As expected, former DNR secretary Scott Angelle and state Rep. Erich Ponti will enter the final four-week stretch before election day with significantly larger campaign war chests than the remaining three candidates vying for the District 2 seat on Louisiana's Public Service Commission, according to finance reports submitted Tuesday.
Coincidentally, Angelle, R-Breaux Bridge, and Ponti, R-Baton Rouge, are the only candidates to accept contributions from utility companies that are under the regulatory thumb of the PSC. They also are the only candidates to receive funds from political action committees.
Their acceptance of such contributions has been a bone of contention with the other three candidates — Forest Wright, Sarah Holliday and Greg Gaubert. Angelle also has received criticism from former candidate Ed Roy, of Lafayette, for his untimely resignation as head of the state Department of Natural Resources amid the unfolding sinkhole crisis in Assumption Parish.
Of the two front-runners, Angelle, as of Tuesday's filing, has the financial lead over Ponti.
Angelle reports he received $492,447.65 in contributions, and will have $512,109.57 available going into the Nov. 6 primary.
Ponti's report shows he received $85,576.19 in contributions. He will enter the final stretch before election day with $292,800.73 cash on hand.
Of the contributions received by Angelle, $26,500 came from PACs, including $10,000 from AT&T PAC, $5,000 from Acadian Ambulance Employee PAC, and another $5,000 from NORPAC LLC, to cite a few.
Ponti's PAC contributions totaled $6,500, $3,500 of which came from FuturePAC LLC.
For all the finance reports submitted by candidates running for the District 2 seat on the PSC, click here.
Click here for more on the criticisms against Ponti and Angelle over their acceptance of contributions from PSC-regulated companies.
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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