Swatting gnats from his sweat-spattered forehead in the blistering heat last year, Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser garnered state and national headlines day in and day out in the aftermath of last year’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In particular, he seemed to be the go-to voice for CNN’s Anderson Cooper, the cable network that provided extensive coverage of the disaster. On Monday the rotund Republican turned that exposure into a campaign for lieutenant governor, a seat currently held by fellow Republican Jay Dardenne.
“Louisianans need a lieutenant governor who has real world experience creating jobs and a track record of standing up and doing what is best for our state,” Nungesser said from Belle Chasse Monday. “Louisiana needs a fighter who has been tested and delivered real results with the proven courage to stand up to large corporations, the federal government or whoever is standing in the way of doing what is right for our state and our people.”
Less than two hours after Nungesser made his announcement, Dardenne issued a release of his own, a video he created from an automated call of Nungesser endorsing him for lieutenant governor in last year's special election for the seat.
The call was broadcast in November 2010, according to Dardenne. View the video here. In the recording, Nungesser praised Dardenne for his leadership in protecting the state's coastline and lauded Dardenne as "a strong advocate for good government" and fiscal responsibility. "I know he'll fight to restore Louisiana's image in the wake of the oil spill," Nungesser said.
A local political consultant will help lead the effort to elect Nungesser: Amy Jones, senior partner in Jones Communications and perhaps best remembered for successfully running U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany’s first campaign for Congress in 2004, is communications director for the campaign. Jones says Nungesser will make his rounds across the state this week, appearing at Trynd Tuesday at 11 a.m.
Nungesser was elected president of Plaqemines Parish in 2006 and overwhelming re-elected in 2010 with 71 percent of the vote.
In announcing his campaign, Nungesser took credit for the Plaquemines Parish rebuilding effort following Hurricane Katrina, saying he helped win approval for 500 projects totaling $361 million to rebuild marinas and invest in fire stations and emergency equipment.
“Our state’s $9 billion tourism industry deserves a champion who will roll up his sleeves and work with the taxicab drivers, bartenders, restaurant owners and tourism professionals to find real world solutions to improve the industry and create jobs,” Nungesser said. “We don’t need a career politician who thinks the solution to our problems is to use more of our hard earned tax dollars to line the pockets of Madison Avenue advertising executives. Louisiana needs help from leaders who won’t back down until Louisiana is the state it can and should be.”
A lifelong conservative Republican, Nungesser is a small business owner who built a company with more than 200 employees. For more information about Billy Nungesser, click here or go to facebook.com/billynungesser.
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
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Seems like Ms. Jones issued press releases for Rep. Boustany but should not be given credit for 'running' his campaign. She should be remembered for actually running the two failed campaigns of Sammy Kershaw for Lt. Governor. Maybe the third time is charm.