BATON ROUGE (CNS)—The word out of Baton Rouge is that OnMessage, the political consulting out of Alexandria, VA., that made Timmy Teepell head of its newly established Southern office, is a little disenchanted with Gov. Bobby Jindal’s alter-ego.
Teepell was hired after Jindal won his re-election in 2011 to drum up business for OnMessage and he immediately signed up Congressman Bill Cassidy who subsequently fired Teepell before paying him or OnMessage a dime.
Teepell was supposed to be the Grover Norquist of Louisiana—able to get his candidates to leap tall political polls in a single bound and to attract money like vultures to a rotten meat wagon (a somehow appropriate analogy).
But something no one counted on occurred: Jindal’s poll numbers tanked and suddenly Teepell couldn’t scare up any bidness for the partners back in Virginia and things began to get a little testy.
Of course it’s difficult to be a rainmaker when you spend all your time on the fourth floor of the Capitol, controlling Jindal’s every move and mood.
Coinciding with the rumored parting of the ways in the future between Teepell and OnMessage is the Rodney Alexander exit from Congress. Enter State Sen. Neil Riser in one of the most transparently-orchestrated political moves in recent history. Oh, sure, spokespersons for both Alexander and Riser (and Jindal, for that matter—if one could ever pen them down long enough to get them off Twitter) will deny that the fix was in but, c’mon, we may have been born at night but it wasn’t last night.
Of course Alexander had to have something to fall back on; he couldn’t be expected to make it on his congressional pension and social security.
The fact that Jindal was waiting in the wings to offer Alexander that $130,000-a-year job as Secretary of the Louisiana Office of Veterans Affairs that could bump his state retirement from about $7,900 to $81,900 per year was just a little too coincidental. Our friends at another blog, The Daily Kingfish, pointed out that the skids had been greased some time ago by State Sen. Mike Walsworth (R-West Monroe) and Alexander’s fellow Congressman John Fleming. (Walsworth, you might remember, was the one who asked a teacher during a committee hearing if her class was growing humans from cultures in her science lab.)
Now, word is, both Teepell and Jindal’s chief fundraiser, Alexandra “Allie” Bautsch, will be working on Riser’s behalf for the next couple of months until the election—but for her firm The Bautsch Group (which is still in good standing with the Secretary of State) and not OnMessage. That should sound the death knell for the Teepell-OnMessage partnership. You can probably expect the announcement of their transfer to Riser’s campaign any Friday now. Jindal prefers making those kinds of announcements late on Fridays so as not to attract too much media attention.
Bautsch at one time held the dual role of chief fundraiser for Jindal and treasurer of the Supriya Jindal Foundation for Louisiana’s Children.
She apparently is more proficient at fund-raising than Teepell is at attracting new clients. Since Jindal’s re-election, she has pulled in more than $1.2 million—and this for a lame-duck governor who insists he has no aspirations to higher office.
Of course, Jindal could, if he wishes to do so, pour much of that money into the campaign of a preferred candidate—like Riser.
So, with the Jindal crowd actively working on behalf of Riser, better known for his whack-o gun rights bills than anything else he’s ever done in Baton Rouge (a conflict of interest, we might add, given that he runs a couple of funeral homes), it would appear that he might be a shoo-in for the position, right?
Maybe not.
There is also word that Monroe’s Harris Brown might challenge Riser. The former President of the Tensas Basin Levee District, Brown is a capable politician who has—and can raise—money, is likable and who knows his way around well enough to be a viable opponent
There are other potential candidates as well—one, Louisiana Tech alumnus Adam Terry, who would have the important backing of Ruston’s James Davison who is a former Jindal ally but who became disenchanted when the governor stopped taking his phone calls.
Terry is Alexander’s chief of staff, so he ran and won, he would enter office already knowing the important contacts inside the Beltway.
Louisiana Voice 
I so enjoyed this funny and spot on “non-traditional” blog post simply for the reason that it is making THEM squirm. You are on a roll! This one may push you over 2000. Keep up the excellent work.
This made my week!
Thanks Tom please keep up your hard work.
You are the BEST!!
Enough of obstructionist GOP candidates. Any Democrats running?
http://theadvocate.com/news/6740526-123/democrats-not-conceding-congressional-seat
Yes, John Bel Edwards for Gov 2016!!
I just hope that we – the hard-working teachers, professors, doctors, nurses & other vital state employees – can hold out that long & that it’s not too late to bring Louisiana back to state – rather than colony – status. iThe way things are going, I am also hoping that we won’t be reduced to eating pet food when we “retire” after these pigs plus the whole retire-rehire school administration crew (remember when R-R was just for the teachers we really needed at the beginning!) finish pillaging the retirement fund!!
Teachers have class:
No truer words have been spoken , all though Im not or never have been a state worker, it is a shame what this man has done to the state workers and others in this State.
I’m curious to know if any one has ever laid eyes on all the blank pages on the DHH privatizing contracts.
I haven’t heard if the federal department that has to look over the Medicare payment set up has even received the papers they need to make a ruling as to whether or not they will be paying what DHH is counting on.
What happenes if the Feds say oh no this is way out of line? THEN WHAT?
LouisianaVoice made two Freedom of Information Act requests on Friday: the first to LSU for a copy of the contract and the second to CMS for an update on the state’s status with the feds. I look for LSU to stall and if they do, I shall file a lawsuit and look forward to meeting Jimmy Faircloth again.
What’s in it for Jindal for loading Alexander’s pony with moneybags? With these characters, there must be a suitable quid pro quo, but they sure aren’t as dumb as Duke Cunningham, who posted on the walls of his watering holes, the bribe prices for defense contractors, to buy his vote and frame legislation for their purchase. After five years of Jindal corruption, we can appreciate the Dukester’s honesty!
Rodney is pretty bright when it comes to helping himself, also, and we know that Riser knows how to convert dead weight to handsome profits.
Rodney fitted right in with the rest of Louisiana’s do nothing Representatives. The poorest district in the nation was cursed with the poorest Congressman, and we are being fitted right now, boxed in, for more of the same!
Poor no more!
The question is who is the payee, how much are the payoffs, and who is the pony?
There is definitely a shot at this district for the Democrats, even a demographic advantage. Riser has a slim chance of keeping this risky scheme alive. You notice that he’s still holding onto his Senatorial seat? When even his strongest parishes learn how much of ALEC’s bribes he pocketed for bowing to their directives to destroy his own electorate’s communities by destroying their public schools, he will need more than a million to expedite his chicanery and less than a month and a half mini-campaign from which to hide his bona fides!
Didn’t he make some of the ALEC conventions? Isn’t he Jindal’s little water boy?
…and would he holler, “Choot-em, Choot-em!”? No, because they don’t talk that way up there.
Since we’re into retirement, can we quantify Jindal’s multiple retirements and get a ball park on what he will draw from state and federal government upon retirement. As of now, he will draw two retirements from the federal government at about $5,000 a month at least, and two state government retirements plus another federal retirement if he were to succeed in 2016 as President, Vice-President, or cabinet member. Can anyone give us a ball park for his present retirement prospects? How can someone so fiscally conservative and dedicated to austerity for everyone else, possibly accept multiple retirements? Jindal is hypocrisy personified, corruption corrupted, and the very epitome of greed! He and his cronies want it all-everyone’s. It’s time for everyone to rise and give them all of what they deserve!
It is time to rise and prevent the pusillanimous pilfering of the Fifth District Congressional seat by a corrupt cadre of slithering politicians! Enough is enough! The proof that this district is winnable for Democrats, is the cowardly way the Republicans are going about to cleverly try to steal it. The reason for Rodney’s retiring is probably because of his vote in favor of the U S Government’s right to spy upon the telephone conversations of all the people of the United States instead of terrorists conversations only. Where is the tea party who should be exploding because of Rodney’s vote and bombastically screaming at the subterfuge of this so called election. The reason for the sudden retirement and the sudden election is that the Republicans think that the woolen blanket that they have kept over the eyes of the people of this district no longer conceals their great fraud that has cloaked them along with their sputtering mantras about conservatism and austerity while neglecting the people’s health needs and roads and bridges while they themselves have only labored to enlarge their humongous retirements! They intend to live large like bloated pigs while we wander in the darkness without representation in Washington.
The times, they are a changing!
Like a winter hatch of mosquitoes, let’s rise and take this district from the gluttonous GOP and give it once more, back to the people!