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
Abraham Repeatedly Touts Support From Racists
Louisiana Gov. Candidate and incumbent Congressman Ralph Abraham has failed to disavow support from local leaders with troubling patterns of racism, suggesting the lawmaker believes that stoking the flames of racism will benefit his politics during the final stretch of the campaign.
As recently as last week, Abraham touted support from Sabine Parish District Attorney Don Burkett, who is alleged to have intentionally dismissed African American jurors in a trial where a black man was accused of murder. According to reporting by the Sabine Index, in a January 2019 trial the defendant’s legal team alleged that Burkett stacked the deck against the defendant: only objecting to 4.35% of white jurors while striking 50% of black jurors.
Accountability | Louisiana
Abraham’s Vow to Not “Roll Back” Medicaid Revives History of Praising Jindal For Gutting Program
In a press conference last week, Louisiana Congressman Ralph Abraham vowed he would not “roll back” Medicaid expansion in Louisiana, despite his sordid history of targeting Medicaid recipients, including showering former Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal with praise as he slashed the program during his tenure as head of Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals in the late 90s.
During the same freewheeling press conference, Abraham callously called Bel Edwards move to expand Medicaid in Louisiana -- which provided health coverage for more than 400,000 Louisianans -- a “debacle.”
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
Analysis: Ralph Abraham Bests Bobby Jindal’s Absenteeism, Misses Record Number of Votes During Louisiana Gubernatorial Bid
Republican candidate for Louisiana Governor Ralph Abraham missed more votes in Congress in 2019 than even fellow Republican Bobby Jindal did in the same time period during Jindal’s campaign for Governor in 2007.
Between April 2019 and June 2019, Abraham, who is currently a U.S. Congressman representing Louisiana’s 5th Congressional District, missed 55.4% of all Congressional votes, placing him in the 99th percentile in absences for all members of the current U.S. House of Representatives.