Last week’s first live televised forum of the governor’s race on Louisiana Public Broadcasting snuck up on most political observers, says Jeremy Alford.
“Even those tracking the race closely didn’t know it would be on TV until the week prior—and few cared until they discovered U.S. Sen. David Vitter would not be participating,” Alford writes in his latest column, noting the Vitter camp insists it never agreed to be on the stage, so technically it didn’t miss the gathering. “Still, it certainly doesn’t look good that Vitter wasn’t present to field questions from students, who organized the event.”
Regardless of why Vitter was absent from last week’s forum, there are sure to be plenty more opportunities for him to take the stage with the other leading candidates before this fall’s election, says Alford. But even if that happens, he says, don’t hold your waiting for a truly unscripted exchange between the candidates.
“To secure all of the serious players for a televised forum the event organizers will likely have to reveal the questions ahead of time and limit opportunities for the candidates to address each other,” Alford writes. “This is not a new trend and we’ve seen it repeatedly in recent election cycles.”
The art of the political debate is dead in Louisiana, says Alford, especially for top-tier contests like governor.
“Candidates do not discuss opposing points of view. They don’t question each other or draw distinctions,” he writes. “Instead, politicians more times than not participate in forums that are as scripted as soap operas.”
WRKF radio in Baton Rouge actually hosted an unscripted event during the final week of August, says Alford—and all of the candidates backed out except Dardenne.
“It doesn’t really matter to the candidates if they miss such events,” he writes. “After all, voters can still see them in commercials if their campaigns can afford statewide buys on broadcast and cable. It has created an environment where the most memorable moments from forums are not substantive exchanges on policy, but rather the rapid trading of words that candidates tuck into their responses.”
Jeremy Alford publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter, or on Facebook. He can be reached at JJA@LaPolitics.com.
