BusinessReport.com

Straightening out the facts

To the publisher:

I know my response to your article (“Publisher’s View,” June 5) will never be printed in your report, but I thought you might want to get a side of the story besides Louis Lambert’s. First you should know that I am one of five kids. My father was a maintenance man for United Gas and probably never made more than $600 a month. We raised corn, cattle for milk and chickens for eggs. I can tell you about seeing through the cracks in the floor and having only a fireplace for heat. I attended Nicholls University for three years and was accepted to LSU Law School without a degree. I never owned an automobile until I graduated from law school, and I had $20 a week to live on!

I practiced law in Pierre Part then was elected sheriff at the age of 29—the youngest sheriff in Louisiana history and the first in Assumption Parish history who allowed black officers to arrest white perpetrators! In 1990, I took on a dynasty that had used the District Attorney’s Office for things other than prosecution. I won the election and broke a reign of over 70 years of office by what was considered the power brokers of the river parishes.

A poll in 1990 showed me with a negative 3%, less than anyone had ever seen for an incumbent sheriff with almost 15 years of service. I personally tried the first capital case in the district in over 50 years. I have five defendants on death row. I am not term-limited. Louisiana district attorneys are not term-limited by the Louisiana Constitution! I am retiring because I will have more than 32 years of service at the end of this term. I currently sit on the district attorney’s retirement board and the LSU Board of Supervisors, a combined income of zero dollars.

As for Louis Lambert, he may be leading in his own mind or in a push poll he did last year. However, one of my assistants who is interested in running for DA has a poll which shows just how weak he is. Who would you prefer representing you as DA: a career politician who has never been in a courtroom or a career prosecutor, someone who has picked juries and made decisions about prosecutions and knows the law?

I am not trying to hand off anything. I selected Ricky Babin as my first assistant because of his qualifications—not because of his ability to get elected! If a DA is unable to serve out his term, the first assistant becomes DA. Wait for the debates! I can assure you that Louis Lambert cannot win. We have an educated electorate, and when qualifications are compared, he has none as an attorney! At 70 years of age, judges must retire. At 74 in a first term, how effective could Louis Lambert be?

As for my daughter, she is running on her own decision to seek public office. When she was born, my wife and I did not know the sex of the child, but decided it would be either Tony or Toni. I don’t know why that in some way is inconceivable to you! I know a lot of kids named after their fathers. What about George Bush—what color signs did he use. Coincidence? Please put that in your book! Did you know that my daughter is a graduate of Nicholls State University and actually commuted from Thibodaux to Baton Rouge for four years to attend law school? All the while she was a single divorced parent. Did you know that she is a prosecutor in the Lafourche District Attorney’s Office and has to resign her position next month in order to run?

When I prefaced this response with the knowledge that you would not publish it, I should have also asked that in the future you might get both sides of the story! Thanks. I get to my office at 4 a.m. every day—for 31 years now. I don’t make appointments and I never shut my door. I speak to everyone. I return every phone call. Call me if you have any questions or might want to do an article about who I really am and who my daughter really is!

Anthony Falterman

Napoleonville

Is there anybody out there?

To the publisher:

I am tired of e-mailing, calling, etc. our legislators to ask for financial transparency, a ban on cockfighting immediately and to save some of the tobacco money for a rainy or hurricane day, because they are not listening to the views of their constituents.

Susan Hidalgo-Smith

Baton Rouge

Term-limited madness

To the publisher:

Touché, very well written indeed! Two prime examples, perfectly phrased. I had to chuckle out loud as I read this one (“Publisher’s View,” June 5).

Debbie Ashe

Baton Rouge

To the publisher:

Rolfe, can you please run for office again? We really need people like you in office. I think you would have a lot of support from your constituents but not many friends in the Legislature but it doesn’t sound like that would bother you. I admire that quality about you. For Louisiana, please consider another run.

Traci Fontenot

Baton Rouge