Sound Off Louisiana

Louisiana State Rep. Alan Seabaugh (R-Shreveport), who recently announced he has removed his name from consideration for a Federal judgeship and will instead run for re-election as well as seek to become the next Speaker of the House of Representatives in Louisiana.

On June 26, 2018, Sound Off Louisiana published its Louisiana Legislative “Wall of Excellence” to express appreciation for 21 Legislators (20 Republicans and one Democrat) who steadfastly voted “no” on Governor John Bel Edwards’ repeated calls for a sales tax renewal during multiple Special Sessions of the 2018 Louisiana Legislature.

Recently, we’ve been contacted by several candidates intending to challenge incumbents who voted in favor of those tax increases.  Those challengers have asked if we would update our “No Penny Renewal” website in order to assist them in their challenge efforts.  Since that has always been the intent of that website, we were only too happy to do so!

For those subscribers who recall the format of the previous No Penny Renewal website, we have completely overhauled it to make it a mirror image of the Wall of Excellence referenced above.  Hence, if voters know that an incumbent is seeking re-election, and that incumbent is NOT pictured on the wall, then that incumbent voted “yes” on the sales tax measures on one or more occasions (or didn’t vote at all on one or more occasions).  

By placing the focus on those who stood firm in opposing Edwards’ sales tax increase measures, we believe we get the dual benefit of assisting challengers AND helping to ensure incumbents who seek re-election who stood firm and opposed the tax increase measures ARE re-elected!

So, with that, here is a replication of the “new and improved” No Penny Renewal website:

NoPennyRenewal theme song.  (Note:  Photo courtesy of 
The Hayride).

Then-candidate John Bel Edwards (D-Amite) flatly says “no” in response to a question of whether he would raise taxes on individuals or businesses if elected Governor of Louisiana.  Edwards made that promise to voters on 11/16/15, mere days before the runoff election between himself and then-U. S. Sen. David Vitter (R-Metairie).

Despite the above emphatic pledge to the voters of Louisiana, no sooner had Gov. Edwards been sworn into office in January of 2016 than did he IMMEDIATELY seek a full one-cent hike in Louisiana’ state sales tax rate.  His action resulted in Louisiana having one of the highest sales taxes in the nation.  The Louisiana Legislature would only go along with the hike for 27 months, so the tax was all set to expire on June 30, 2018.  Instead, ONLY THE FOLLOWING LEGISLATORS CONSISTENTLY VOTED “NO” EVERY SINGLE TIME ENTAILING RENEWING ANY PORTION OF THE SALES TAX:

Rep. Beryl Amedee, R-Houma, District 51, Phone:  (985) 858-2967    [email protected]
Final Term:  2024.

Rep. Raymond Crews, R-Bossier City, District 8, Phone:  (318) 716-7532  [email protected]
Final Term:  2024.

Rep. Rick Edmonds, R-Baton Rouge, District 66, Phone:  (225) 295-9240  [email protected] 
Final Term:  2024.

Rep. Julie Emerson, R-Carencro, District 39, Phone:  (337) 886-4687    [email protected]
Final Term:  2024.

Rep. Reid Falconer, R-Mandeville, District 89, Phone:  (985) 792-5185    [email protected]
Final Term:  2024.

Rep. Raymond Garofalo, Jr., R-Chalmette, District 103, Phone:  (504) 277-4729    [email protected]
Final Term:  2020.

Rep. Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, District 82, Phone:  (504) 838-5433    [email protected]
Final Term:  2016; however, Rep. Henry is expected to run for Senate District 9 (previously held by Sen. Conrad Appel, who is term limited).

Sen. Sharon Hewitt, R-Slidell, District 1, Phone:  (985) 646-6490    [email protected]
Final Term:  2024.

CLICK HERE for a great feature article in The Hayride on Sen. Hewitt’s Senate Floor speech on “the burden on the everyday taxpayer,” which is complete with a video of her speech.

Rep. Valarie Hodges, R-Denham Springs, District 64, Phone:  (225) 791-2199  [email protected]
Final Term:  2020.

Rep. Dotie Horton, R-Haughton, District 9, Phone:  (318) 949-2463  [email protected]
Final Term:  2024.

Rep. Barry Ivey, R-Central, District 65, Phone:  (225) 261-5739  [email protected]
Final Term:  2020.

CLICK HERE for the feature referencing Rep. Ivey’s assistance on recognizing the problematic nature of the Louisiana Auctioneer Licensing Board.

Rep. Sherman Mack, R-Albany, District 95, Phone:  (985) 567-3677    [email protected]
Final Term:  2020.

Rep. Blake Miguez, R-Erath, District 49, Phone:  (337) 937-8827    [email protected]
Final Term:  2024.

Sen. John Milkovich, D-Shreveport, District 38, Phone:  (318) 676-7877    [email protected]
Final Term:  2024.

CLICK HERE for the feature referencing Sen. Milkovich’s assistance on recognizing the problematic nature of the Louisiana Auctioneer Licensing Board.

Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, District 12, Phone:  (985) 839-7714   [email protected]
Final Term:  2024.

Rep. Jay Morris, R-Monroe, District 14, Phone:  (318) 362-4270  [email protected]
Final Term:  2020.

Sen. Jonathan Perry (converts to Sen. Hensgens – see below), R-Kaplan (now R-Abbeville), District 26, Phone:  (337) 893-5035  [email protected]
Final Term:  2032.

Note:  Sen. Perry won an election to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and his seat was won in a special election by Bob Hensgens (R-Abbeville); it should be noted to any challenger of Hensgens (pictured above) that, in sharp contrast to Perry, Hensgens cast “YES” votes on the sales tax measures on 5/25/18 (0.33 cent), 5/28/18 (0.33 cent), and 6/22/18 (0.45 cent, which ultimately became law).

Sen. Neil Riser, R-Columbia, District 32, Phone:  (318) 649-0977   [email protected]
Final Term:  2016; however, Sen. Riser intends to seek election to the House of Representatives.

Rep. Alan Seabaugh, R-Shreveport, District 5, Phone:  (318) 676-7990  [email protected]
Final Term:  2020.

CLICK HERE for Rep. Seabaugh’s “fire and brimstone sermonette” entailing the 2017 attempted gas tax increase (second feature).

Rep. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge, District 78, Phone:  (504) 736-7299    [email protected]
Final Term:  2016; however, Rep. Talbot is expected to run for Senate District 10 (previously held by Sen. Dan Martiny, who is term limited).

Rep. Mark Wright, R-Covington, District 77, Phone:  (985) 893-6262     [email protected]
Final Term: 2024.

So, here’s the bottom line:

When you go to the polls on October 12, 2019 and you see an incumbent running who is NOT pictured (Exception:  Bob Hengsens as explained above, who voted FOR Edwards’ sales tax renewal on multiple occasions), you KNOW that he or she voted on one or more occasions to raise your sales taxes (or didn’t vote on one or more occasions)!!

In so doing, those incumbents seeking re-election have assisted Gov. Edwards in breaking his campaign promise to the voters of Louisiana not to raise your taxes.  Therefore, from our vantage point, incumbents who are NOT pictured above are no more worthy of being re-elected than he is!!

Any incumbent who is NOT pictured is hell-bent on continuing Louisiana’s status quo of funding massive governmental bloat and has demonstrated ZERO will to rein in such bloat and therefore should be kicked right out of office, and we hope this website helps voters in re-electing ONLY THOSE LEGISLATORS WHO ARE PICTURED ABOVE (with the notable exception of Hensgens, whom we sincerely hope draws a challenger who defeats him)!!

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.

Radio talk show host Moon Griffon

On Thursday, January 17, 2019, Advocate writer Tyler Bridges published a flat-out hit piece on U. S. Congressman Ralph Abraham criticizing him for donating no more than his first two years’ salary (totaling approximately $350,000) to two charities (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Independence Fund, a charity based in Charlotte, North Carolina which focuses on catastrophically-injured or wounded veterans).

Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns made the following comment in the Advocate’s comments section regarding Bridges’ hit piece:

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Robert Burns

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The next day, The Hayride’s Scott McKay took Bridges to task on the piece with this superb article on Bridges’ journalistic shortcomings.

The next day, Saturday, January 19, 2019, Moon Griffon directly attacked Bridges and the “collusion” of the Baton Rouge media (most especially The Advocate and Tyler Bridges) for the hit piece when he served as host on WJBO’s 2-4 segment.  Let’s listen in on just what Moon had to say:

Moon lambasts Bridges and The Advocate over Bridges’ article.

Soon thereafter, Sound Off Louisiana’s Robert Burns called in and had an exchange with Moon entailing the overall hypocrisy of Gov. Edwards as readily depicted on a site Burns published and is referenced in the Advocate’s comments section above:  The Choice Is Clear LA.  It’s a site that contrasts Gov. Edwards and Congressman Abraham in stark detail.  Moon permitted Burns to readily tout the site, and Moon even chose an audio clip from the site entailing Edwards’ point-blank statement that he “would not raise taxes on individuals or businesses.”  It’s the final clip on the website (always save the best for last)!  Here’s a clip of the exchange between Griffon and Burns:

Griffon and Burns have a little exchange on Gov. Edwards’ hypocrisy.

As is stated at the bottom of The Choice is Clear LA (and which was also featured as a Sound Off Louisiana blog entry), anyone relying solely upon the mainstream media representations for news on the Governor’s race is going to observe very little in the way of objective journalism and much more of partisan hit pieces from journalists such as Bridges who, just as he did four years ago, is masquerading around as an objective journalist.

We all know Bridges made a small fortune in assisting Edwards with the victory in 2015 and then turning right around and co-authoring a book profiting off that Edwards victory (Long Shot).  Perhaps it’s no small bit of irony that those whom Bridges would quote touting the book on the preceding link, Jim Bean and Lanny Keller, are two journalists Griffon point-blank names as being “in collusion” with Bridges!

We wonder if Bridges donated “only” half the proceeds off that book to charity and, if he donated no more than that, if that constitutes a flaw on his part as he deems to be the case for Abraham?

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 Chairman Eulis Simien, Jr.

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UPDATE:  01/10/09 @ 8:52 p.m.

Mere hours after we published the feature below, we received a private Facebook message from Louisiana Rep. Mark Wright (R-Covington).  We provide that private Facebook message from Wright in its entirety below:

Perhaps Rep. Wright has a point.  Why should we have any expectation that he or his staff would demonstrate a modicum of competence and correctly complete a campaign finance report?

Now, we will expect to see Rep. Wright’s correspondence as part of Mr. Riecke’s written response to Executive Director Jason Hannaman; furthermore, we will expect to see a cancelled check drawn on the personal bank account of Denis Riecke.

At that point, we can legitimately state that Rep. Wright is correct and has demonstrated incompetence in completing a campaign finance report which we justifiably relied upon.  We will expect for this matter to be fully resolved via the aforementioned documentation (most notably that cancelled check drawn on Denis Riecke’s personal bank account) at the February 2019 LSPC meeting.

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Almost three years ago, retired Louisiana State Police Trooper Leon “Bucky” Millet initiated complaints against three members of the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) that would ultimately lead to their resignations from the Commission.  Millet contended that the three members engaged in improper political activities by contributing to campaigns of candidates running for public office in Louisiana.

Today, January 10, 2019, Millet repeated history in calling for the “immediate resignations” of three current LSPC members (Chairman Eulis Simien, Jr., Jared Riecke, and Chief Harold Pierite) over the same issue.  He further stated that, absent their voluntary resignations, he “sees no alternative but to have the Governor call a public hearing (for their removals).”  The following video captures Millet voicing his complaint and the reactions of members Simien and Riecke:

Millet reads into the record his complaint against the three (3) LSPC Members and their reactions thereafter.

Political contributions sure do seem to be a hot potato regarding Louisiana State Police.  We have the LSTA’s lawsuit against the LSPC wherein the LSTA asserts as unconstitutional the LSPC’s prohibition of political activities on the part of the LSTA.  That fact notwithstanding, and despite the episodes of three years ago, if Millet’s complaints are well-founded, they apparently somehow believe they have that absolute right (or else perhaps thought they could skirt the provisions through having the contributions made through their companies).  The support documents Millet supplied follow:  Pierite (see pages 4, 5, and 6); Riecke (see page 2); and Siemen (see pages 2 and 4).

At the end of the meeting, Millet proceeded to present yet another complaint, this time against elected members of the Louisiana State Troopers Association entailing the same matter of improper political activities.  Here’s video of his presentation:

 Millet presents his complaint against elected members of the Louisiana State Troopers Association.  He also supplied LSTA complaint support documentation.

Here’s video coverage of LSPC members elaborating upon their plans for dealing with Millet’s complaints:

LSPC Members elaborate on plans for dealing with Millet’s complaints.

Millet’s presentation should make for a more interesting meeting in February, and we’ll be there to cover it for our subscribers!

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.