Similar to the primary election, the Baton Rouge Area Chamber’s political action committee, FuturePAC, is staying out of the city’s mayoral runoff race.
In a statement, the PAC says its board of directors has decided not to endorse either candidate—Democrat and former state Sen. Sharon Weston Broome, and Republican state Sen. Mack “Bodi” White.
The PAC says its board made the decision after reviewing each candidate’s prior legislative voting records and their responses to the PAC’s mayor-president candidate questionnaire.
The questionnaire addresses the top six issues outlined in BRAC’s 2016 election platform.
“We have carefully analyzed the voting records of Sen. Broome and Sen. White on BRAC issues, along with their answers to our survey, and determined that each candidate has shown similar and acceptable support for BRAC’s past and current policies,” Van R. Mayhall Jr., chair of the FuturePAC board of directors says in a prepared statement.
Broome and White are the last two candidates of a 12-candidate field from the Nov. 8 mayoral primary. Broome received 32% of the votes in the primary while White garnered 29%.
Both candidates will participate in a debate broadcast on WBRZ at 7 p.m. tonight. BRAC says several of its key members will be in the audience to submit questions to the candidates.
In the meantime, FuturePAC has released Broome’s and White’s responses to the questionnaire in an effort to give voters more insight into each candidate.
For example, the PAC asked both candidates if they would support a bond election to address sewer, drainage, public safety and mental health issues.
Broome says she would support a bond election for a mental health facility, but she says her answer for other issues would have been different before the flood.
“Of course, the needs prior to the flood for drainage, sewer, etc. are now far greater than they were before and I will want to see how much relief the federal government will provide before I will support any new taxes,” she says.
White did not directly answer the question. Instead, he says he’s in favor of increasing the Department of Public Works’ budget for drainage maintenance work, fully funding public safety services and addressing the parish’s sewer usage fee.
“It’s essential we operate a parishwide mental health center, but would prefer that it be done in partnership with a private entity and not solely government run,” he says, adding that a public-private partnership is also an option.
Even though BRAC is not endorsing a mayoral candidate, it has endorsed five major tax propositions on the Dec. 10 ballot.
—Alexandria Burris
