With Saturday’s election just days away, Louisiana Supreme Court District 5 candidate Jeff Hughes has taken to heavily courting his home base of Livingston Parish and other parts of the Capital Region with an unusual eight-page tabloid newspaper, casting himself as the Leave It To Beaver candidate.
The piece, dubbed the “Louisiana Judicial Report,” bears the official state seal and is filled with stories about the Republican judge growing up “in the Denham Springs of 1950s-1960s,” and twice being named All-District and the Most Valuable Player in Livingston Parish while playing basketball for the Denham Springs High School Yellow Jackets.
Another story details Hughes’ experience as the first attorney in Walker, noting in a headline that “Some Clients Paid With Fresh Eggs, Turnip Greens, and Other Farm Crops.” There are plenty of black-and-white photos of the era, including one family portrait from his childhood captioned “Leave It To Beaver” and another of him shooting hoops in high school.
Race remains a subtle campaign theme. Hughes, who previously has referred to his Democratic opponent John Michael Guidry as an “affirmative action” candidate, points out in the tabloid that his fellow judge’s political base is “the inner city of Baton Rouge and majority black precincts in the River Parishes,” while claiming the predominantly white-flight areas of Central, Livingston and Ascension parishes and southeast Baton Rouge as his own. There’s also a photo of new Chief Justice Bernette Johnson, who is also black, noting that she is “expected to take the court in a more liberal direction unless Judge Jeff Hughes is elected.”
At press time, Hughes had not returned a call seeking comment. But Guidry believes the message won’t resonate with the majority of voters in the district. “I think it’s shameful. The people of the district are intelligent enough that they can see what message he’s trying to send, and I believe they will reject that message because it’s not representative of the mindset of the constituency,” Guidry says. “I believe this is actually going to end up backfiring on him because that’s not what people want in their judges. They want people to run on their record. Any attempts at race baiting or any attempts at creating unnecessary divisions I think will be rejected by the voters.”
Hughes has not shied away from ideological campaigning on guns, traditional marriage, capital punishment and other matters that might come before the court—a right the U.S. Supreme Court upheld to a degree in the 2002 Republican Party of Minnesota vs. White First Amendment case. However, when it comes to one of the most controversial issues in the race—legacy lawsuits—Hughes insists he has no preconceived views.
“As a judge, my job is not to favor or reward any group but apply the Constitution and laws to the facts of each case,” the campaign tabloid quotes him as saying.
The Citizens for Clean Water and Land, a political action committee founded last summer by a group of attorneys representing landowners in legacy lawsuits, has spent more than $300,000 on advertising and political consulting fees for Hughes.
To see the mailing, posted in its entirety on the Central City News website, click here.
