In his latest column, Business Report Publisher Rolfe McCollister questions whether Treasurer John Kennedy is taking a page from the playbook of Sen. David Vitter “by being a hypocrite and willing to say anything to win another election.”
As the race is tightening up and Kennedy’s lead shrinks, McCollister says the treasurer seems to be reacting to the pressure the same way Vitter did last year.
“The Advocate reports that Kennedy ‘won’t back off asking about allegations that his opponent in the U.S. Senate race was allegedly involved with prostitutes,’” McCollister writes. “Kennedy is referring to a new book, Murder on the Bayou by Ethan Brown, which contains anonymous accusations about his opponent, U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany, being involved with prostitutes in Jennings. None in the media have confirmed any such stories.”
Boustany told The Advocate, “The allegations made about me by tabloid writer Ethan Brown and spread by the Kennedy campaign are wholly and completely false.” Brown says he stands by his book.
Kennedy told the newspaper that the accusations are fair game to address because they speak to Boustany’s character. “Of course I can talk about the issue, everybody is talking about this issue,” Kennedy was quoted as saying.
“But everybody was also talking about Vitter’s character and his admitted past involvement with a prostitute during the governor’s race in 2015—everyone, of course, except Kennedy, who endorsed Vitter for governor and became his ‘lead surrogate’ according to LaPolitics’ Jeremy Alford,” McCollister writes. “Did Kennedy ignore the ‘character issue’ with Vitter? Seemed like it—and Vitter had admitted his guilt of a ‘serious sin.’”
McCollister notes that Kennedy endorsed Vitter last year over Jay Dardenne and Scott Angelle, saying, “I’ve always known David to be a bold leader who will take on the tough issues and not back down. … That’s exactly who David is and why I’m strongly supporting him to be our next governor.”
“Character isn’t an issue in leadership? Big mistake for Kennedy,” McCollister writes. “Vitter was the only candidate who lacked ‘the character’ to win the governor’s office for Republicans and conservatives. Now, all of a sudden, Kennedy wants to make ‘character’ the issue.”
Also in his latest column, McCollister says the tax experts who warn that Louisiana is going to have difficulty addressing an estimated $1 billion budget shortfall because it has a Democratic governor and Republican-controlled Legislature are forgetting history.
“I remember a time with a Democratic governor, Buddy Roemer, and a Democratic Legislature. Having dealt with a $1 billion deficit when the total budget was just $8 billion—and not $26 billion as it is today—Roemer proposed a constitutional amendment for ‘fiscal reform’ to move away from sales taxes (which are regressive and especially impact the poor and minorities),” McCollister writes. “Ironically, the opposition behind the scenes was led by former Gov. Edwin Edwards and his sidekick, then-state Sen. William Jefferson. And they beat fiscal reform. There was nothing stopping all the Democrats from tax reform (which would have benefited the poor). This could have been good for their people, but it was bad for their politics.”
So, as we talk about tax reform, McCollister says we should remember recent history.
“We’ve been there before,” he writes. “Louisiana voters, including many minorities that would have benefited, once had the chance to reform the tax code and they rejected it. They were ill-advised and wrongly trusted their leaders.”
Read the full column. Send your comments to editors@businessreport.com.
