Despite that area mayors have asked him to set the record straight, by this morning Billy Nungesser had yet to pull down a post from his facebook page with inaccurate information concerning area mayoral endorsements of him.
His spokeswoman, Amy Jones, has yet to follow through on her word that she would be back in touch with this paper to explain the mix-up.
“It’s clearly not an honest mistake,” says Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne, whom Nungesser is challenging for the second highest seat in the state. Nungesser is president of Plaquemines Parish.
Tuesday at 12:14 p.m. The Independent received an email from Nungesser’s campaign claiming that 15 mayors from communities throughout Acadiana and the Louisiana Gulf Coast had come together for breakfast at Café Des Amis in Breaux Bridge to endorse the Plaquemines Parish president for lieutenant governor. Within hours of posting the story, we started getting calls from local mayors, including Glenn Brasseaux of Carencro, Hilda Curry of New Iberia, Jack Dale Delhomme of Breaux Bridge and later Billy D’Aquilla of St. Francisville. All four said they had only been asked to hear Nungesser speak and maintain there was no mention of an endorsement.
“It’s another example of misrepresentation and deceitful action,” Dardenne says. “They were lured there under the pretense to meet Billy.”
On Wednesday, Dardenne issued his own list of 23 mayors' endorsements (at least one endorsement touted by Nungesser, D’Aquilla, is now on Dardenne’s list):
• Mayor Barney Arceneaux, Gonzales.
• Mayor Clarence Beebe, Hornbeck.
• Mayor Mike Cooper, Covington.
• Mayor Billy D’Aquila, St. Francisville.
• Mayor Jimmy Durbin, Denham Springs.
• Mayor Clarence Fields, Pineville.
• Mayor Mayson Foster, Hammond.
• Mayor Cedric Glover, Shreveport.
• Mayor Lawrence Henagan, DeQuincy.
• Mayor Jackie Johnson, Winnsboro.
• Mayor Burke Jones, Greensburg.
• Mayor Jamie Mayo, Monroe.
• Mayor Wayne McCullen, Natchitoches.
• Mayor Glen McGlothin, Ferriday.
• Mayor Robert Myer, New Roads.
• Mayor Tommy O’Con, Robeline.
• Mayor Betty Olive, Bastrop.
• Mayor Ron Roberts, DeRidder.
• Mayor Bill Robertson, Minden.
• Mayor Robert Rose, Leesville.
• Mayor Jacques Roy, Alexandria.
Since The Independent posted the story Tuesday, the only apology of sorts came via a tersely worded statement from Mayor David Camardelle of Grand Isle, who had invited most of the mayors to Tuesday’s gathering. “I organized this morning’s breakfast with Billy Nungesser. Some of the mayors were simply there to meet Billy. These elected officials were not identified to the campaign. It was a simple misunderstanding,” Camardelle wrote.
Dardenne also has received support from The Shreveport Times, The Monroe News-Star, The Times-Picayune, Gambit, Baton Rouge Business Report, The Daily Comet and The Courier of Houma. He also earned the endorsement from the Alliance for Good Government, the National Rifle Association, the Baton Rouge Area Chamber's FuturePAC and several other industry and political groups.
View Nungesser’s facebook page here; this morning the post was less than half way down the first page.
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
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