Public Service Commissioner Jimmy Field has drawn a well-known Lafayette opponent for the fall election. Ed Roy, a Republican like Field, is a former TV weatherman who has served on the Lafayette Parish Council and run unsuccessfully for mayor and clerk of court. Though he supported Field in the past, Roy says, “My biggest issue is, politicians should not be in there for a career.” Field, 71, was elected in a 1996 special election and then won two more six-year terms, unopposed in 2006. Under term limits, this is his last election. “I plan to run in November,” Field says. “I’m proud of my record. I think I’ll be fine.”
—A month ago, presidential candidate Rick Santorum barely had an organization backing him in the Louisiana primary on March 24. Now two top aides of Sen. David Vitter have taken leave to organize for the conservative’s surging campaign here. Vitter Chief of Staff Kyle Ruckert and Communications Director Joel DiGrado are working with Vitter’s consultant, John Braebender, on Santorum’s campaign in Louisiana. The senator, however, is not endorsing, though he has “a lot of affinity with Santorum,” says DiGrado, who previously worked for the former Pennsylvania senator. Following an appearance in Lafayette on Tuesday, Santorum will attend services at Calvary Baptist Church in Shreveport and First Baptist Church in Bossier City on Sunday. Then he flies to Baton Rouge to make the LSU-Mississippi State baseball game. Mitt Romney will attend a Shreveport fundraiser on March 23. Newt Gingrich, who needs a Southern state win, will make appearances in Baton Rouge next week.
They said it: “He took a triple dose of his ADD medicine. I think it worked.” —Rep. John Schroder’s take on how Education Committee Chairman Steve Carter conducted a committee hearing
(John Maginnis publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com.)
