A second candidate for the U.S. Senate is slamming the National Federation of Independent Business for its decision to exclude most of the politicos jockeying for the seat in a forum held Wednesday in downtown Baton Rouge.
Abhay Patel, a New Orleans businessman who joined the crowded field two weeks ago, joined Caroline Fayard in voicing displeasure at the NFIB for restricting the number of invited candidates to four—or slightly more than one-third of the 11 candidates who have filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission.
Only three candidates attended the forum—Republican state Treasurer John Kennedy and GOP U.S. Reps. Charles Boustany and John Fleming—while the lone Democrat invited, Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell, did not attend.
“By limiting the forum to four elected officials who have spent years at the helm of an economy that has underperformed, organizers have deprived our state’s small businesses the opportunity to hear from candidates with field-tested perspective regarding how to grow the economy,” Patel’s campaign says in a news release.
The four candidates were chosen because they polled at least 5% in a May poll conducted by Bernie Pinsonat, of nonpartisan Southern Media and Opinion Research. Dawn Starns, state president of NFIB, defended the organization’s use of the poll to choose the four candidates, saying they wanted to have an impactful talk about small business issues and needed a way to cull the field in an effort to keep the conversation from lasting several hours.
Fayard, a small business owner herself, called the decision to exclude several of the candidates “undemocratic, insulting,” adding that “it smacks of insider, good ol’ boy cronyism.”
