Louisiana Treasurer John Kennedy is a prolific fundraiser, pulling in massive donations in a re-election campaign against an underfunded opponent.
However, a closer review of campaign finance reports by Business Report shows that a number of those contributions have come from attorneys who help broker multimillion-dollar financing deals for local governments, nonprofits and businesses before the Louisiana Bond Commission, the influential state board chaired by Kennedy and filled by key lawmakers and state officials.
As detailed in the new Business Report cover story, those donations include more than $82,000 in campaign contributions from attorneys from a single law firm that is a leading player in Louisiana’s public finance world. A handful of others are from out-of-state firms that have landed lucrative contracts to represent the state or state entities.
The practice is perfectly legal—there is no state law prohibiting such donations—and Kennedy and his allies insist the donations have no connection with his Bond Commission work and represent a small fraction of his overall financial support. But the scope of the donations raises questions about where the office of treasurer ends and the campaign begins.
Kennedy has been one of Louisiana’s most visible and vocal fiscal hawks over the past decade, pushing back against what he sees as wasteful spending in all corners of state government, from construction projects to little-known nonprofits that are able to secure tens of thousands of dollars in state funding through allies in the state Legislature.
Despite mixed success pushing through his proposed policy reforms, voters seem to have taken notice. Kennedy has been elected treasurer four times either without opposition or by wide margins—most recently in 2011—and with only one underfunded opponent on the November ballot, he will likely coast to a fifth term this fall. Kennedy, however, has long eyed a higher office, and the Republican is positioning himself for a possible run for the U.S. Senate in 2016 if David Vitter departs for the governor’s mansion.
“He’s obviously done something right in that he hasn’t drawn anything close to a credible challenger in that position,” says University of Louisiana-Monroe political science professor Joshua Stockley.
Read the full Business Report cover story. Send your comments to editors@businessreport.com.
