing the ITEP program).

Rispone fields a question entailing Medicaid expansion.

Rispone responds to a question regarding his thoughts on a Constitutional Convention.

Rispone fields a question entailing his ability to work with President Trump.

Rispone fields a question from Baton Rouge adoption-law attorney Todd Gaudin regarding why Rispone feels he’s the better Republican choice over challenger U. S. Congressman Ralph Abraham (R-Mangham).

Mr. Gaudin is no fan of Robert Burns or Sound Off Louisiana.  Long-time subscribers may recall an intriguing email exchange between Burns and Gaudin after Burns called Gaudin on the carpet regarding Gaudin’s ill-conceived stand that Burns had no right to videotape proceedings of the Louisiana State Law Institute on which Gaudin volunteers.

In this video, Burns flatly informed Gaudin and the other members of that 18-member panel (some of whom are State District Judges) that he most certainly did have the right to videotape the proceedings and that, if they hindered his efforts to do so, litigation would surely follow.

On the email exchange previously linked, Gaudin emphatically states that Burns has been “deceived” by adoption reform advocate Criag Mills (on whom Sound Off Louisiana has done a five-part feature entailing alleged adoption scams).

Well, if Burns was “deceived” at the time of that email exchange, apparently so too was State Rep. Rick Edmonds (R-Baton Rouge), who touted Mills’ advocacy in this video and sponsored several adoption reform measures in the 2018 Louisiana Legislature which all passed by very wide margins.  Hence, perhaps Gaudin had the ill-conceived notion that essentially the entire Legislature, like Burns, was being “deceived” by Mills since, as depicted on the video just linked, Edmonds readily credits Mills as being the driving force behind his legeslative initiatives!

Stay tuned, folks.  We’ll have more developments on Mills’ civil litigation entailing his alleged adoption scam as his trial date, tentatively scheduled for August of this year, approaches!

To see Mr. Rispone’s presentation in its entirety, CLICK HERE.

If you would like to be added to our Sound Off Louisiana email list to be notified of future posts, simply go to our home page and scroll to the bottom (mobile devices) or to the top of the right-hand column (desktops).  Supply your email address within the subscribe box.  You’ll then receive an automated email from Word Press, and all you have to do is click on the blue “confirm follow” bar contained within that email, and you’ll begin receiving great posts such as the preceding one above.

Louisiana State Police Commission Member Jared Caruso-Riecke

At the meeting of the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) of Thursday, January 10, 2019, retired LSP Trooper Leon “Bucky” Millet called for the “immediate resignations” of three LSPC members over what Millet contends are “illegal political activities” entailing campaign contributions.  Here’s a condensed (less than two minutes) video of the allegations and member Jared Caruso-Riecke’s initial response:

Millet lodges his complaint and Riecke provides his initial verbal response at the 1/10/19 LSPC meeting.

Riecke has vigorously denied Millet’s allegations as “erroneous.”  We’ll now break down developments since that January 10, 2019 LSPC meeting:

1.  We made the following public records request of the LSPC on Tuesday, January 15, 2019 at 9:25 p.m.:

2.  The next day, Wednesday, January 16, 2019 at 12:13 p.m., LSPC Executive Director, Jason Hannaman, solicited from Riecke documentation which would be responsive to our request; furthermore, eight minutes later, 1/16/19 @ 12:21 p.m., Riecke indicated, “My response to these erroneous allegations against me will be sent to you digitally via email with hard copy to follow via Federal Express, no later than Friday, January 18, 2019.”  That email exchange follows:

3.  Riecke provided documentation to Hannaman as follows:

A.  A letter response dated one day after his email (i.e. January 17, 2019).  That letter follows:

B.  A letter from Rep. Mark Wright to Riecke begging forgiveness of Riecke dated January 10, 2019, which follows:

C.  The original campaign finance report page stated to be “incorrect,” which follows:

D.  The “corrected” campaign finance report page, which shows changes to include #1) the contributor (changed from “Riecke and Associates” to “Denis Riecke”), #2) the date (from July 1, 2017 to July 11, 2017), and #3) the address (from 301 North Columbia St. Covington, Louisiana  70483 to 68 Spruce Street, Covington, Louisiana 70433).  That document follows:

E.  A copy of the invitation for the event, which follows:

F.  An invoice from the restaurant with a hand-written notation that “Denis Riecke” paid “$500 CASH” to Meribo for refreshments for approximately 30 people who attended the event.  That invoice (which Riecke references as a “receipt” in his letter) follows:

G.  A notarized affidavit executed by Denis Riecke on January 11, 2019 indicating that he and he alone was responsible for the cash payment to the restaurant for the fundraiser.  That document follows:

In the conclusion of Riecke’s letter, he states:  “I hope my vindication of these charges will be as vigorously and aggressively made public as (the) original allegation.”

We certainly can’t speak for  The Advocate or WWL-TV, both of which followed our original feature on this matter, but certainly we at Sound Off Louisiana have laid Commissioner Riecke’s response out about as bare and public as we know how to do.  We’ll leave it to our readers to assess his response.

We now conclude with a final recommendation to Rep. Wright, particularly in light of him having lambasted us for having, “let this go public with no investigation of the facts.”

Giving every benefit of the doubt about all these “changed particulars,” and given the readily admitted to submission of a campaign finance report containing:  #1) a wrong date, #2) a wrong contributor, and #3) a wrong address of that contributor, we suggest Rep. Wright be a little more diligent on future campaign finance reports.  After all, plenty of folk will be more than happy to scrutinize them upon filing and point out (again, giving every benefit of the doubt) what can only be described as rank sloppiness.  Hence, it just may be a good idea to “tighten the ship a bit” for future filings and not seek a scapegoat (Sound Off Louisiana in this instance) because, being blunt, we have absolutely no intention of being anyone’s scapegoat!

If you would like to be added to our Sound Off Louisiana email list to be notified of future posts, simply go to our home page and scroll to the bottom (mobile devices) or to the top of the right-hand column (desktops).  Supply your email address within the subscribe box.  You’ll then receive an automated email from Word Press, and all you have to do is click on the blue “confirm follow” bar contained within that email, and you’ll begin receiving great posts such as the preceding one above.