Accountability | Louisiana
In Reversal, Rispone Flushes Campaign With Special Interest Cash In Final Days of Election
As he enters the final days of the Louisiana Gov. runoff, Republican nominee Eddie Rispone is attempting to flush his campaign with outside money from special interests — attending five separate high-dollar fundraisers in the next week -- despite claiming throughout the primary that he would be fully self-financing his gubernatorial effort.
Rispone claimed repeatedly throughout the La. Gov. primary that his campaign would not be indebted to special interests because he was paying the tab on his own race. “I’m not beholden to any special interest group,” Rispone pointedly told The Advocate in September 2019.
Accountability | Louisiana
Rispone To Fundraise With Former Monroe City School Board Member Caught In Multiple Racist Scandals
Republican Louisiana Gubernatorial nominee Eddie Rispone is slated to attend a fundraiser hosted by former Monroe City School Board member Vickie Krutzer on Nov. 7, who was previously caught in multiple racist scandals during her tenure on the school board.
In 2012, The News-Star reported that Krutzer sent an email to fellow board members in Monroe City in which she took issue with the school district’s transportation department because it was “almost all minority” and subsequently caused her “nothing but headaches.”
Accountability | Louisiana
After Jindal’s Appointment, Rispone Used Board Power To Stiff Louisiana Workers
After being personally appointed chairman of the Louisiana Workforce Investment Council (WIC) by then-Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal in 2008, Eddie Rispone used the power of his position to usher in an apprenticeship program designed to replace trained Louisiana workers with young and unskilled labor in order to yield higher corporate profit margins.
Between 2011 and 2015, Rispone -- a wealthy businessman himself -- advocated for and passed the Louisiana Apprenticeship tax credit, which would award tax incentives for businesses that institute apprenticeship programs designed to skirt regulations preventing them from hiring cheap labor.
Accountability | Louisiana
Former Employees Sue Rispone Campaign Contributors, Allied Cajun Industries
Cajun Industries, founded by a close political ally of Eddie Rispone, is currently being sued for the events leading to an August 2018 explosion at a Lake Charles complex that caused many of his workers to flee the scene vomiting and gasping for air.
Just a few months after the dangerous explosion, Rispone continued to raise money with Grigsby, who originally founded the Louisiana-based contracting and engineering corporation -- Cajun Industries LLC -- that allegedly left these workers unprepared for the blast.
Accountability | Louisiana
Despite Labeling Himself ‘Outsider,’ Gov. Candidate Eddie Rispone Has Long Been a GOP Insider
Louisiana gubernatorial candidate Eddie Rispone has painted himself as a "conservative outsider," but campaign-finance records show that he has contributed millions of dollars to Republicans in the past two decades.