The weekly meeting of the East Baton Rouge Parish Chamber of Commerce is one of the last places you might expect to find a Democratic politician. The group of mostly small business owners, which was founded by conservative publisher and former legislator Woody Jenkins, is one of the more pro-Republican organizations in the area. And yet, gubernatorial candidate John Edwards—the leading Democrat in a race that includes Republicans Scott Angelle, Jay Dardenne and David Vitter—received a relatively warm reception from members of the group when he addressed them at a luncheon today.
Not that audience members didn’t ask tougher questions of the state lawmaker than they typically do of their lunchtime speakers. One member grilled Edwards on how he can purport to support second-amendment rights—which he said he does—if he doesn’t belong to the NRA. Another asked him why he voted against an anti-Common Core bill in the Legislature. Still another asked him who he voted for in the last three presidential elections. The Democrat, he replied.
“But to be the next governor it’s more relevant to ask me who I voted for for governor, and I didn’t vote for Bobby Jindal,” Edwards said, winning nods of approval and even some applause from those in the audience.
Edwards, a West Point graduate and Army veteran, won high marks from the audience for his military background. He also said he does not advocate broad tax increases, though he supports raising the cigarette tax and is against cutting funding to higher education, which also agreed with those in attendance.
“He’s a Democratic leader, but he’s not Harry Reid,” said Jenkins, referring to the former congressional leader. “He’s a very decent person, good guy, good legislator, and we have fundamental agreement on some issues. I think we can learn a lot from him.”
Conventional political wisdom suggests a Democratic candidate cannot win statewide office in Louisiana. Earlier this month, media reports surfaced about a super PAC formed to support Vitter encouraging its members to also support Edwards, presumably to help Vitter’s chances of victory in a runoff.
Several members of the East Baton Rouge Parish Chamber of Commerce interviewed after today’s speech said they had no knowledge of that and were not interested in the Edwards campaign for that reason.
—Stephanie Riegel
