With about a month before election day, the five candidates vying for the District 2 seat on the Louisiana Public Service Commission took sides Monday on the issue of accepting campaign contributions from utility companies, reports the Baton Rouge Business Report.
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| Scott Angelle |
Former Department of Natural Resources Secretary Scott Angelle, R-Breaux Bridge, tells the Baton Rouge Press Club that he's been accepting donations from utility companies regulated by the PSC. Angelle credits 5 to 7 percent of his campaign fund to donations from PSC regulated companies, but describes the contributions as an "endorsement of me, not my endorsement of them."
Angelle is not alone.
State Rep. Erich Ponti, R-Baton Rouge, also admits to taking contributions from companies under the regulatory umbrella of the PSC.
Voicing opposition during Monday's Press Club event were the remaining three candidates, including Sarah Holiday, R-Baton Rouge, Forest Wright, D-New Orleans, and Greg Gaubert, no party-Thibodaux. They argue it is a conflict of interest to take contributions from companies under the PSC's watch.
Wright, according to BRBR, says he has taken "a principled stand not to accept money from private utility companies" regulated by the PSC.
Lafayette businessman Ed Roy, a former Republican candidate who withdrew from the race last month due to a lack of campaign funds, also has levied criticism against Angelle, mostly for resigning his post at DNR to run for political office.
Roy, on his website, says:
Angelle has confirmed that he was more interested in taking advantage of a political opportunity, than staying at his job at DNR to protect the lives and property of the people of southeast Louisiana threatened by the Assumption Sinkhole Disaster.
Not only did Angelle know about the structural problems with the salt dome as early as January of 2011, more than a year and a half ago — he didn’t tell the local Sheriff and officials who are responsible for the lives of those people, what he knew. Then, with the crisis coming to a head, and a state of emergency declared — Angelle promptly resigned from DNR, and a day later, announced that he was running for the PSC.
The former DNR head's response, according to BRBR:
Angelle says state statute prevents the DNR head from reviewing decisions of the Office of Conservation and says it's too soon to say whether a regulatory failure contributed to the sinkhole.
Click here for the full Baton Rouge Business Report article on Monday's Press Club event.
To read Roy's full criticism of Angelle, click here.
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
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