2016 Louisiana Senate Race - Who's In? (1 Viewer)

[SharonT]

Only 7 weeks until early voting? This is for Vitter's old spot.

2016 Louisiana Senate race: Who's in? Who can win? | NOLA.com

My shortcut version of who gets my vote: Look at where their money comes from:

• Boustany, who had the most cash to spend — $2.5 million — at the start of July, attracted donors from the medical field and the oil and gas industry. Contributions mainly came from Lafayette, Houston, and Washington, D.C.
• Campbell, who wrote himself a $500,000 loan check, collected contributions mostly from Shreveport, Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
• Fayard, who lent her campaign $650,000, raised money mostly from fellow lawyers and contributors in New Orleans, New York, and Denham Springs.
• After transferring $1.6 million from his House campaign account, Fleming drew contributions mostly from Shreveport and New Orleans. While he lent himself $693,000, he also has the influential conservative Club for Growth PAC behind him.
• Kennedy's donors were centered in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Shreveport.
• Maness raised contributions mainly from Shreveport, New Orleans, and Dallas. As a Tea Party favorite, Maness got $10,000 from Sarah Palin's PAC.

So, Fleming's out for me, and probably Boustany, too. The linked article says the national PACs are only sending big bucks to the swing states, so maybe we need to look back to who funded these candidates in previous elections. Tired of having to deal with horrible leadership of people "chosen" by non-Louisianans, who wind up not being public servants. At all.

If I had to vote this minute, without knowing anything else about any of the candidates, I would vote Cao.

Here's the entire list:

Senate Candidates:

• Charles Boustany (R)
  ~ Congressman (District 3), Surgeon, Businessman
• Joe Cao (R)
  ~ Ex-Congressman, Attorney, Community Activist
• Thomas Clements (R)
  ~ Businessman
• Donald "Crawdaddy" Crawford (R)
• David Duke (R)
  ~ Ex-State Representative, White Supremacist, Ex-Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon
• John Fleming (R)
  ~ Congressman (District 4), Ex-Webster Parish Coroner, Physician, Businessman, Navy Veteran
• John Kennedy (R)
  ~ State Treasurer, Attorney, Ex-State Revenue Secretary
• Rob Maness (R)
  ~ Retired USAF Officer, Tea Party Activist
• Charles Marsala (R)
  ~ FInancial Advisor
• Abhay Patel (R)
  ~ Business Development Executive, Ex-Investment Banker
• Foster Campbell (D)
  ~ State Public Service Commissioner, Insurance Agency Owner, Ex-State Senator
• Derrick Edwards (D)
  ~ Attorney
• Caroline Fayard (D)
  ~ Attorney, Ex-White House Aide, Ex-Congressional Aide
• Gary Landrieu (D)
  ~ Building Contractor
• Vinny Mendoza (D)
  ~ Ex-Assistant USAF Inspector General, Farmer
• Josh Pellerin (D)
  ~ Energy Executive
• Peter Williams (D)
  ~ Tree Farmer
• Beryl Billiot (Independent)
  ~ Businessman, USMC Veteran
• Troy Hebert (Independent)
  ~ Ex-State ATC Commissioner, Ex-State Senator, Ex-State Representative, Ex-Democrat
• Bob Lang (Independent)
  ~ Retired Fire Chief, Vietnam War Veteran
• Kaitlin Marone (Independent)
  ~ Comedian
• Gregory Taylor (Independent)
• Arden Wells (Independent)
  ~ Disbarred Attorney, Tea Party Activist
• Thomas Clements (Libertarian)
  ~ Businessman
• LeRoy Gillam (Libertarian)
  ~ Pentecostal Minister

(List is from a site I'm not familiar with: 2016 Louisiana Elections, Primary, Caucus, Candidates, Races and Voting

Edit: Found the list of candidates from the Secretary of State's site: https://voterportal.sos.la.gov/CandidateInquiry?electiondate=20161108

 

[Grandadmiral]

I've only seen things from Fleming, Boustany, and Campbell thus far. Be interesting to see who else will start spending money on this campaign.

 

[mb504]

The Independent Comedian will get my vote. She doesn't even need to be that funny. I've seen enough from just about everyone else on that list to pass. These are the same recycled candidates who run for everything.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Any chance I get to vote forTree Farmer" I take it

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

Our choices for Senate are, at best, pathetic. All I hear from these so called contestants are lies, Obama sux, followed by more lies. There is zero substance in their pitch to get elected and I am thinking of starting a go fund me campaign to get John Kennedy all the weed killer he needs. This is the guy who was the State Treasurer while the state piled up record deficit. That is who we need to send to the senate, another Grover Norquist republican. :ipuker:

 

[Soundwave]

Louisiana Senate Race

Help me learn about the candidates running.

Hard to focus on the local stuff with the flying circus that is the presidential race.

Also maybe we could comment on the other positions that will be on the ballot locally.

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

Senate candidates debate in forum televised statewide | Elections | theadvocate.com

This is just sad that these are our choices for Senate.

 

[SharonT]

Depressing, as it's looking like yet another orchestrated move by big out-of-state money to push their agenda.

To appear in Tuesday night’s debate, candidates had to poll at least 5 percent and to have raised $1 million.

In all, the Senate field includes 24 candidates, but such candidates as retired Air Force colonel Rob Maness and white supremacist David Duke – both Republican – did not make the cut.

Just Fleming, Kennedy and Boustany (R) and Fayard and Campbell (D.)

The debate moderators will be Beth Courtney, the chief executive officer of Louisiana Public Broadcasting, and Barry Erwin, a former television news reporter who is president and chief executive officer of the Council for a Better Louisiana, a pro-business advocacy group in Baton Rouge.




The four reporters asking questions are: Kelly Spires from LPB; Elizabeth Crisp from The Advocate; Jeremy Alford from LaPolitics.com; and Greg Hilburn from Gannett Newspapers.

Who has recent propaganda from CABL LABI and the like? Connect the dots with the PAC money pouring in for innocuous positions up for grabs. Then look at this one they're moderating!

Fayard is backed by the Landrieus who support privatization and out-of-state corporations.

What about the others?

 

[Grandadmiral]

They're pulling the David Vitter move for running a general election campaign - Dems attacking Dems, Repubs accusing other Repubs of supporting Obama while another is suing people for mentioning him in a book. None of them making any damn sense whatsoever. Gotta love Louisiana politics.

 

[SharonT]

Could this explain some of those "names" on the list?

I listened to parts of the debate tonight while driving. Lots of buzz words and phrases but little actual substance. Campbell was the only one who sounded like he was not a puppet under someone else's control, IMO.

Boustany receives contributions from Dem. Senate opponent: Could he be a ‘dummy’ to torpedo Dems. Campbell, Fayard?

October 17, 2016 by Tom Aswell

Unless Pellerin is a “dummy” candidate inserted into the race in an effort to draw votes away from fellow Democrats—Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell and Caroline Fayard.


So who is the “dummy” candidate on the Republican side to draw votes from Boustany’s biggest challenger, fellow physician and Republican U.S. Rep. John Fleming? Why, that would be none other than the ultimate dummy, David Duke. Fleming and Duke are battling for much of the same constituency—the Trumpers—and while Duke is destined to finish near the bottom, Fleming’s biggest hope is to pull enough votes from the former high potentate, imperial wizard, exalted grand sovereign (or whatever they call themselves these days) to sneak into the runoff.

 

[Soundwave]

I think all but maybe 2 of them sound like they are a caricature of what people think a Louisiana politician sounds like.

 

[Yoweigh]

I got my 2nd David Duke robocall today.

 

[Grandadmiral]

I got my 2nd David Duke robocall today.

Duke's appearance at Dillard University last week may have cost the president his job. He's sent word that he's considering resigning due to backlash from students and alumni over the event.

 

[SharonT]

I got my 2nd David Duke robocall today.

Ha! I've gotten only one so far: Cao!

Remember: Always vote NO on Amendments. There are some especially bad ones this time around. Number 2, the one that "let's universities set their tuition" is a back door for those corporate scams and removes the obligation for the legislators to actually work out a real budget that works for the people of this state. Why should *they* be held accountable? Let the common folk fight it out amongst themselves...

The one "good" one (Number 5) hopes to reverse a "bad" previous amendment on retirement funding in the state.

 

[SharonT]

Ha! I've gotten only one so far: Cao!

Crud. My second robocall from Cao added details about how he would push for "school choice" and "reform." No way he gets my vote ever again.

Who does that leave, who's not funded by out-of-state billionaires via LABI and all those superpac shell game types?

 

[Grandadmiral]

Crud. My second robocall from Cao added details about how he would push for "school choice" and "reform." No way he gets my vote ever again.

Who does that leave, who's not funded by out-of-state billionaires via LABI and all those superpac shell game types?

Had a lot of respect for Cao at one point, especially after he voted for the ACA. It didn't last long.