Louisiana Public Broadcasting and the Council for a Better Louisiana have whittled the field for Louisiana’s first statewide televised U.S. Senate race to five candidates, a dagger for those who didn’t make the cut, most notably Republican white supremacist David Duke and Republican retired Col. Rob Maness, who calls his exclusion un-American.
As the USA Today Network of Louisiana reports, those who made the field for the Oct. 18 debate include: U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette; Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell, D-Elm Grove; attorney and businesswoman Caroline Fayard, D-New Orleans; Congressman John Fleming, R-Minden; and state Treasurer John Kennedy, R-Madisonville.
“I’m angry, but it ought to make the voters angry to be deprived of seeing the best candidate in the race,” Maness told the USA Today Network of Louisiana. “How dare they keep the best candidate off stage?”
Political analysts say Duke’s support isn’t likely to be affected. “He’s a known quantity,” says Pearson Cross, a University of Louisiana at Lafayette political scientist.
But Maness, Cross says, is a different story.
“It’s a huge blow,” Cross says. “Frankly, this is one of those moments that makes or breaks campaigns.”
CABL President Barry Erwin says those chosen had to show at least 5% support in the most recent Southern Media and Opinion Research poll by Bernie Pinsonat and have raised at least $1 million in campaign cash. Though the 5% polling margin has been the LPB-CABL standard for years, the previous minimum for campaign funds in statewide races was $250,000.
Maness isn’t the only candidate complaining. Erwin says Lafayette oil and gas man Josh Pellerin, a Democrat who showed 1.7% support in the Southern Media poll, called him Thursday night. “I understand their disappointment, but we can’t have 24 candidates (the number qualified for the race) on stage,” Erwin says.
Maness calls the $1 million requirement “unheard of and outrageous” and points out that if his campaign finances were combined with those of the political action committee supporting his candidacy he would exceed the $1 million threshold.
