Gov. Bobby Jindal’s Deputy Chief of Staff Kristy Nichols was briefly the victim of an internet hoax that had a handful of state employees up in arms before a bogus Facebook page was taken down.
The apparent identity theft came on the heels of the Senate Retirement Committee’s hasty unanimous approval of SB 51 which increases employee contributions, changes the way in which retirement benefits are calculated and forces most employees to work longer before qualifying for retirement.
The amended version of the bill did not appear before the committee until shortly before noon on Monday and opponents had no time to review its contents before it was rushed through committee.
At one point, while attempting to respond to a question by Sen. Barrow Peacock about the breakdown of benefits, Nichols became agitated when some in the audience snickered. “This isn’t double talk,” she snapped. “This is designed to be straight talk.”
On Tuesday, a Facebook page called LA Pension 2012 appeared.
In one exchange, a writer, presumably a state employee wrote: “Morals, fairness. You’re kidding, right? These people (the administration) are bankrupt when it comes to both.”
Twenty-two minutes later a response purporting to be from Nichols appeared. “I notice many of you have expressed your opposition to the Governor’s retirement changes,” it said. “I can assure you that this retirement is a lot better than being unemployed.
“Remember, we are watching you.”
Another person said he had posted on the page “and got a pretty rude response from the governor’s assistant Kristy Nichols. I was not explicitly called out, but it was immediately after my post hit,” he said.
His post said in part:
“The state government is here to provide service. They (administration officials) are attacking the state workers as the problem, so they want to get rid of us and replace with more expensive private workers. If the public understood that the private counterparts are more expensive, then public support would shift.”
The wording of the response to his post varied slightly from the first:
“I notice a lot of you disagree with the Governor’s reform, but rest assured it will be a lot better than being unemployed. We are watching you.”
The second posting unleashed a quick barrage of outrage before the post was removed.
One reader, believing he was writing to Nichols said, “I hope you are not implying that those people who are state workers who openly disagree about the proposed pension reform will be fired from their jobs.”
Another asked, “Have you ever held a job that wasn’t political?”
Nichols did not respond to an email inquiry but Kyle Plotkin, Jindal’s communications director, was quick to say that the facebook page was bogus.
“I want to be very clear. A fake facebook page was created in Kristy’s name,” he said. “It is not her. Someone is misrepresenting her.”
Plotkin said the comment not only did not come from Nichols, but she was unaware that anyone had created a fake Facebook profile until people who had read the comments began calling the governor’s office.
“It’s very disturbing that someone would steal Kristy’s only identity,” he said. “It’s unfortunate…that someone would stoop this low.”
He said the governor’s office contacted Facebook which immediately deleted the fake profile.
Louisiana Voice 
This one should be interesting to follow up on. Little unrest out there, I’d say.
website exposing ALEC (aka – New Government of the United States) just google Alec or look at alecexposed – amazing how widespread they are and this past year is the first I’ve heard of them….
I’m embarassed our govenor is their “puppet”
Can we contact Facebook and have them delete the fake administration and fake governor?
The administration doesn’t have to threaten state employees explicitly; its actions speak louder than words. This administration attacks state employees by outsourcing their jobs to private contractors (at greater cost to taxpayers); undermining civil service; eroding benefits. Most of these actions are the result of the engineered emergency that occurred as a consequence of the Stelly tax bracket roll back giving tax breaks to high income earners. Ask those DHH IT workers what they’ve been doing since January? They may not have gotten laid off, but most had their job duties eliminated and their leave requests denied. So the administration lost that battle, but now uses intimidation to get them to quit. Facebooks threats are child’s play compared to what this administration is doing.
Has anyone entertained the idea that it really WAS Kristie Nichols who put up the Facebook page and then threatened state workers….but when the phone calls started, she panicked, and they called it a fake? Or, it was meant to be a threat to state workers all along….put it up on FB, then cry fake, but the threat is out there, and workers are intimidated. Success! These people are without consciences, they are nothing more than used-car salesmen, shilling for profit-making companies. When Jindal leaves office, they will take big salaried lobbying jobs from these companies who are licking their lips over getting their unholy share of our taxpayer money.
Yes, we have entertained the idea.
I am confused, when you go to facebook and review how they remove a duplicate or fake account it is not the way the administration said it happened. I do not think someone can just call and say this is not me what if they are not telling the truth. That is why you must fill out paperwork to get it removed, unless it was really you and then you do it yourself.
Is this Kristy saying she did not do this or is there now a spokesperson…. something does smell fishy.
Hello, Jim Letten…….oh, you are on your way.
I vote for Bernie’s theory. With this bunch, that is entirely plausible. They are that devious. This administration is all about obfuscation and duplicity, mostly directed (at least now) toward state employees. If the public EVER wakes up, it will be too little, too late. And that’s what Jindal is counting on.
Devious yes, Smart they are not.
OK, stateman, guess we just disagree on the “smart” issue. They seem to be prevailing at every juncture. The Emir is not even getting any token opposition. Whatever he and the ALEC people do seems to be golden. They don’t even have to be devious now–just bulldozing state employees out of their way as they rush to continue the destruction of our Louisiana.
Anne, I just watched the House retirement committee video from the 12th, I think ev1 should take a look at it. Representative Jones seems to be on our side. Never give up!
This is OUR LOUISIANA!