This week’s LaPolitics features an interview with Stephen Waguespack, president of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry and a rumored potential candidate for goveror.
Your name has been repeatedly mentioned as a potential gubernatorial candidate in 2019. It has been said that you are seriously considering the race. Is that true?
Waguespack: I’m hoping that in 2019 a strong candidate with a strong plan for structural reform steps forward. If that happens, I’ll be the first in line to support that effort. Like many voters, I’m anxiously awaiting for someone to step forward with the answers to the problems that have long plagued us. We know that many of our challenges have haunted us for decades. We’ve got structural reforms with our government, with dedicated funds, with the balance between state and local government. All of that has been there forever and no-one has had the guts to step up and go fix it. So my first hope is that someone steps forward with a clear plan and a clear effort to finally address that. Until that time, I’m watching and waiting.
When will you make a decision about this race? Have you put a timetable on it?
Waguespack: I’m focused on what we’re working on at LABI right now. We’ve got a lot going on, coming off of the heels of some pretty disastrous sessions. We’re now focused on 2019. With the number of term limits that are opened up, there is a desperate need for new, fresh faces to step up and run for office in the Legislature for next year. We’re out meeting with emerging leaders across the state, trying to educate them on the issues, encouraging them to step up and run for office. We think that the more that new, fresh, young, innovative ideas can get into the Capitol, the sooner we’ll be to solving some of these problems that we’ve had for so long.
What do you think that this race means for the Republican Party in Louisiana?
Waguespack: I think parties are not really where the focus should be right now. I think Louisiana is at a crossroads. You see the national economy booming and we see other states booming along with that and unfortunately, our numbers don’t show that. If we’re really serious about building the kind of economy and creating the amount of jobs we need and deserve, we’ve got to step up and do it. It’s not one party that has to get it done. I think there is enough room for all ideas and all perspectives to get this right and our problems aren’t partisan and our solutions won’t be partisan. So I think it’s time for folks to focus less on throwing bombs and more on building bridges. And I think if we do that in 2019 and get some new faces and voices to deliver on that promise, we might be able to address some of these longstanding problems that we have had forever.
What does this race mean for LABI?
Waguespack: Oh, it’s critical. The business community, large and small, multi-national and homegrown, everyone, essentially says the same thing. They want a well-qualified workforce, they want to hire people that can read and write, stay off drugs and have good soft skills. They want to have infrastructure that works. They want to have a tax code that is fair and easy to comply with. They want what everyone wants and it’s been increasingly frustrating that the Capitol is more focused on chaos than solutions. Look, is it important for the business community—absolutely—but it’s important for every Louisiana person to get this right in 2019.
You’ve talked about a need for “new faces” in Baton Rouge. What are you looking for in gubernatorial, as well as legislative candidates?
Waguespack: Courage, courage and more courage. Our problems are not a surprise. We know what they are. The solutions that must be delivered upon aren’t a surprise, and we’ve danced around them forever. We’ve got to get into that constitution, go implement a constitutional convention and rewrite the model that was created in the 1920s and is still haunting us today… We need new, fresh faces. So as far as the type of candidate that is needed in 2019, it’s the type of people who haven’t thought about running for office before but love this state and want to see it address its’ longstanding problems. So that’s the message we are trying to get out all across the state and encourage people. This is the time, this is the moment, to step up and deliver on that promise we’ve had forever.
They Said It: “It certainly beats a deficit.”—Gov. John Bel Edwards, on the state’s projected surplus, on his “Ask The Governor” radio program
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.
