When Governor-elect John Bel Edwards contacted Richard Lipsey early this year to ask for his support in the gubernatorial campaign, the Baton Rouge businessman declined, citing his decades-long friendship with Jay Dardenne, who also ran in the race but did not make the runoff. But Lipsey listened to Edwards’ ideas and his plan to help balance a state budget that is hundreds of millions of dollars in the hole.
“He gave me his whole outline and I vowed to him I would support him if Jay did not get in the runoff,” says Lipsey, a member of the Louisiana Board of Regents and the chairman of national firearms wholesaler, Lipsey’s. “He is full of energy, he is thoughtful and he is not going to make any quick decisions.”
On Saturday night, Edwards handily beat David Vitter in the runoff, and on Sunday Lipsey was named a member of the governor-elect’s transition team. In his role on the transition team, Lipsey says his focus will be on communicating the needs of higher ed to the incoming administration, and also on representing the business community.
“I want to make sure everyone is treated fairly and that no one segment of business will take the full brunt of having to come up with either new taxes or relinquishing some of the credits and exemptions they have enjoyed,” he says. “We need to spread it over the state.”
While many business people supported Edwards in the contentious election, the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry opposed the Democrat, primarily out of concern over his position on tax increases and K-12 education policy.
On the tax issue, Lipsey says the incoming administration will push for ways to raise revenues that will impact business and industry, but he believes it can be done in a way that won’t cripple any particular sector.
“I’ve talked to him and sat down and he knows we’ve got to make up this deficit and he knows we’ve got to get money to run the state, money for education, money to run the hospitals,” Lipsey says. “He wants to do it in the most painless way he can but we need to get it done.”
Lipsey says one of the key reasons he became a big supporter of Edwards in the runoff was because of Edwards’ vow to increase state funding for higher education. During Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration, state support of higher ed slipped from 70% of all higher ed revenues to just 30%. Edwards would like the split between state revenues and tuition and fees to be an even 50-50, Lipsey says.
Lipsey is also impressed with Edwards’ commitment to workforce training initiatives.
“He understands we have to put people in the workforce,” he says. “He understands perfectly that it needs to be a priority and that is why he has vowed to me he will support funding higher ed.”
As for K-12 education, Lipsey says he appreciates the concerns of those who fear the Democratic Edwards administration will undo school reforms, particularly charter schools. But he believes those concerns are largely unfounded.
“I am very, very confident he will work within the school system,” Lipsey says. “He wants better schools just like I do and everyone else.”
Lipsey is one of seven people on Edwards’ transition team. Leading the transition is Ben Nevers, a term-limited state senator who ran a pro-Edwards PAC. Nevers will become chief of staff when Edwards takes office on Jan. 11.
Also on the team are Laura Leach, who co-owns a Lake Charles-based oil company and has long been involved in Louisiana Democratic politics; Monroe Mayor Jamie Mayo; Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand, a Republican who supported Edwards during his campaign; state Sen. Sharon Weston Broome of Baton Rouge; and Taylor Townsend, a former state lawmaker and trial lawyer from Natchitoches.
—Stephanie Riegel
