Justin DeWitt is the only challenger to 6th District U.S. Rep. Garret (one “t”) Graves to meet the July 8 Federal Election Commission (FEC) deadline for financial reporting and unlike the incumbent he is challenging, you won’t fine any PAC contributions in his report.
Democrat DeWitt, the only openly LGBTQ candidate to ever seek a congressional office in Louisiana, has raised a little more than $23,000 in a grassroots effort to dislodge Republican Graves, whose federal campaign finance report reads like a Who’s Who of Political Action Committees:
Airlines for America PAC, Allied Pilots Association PAC, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association PAC, Ally Financial, Inc. Advocacy PAC, Amazon PAC, the American Academy of Dermatology Association’s SKINPAC, American Academy of Physician Assistants PAC, American Airlines Inc. PAC, American Bankers Association PAC, American Air Liquide Holdings PAC, the American Cable Association PAC, American Chemistry Council PAC, American Commercial Lines PAC, Acadian Ambulance Service Employee PAC, Action Committee for Rural Electrification, AECOM PAC, Agricultural Retailers Association PAC, Airline Pilots Association PAC, Airbus Group PAC.
And those are just the first three pages. The entire list of PAC contributors is 38 pages long.
That $23,000 isn’t nearly enough to mount any kind of campaign and DeWitt is keenly aware of that fact but he says he’s running “because I flooded in ’16. I lost everything and got nothing but TAPs (thoughts and prayers) from Graves.”
Thousands of people lost everything in that flood, so what inspired him when no one else is running for that reason?
“I’m running because I’m pissed. Graves wants to take FEMA appropriations for victims and funnel that money into the Amite Diversion Canal. Those victims need help now.
“I want to change the entire flood insurance program,” he said. “We need an overall disaster insurance program. Instead, we have a national flood insurance program that has rates that are impossible for the average family to afford. It’s evil to profit off people who are suffering.
“I’m a political newcomer,” the 30-year-old member of a surveying crew says. One news report identified him as a surveyor—he’s not—and to show how those with power work to protect each other, the Louisiana Professional Engineering and Land Surveying Board threatened DeWitt with disciplinary action. “I never described myself as a surveyor because I’m not,” he said, “but that didn’t deter the board from trying to take action.”
He describes himself as “a working man from a working-class background” as opposed to Graves, who, like his mentor Bobby Jindal, never worked in the private sector.
He said if he is elected, “I will continue to work hard for all the people of the 6th Congressional District, Louisiana, and the nation—not for the corporations and special interest groups. I will work to protect our environment and the rights of all people, and to protect the vital program that ensure a good quality of life for working and middle-class people. That includes healthcare for all who need it and, importantly, Medicare and Social Security for our seniors who have paid into those programs for a lifetime and who should not have to fear a future without the financial resources to live comfortably.”
He said one of the biggest problems with congress and any other elective office is the influence of money from special interests. “The PACs have drowned out the voice of the people to the point the average person cannot be heard over the lobbyists and special interests,” he said. “That’s why you won’t see any PAC contributions in my finance reports. And it’s not because they haven’t offered—they have. We turned them down. We’re depending on social media to get our message out.”
Candidate qualifying runs from July 18 to July 20.
Louisiana Voice 
All I can say is 38 pages of PAC contributions should be enough to disqualify Graves…
Dewitt has as much chance as a snowball lasting in New Orleans in August.
I feel empathy for flood victims (my sister was one of them), but frankly, I do not believe it is an obligation of the federal government to step in and make things right. We live in Louisiana. We have a lot of water. It does flood on occasion. We all know that. It is not a responsibility of FEMA to do drainage projects either – Corps of Engineers has that job. If we can fix it, we should.
People should purchase insurance if there is a remote chance of flood. One of the problems I see in this country is everyone turning to the government to solve problems when we should be responsible for our decisions.
And why is being a LGBT(Q) candidate a source of pride or qualification ?
In all likelihood, you are correct that DeWitt doesn’t have a chance and that, when you get right down to it, is the real problem: once you get elected to congress, it takes a ton of TNT to blast you out. It’s a club geared to the advantage of incumbents and it was never meant to be that way. And you can thank PAC money for that.
I don’t recall reading where anyone said being LGBTQ was a source of pride or qualification. Nor should it be a point of shame or disgrace. Maybe a better question is: Are you saying it should be a reason for disqualification? It sure seems as if you are implying just that and that would make you something of a bigot and a homophobe.
Zoe, it seems that you often lose sight of the fact that there are people who are too poor for reasons over which they have no control who need help. You give no quarter to those people and one day that’s going to come home to roost. You need to loosen up your girdle a bit and try to see things from others’ perspective and try not to be so married to the Fox News right wing crowd. You need to take a long hard look at who controls the capital in this country and how they use that capital to gain more power to get more capital – at the expense of the rest of us, you included. You seem to be an intelligent person but you have blinders on that keep you from seeing how you and I are being used by the corporations and the politicians.
The “E” in USACE is for Engineer. In FEMA it stands for Emergency. The unprecedented floods created by a 500 year rainfall coupled with more and more disruption of the normal flow and percolation of rainwater due to paving of roads and parking lots and the like make the 2016 floods the responsibility of FEMA. How can an individual homeowner stop roadway and parking lot disruption of water flow direction and magnitude? That is a job of government. Thus, FEMA should be held accountable to flood victims for assistance.
And as for LGBT openly admitting to that sexual persuasion, that is still a brave act in our society and most importantly by being “out” makes it impossible to be blackmailed for being of that suasion.
What about the other challenger Andie Saizan? She missed the deadline?
Apparently.
So is she disqualified?
I’m going to have to defer to someone who is more familiar with the law on that issue but I believe (and that’s a very shaky “believe”) as long as one is not an officially declared candidate, no filing is required.
Angelo, I am not a “homophobe” in any way, shape or form. I am perhaps a bit old fashioned but think that sexual preference is personal issue and no one else’s business. I never felt a need to walk into a room and announce that I am heterosexual. I am tired of people throwing that in my face as some sort of point of honor, challenge or as a shield to avoid disagreement.
Secondly, you do not know me and if you did, you would know that I go out of my way to assist people in need. I have been poor and I guarantee, it is never a choice. We are talking about homeowners here, who should buy insurance to cover such instances.
Again, personal responsibility is at issue here. We survived well before FEMA was created and as a people, have faced and overcome many disasters.Our government cannot afford to bail out everyone from every natural disaster.
Thirdly, PAC’s are a reality and way of life in Washington (and Baton Rouge) and for this very reason, I believe legislators should be allowed only one term. It was never intended to be a profession.
What on earth does Fox news have to do with this ? Are you some closet liberal who throws conservative people in some category just because you disagree ? Do you watch CNN for example ? This network makes up facts to support story lines. Same for ABC and CBS, MSNBC etc. I have taken a hard look and frankly, we finally have a President who wants to rock this boat and it is about time.But this has nothing to do with story line, which is PAC’s control legislatures by funding re-election efforts. And I also resent implication that I am a right or even left winger. I judge each issue by itself.
And we are only used if we allow ourselves to be used.That is what government involvement in every aspect of our lives has done; made us dependent.
I am not dependent on the government. I fund it. I would rather see my tax dollars helping citizens than to see it helping obscenely rich people and big corporations. I just can’t figure why when people rant about government helping those in need that they have no problem helping those that have no needs.
So Zoe if he’s got no chance why have you already spent so much of your valuable time time illuminating us with your lengthy posts? Wouldn’t it be better used if you did something else like “going out of [your] way to assist people in need” that I’m sure you really do so much of? Just like I’m sure you’d say you’re one the least racist or homophobic people in the world.
Zoe: as a (presumably) heterosexual person, you don’t have to “walk into a room and announce” anything. People make that assumption, and for straight people, it’s reinforced for them daily. Straight people put pictures of their kids on their desks at work. They put up wedding announcements. They talk about the guy they went on a date with last Friday who was nice and the one the week before who was a drunk ass. They host baby showers for each other. They flash engagement rings obtained over the weekend and everyone oohs and ahs and congratulates them.
But let a gay person mention that he and his boyfriend are planning a trip to the mountains for their vacation and suddenly they’re “rubbing people’s faces in it”.
As for floods and insurance: many of the people who flooded in the 2016 disaster lived in areas that had never flooded in the past and did not show as risk areas for flooding on any flood maps. The reason those areas flooded was in large measure due to untrammeled development allowed by – you guessed it – GOVERNMENT, which has allowed much of the area that used to capture and hold flood waters in extraordinary events to be be paved over. It’s GOVERNMENT that has neglected our canals and drainage system. It’s GOVERNMENT that didn’t insist on developers putting in adequate drainage to offset the thousands of acres of building slabs, driveways, roads, parking lots, and other non-permeable sites added in the last 50 years.
We survived before FEMA in large measure because we didn’t allow people to build everywhere that developers could bribe government into letting them build on. That ship has sailed. These floods – like the rising sea levels and increased hurricane activity – are not “natural disasters”: they are man-made catastrophes that man, collectively, will have to mitigate.
And I’m sorry, but if you think you can avoid being pegged as a “right winger” when you praise FoxNEWS (well documented as the least factual major news network) and rave about the orange turd in the White House for “rocking the boat” (another more accurate phrase might be “destroying the civilized world”, but I digress), you’re just delusional. You espouse right wing propaganda like Fox and support Trump, wear the label proudly at least instead of pretending to be open-minded.
Just watching: thank you!
I’m sick of the arrogance, ignorance, and venality of the incumbents. They turn a blind eye to the struggles of the working class and the poor. FEMA is a very political animal and a huge waste of money. I’ll take DeWitt any day over what we have now. He is so much more in touch with reality.
Well, I see we are slipping into name calling , sarcasm, and worn out liberal b.s., all of which have nothing to do with topic posted by Tom. I agree with Sharon. At issue is how our system has been controlled by money from PAC’s and politicians have no interest in our views.
As for Edith’s comment, I am not opposed to helping those in genuine need, but you do not understand how our tax code works; Corporations do not actually pay taxes, they pass tax on to consumers as a cost of business. Rich benefit more from a tax cut because they pay more. It is that simple.Approximately 50% of Americans pay not one penny.
“Can’t say”, you are smug, sarcastic, judgmental and talk of things you have zero knowledge of.
“Just Watching” I am aware that people show off pictures of children etc. but evidently you are unaware that gay couples do the same, and with love and pride. They also have showers, engagement rings etc. I never once praised any news network as I recognize that they all try and create controversy for advertisement dollars. We survived before FEMA because we were once self-sufficient. You may not be aware, but we have lived in coastal areas all along Gulf Coast, eastern seaboard, Pacific coast, long before modern development, being fully aware that storms could occur. That is a calculated risk.It is not the responsibility of government to pay for our bad decisions.It is not me who is delusional; we have had a run of poor Presidents back to GH Bush through Obama, none of whom served us well.
I understand, though do not agree with everything you post with one exception: How it is possible for you to support the current POTUS.
It doesn’t matter how bad you believe any of his predecessors were, his actions cannot be excused and certainly not on the basis that he is no worse than anybody else. The POTUS should be better than anybody else – or at least better than most of us.
The following headline accurately summarizes his public statements about the British PM in recent days:
“Trump Denies He Said Something that He Said on a Tape Everyone has Heard”
Insulting other world leaders is bad enough, but lying about them is not good by anybody’s definition of good. It is not hard to prove this POTUS has lied repeatedly throughout his presidency about many things and that this is part of his management style. This is not a matter of opinion. It is a well-documented fact. It is not possible to believe anything he says because, as in this most blatant case, he is so often denying today that he said something yesterday despite its being recorded and given voluntarily during an interview.
As I have said many times before, I don’t have to watch listen to any particular network to judge his effectiveness as POTUS. I also don’t have to reflect on what Obama, W, B. Clinton, Harding, or any other POTUS did or did not do. I simply have to see and hear video recordings of him. They require absolutely no interpretation by anybody in the media. They speak clearly and unambiguously for themselves.
Nobody needs to slant his praise of Putin, his erroneous claims about an agreement with Kim, his actions to benefit the Chinese company ZTE, the negative effects of his trade policies on American businesses and farmers, his claim to have prodded NATO countries into increasing defense spending any quicker than they had already agreed to do – and on and on and on and on… These are on display for anybody looking and listening and I do not see how you can support such things or the person doing them.
But beyond any of his other policies, his pathological lying alone should be enough to disqualify him as our leader.
Mr. Winham – my new favorite lyin’ trump claim:
Trump claimed he’s a more popular president than Abraham Lincoln, who died long before modern polling existed
Business Insider – President Donald Trump claimed he is “the most popular person in the history of the Republican Party,” during an interview with a British newspaper on Thursday.
During a conversation with The Sun, Trump insisted his approval rating among Republicans landed at 92%, “beating [Abraham] Lincoln.”
“I beat our Honest Abe,” Trump said.
While it wasn’t immediately clear which poll Trump was referring to in his mention of Abraham Lincoln, Gallup’s presidential approval ratings only stretch back to the Truman administration, from 1945 to 1953. Lincoln died in 1865.
A day earlier, the Pew Research Center found that former President Barack Obama tops the public’s list of best presidents, alongside Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan.
Mr. Winham: I cannot stomach the lies either. There seems to be a very diabolical method to his lies. He must know that he is lying and then lying about his lies. This gives us no basis for any trust. I cannot believe that we can knowingly say that our President is a serial liar. What does this say about us as a Country? Where will his lies take our democracy? I fear that we are living in perilous times of our own making. As Pogo once said, “I have met the enemy, and he is us!”
Amen, Stephen, Trump tells us who he is, every time he opens his mouth..I don’t need pundits to tell me what I hear.
If I could vote for Justin, I would, l like what he has to say..
It’s not surprising that you support anyone other than the incumbent republican because you’re ableeding heart obamaite who loves anone but a republican. Graves has done a good job for Louisiana but you’ll never admit that because like obama you want to socialize this country. Go stuck you’re useless head back in the sand
Caroline, your literacy is impressive!
Mr. Winham – I am sore afraid that “Caroline” attended one of those under-resourced Louisiana schools. Her lack of ability to write a decent sentence should have teachers everywhere hiding in shame.
Caroline, I have a little test for you. No fair peeking. You have to answer these questions without looking the answers up.
1. How many members of congress are there (how many representatives and how many senators)?
2. How many members of congress (representatives and senators) are in the Louisiana delegation?
3. How many amendments comprise the Bill of Rights?
4. Name your U.S. Representative and Louisiana’s two senators.
5. How long are their terms of office?
6. How many Supreme Court justices are there?
7. How long are federal judges appointed for?
8. Who is first in line of succession for the presidency after the vice-president?
I very much support your right to free speech but in light of your glaring ignorance, I strongly suggest if you cannot answer six of these eight questions, you need to let the adults do the talking.
Remember: no peeking.
Once again, what is Caroline talking about?
Well Caroline, I’m guessing “your” (and that’s the correct spelling of the word) education level is “stuck” somewhere around fourth grade. Before you “stuck you’re” ignorance out there again, take a grammar/spelling course.
If Caroline is representative of the level of intelligence of the typical conservative Republican (and it’s capitalized, Caroline), then I’d have to say the GOP is in a world of trouble.
In an attempt to bring the comments back to the subject of the post:
https://www.dewittforcongress.com/
In the interest of full disclosure, I am proud to serve as communications director (traditional media) for the Justin DeWitt for Congress campaign.
Jerel M. Giarrusso
Attempting to get the comments on track with the original post.
In the interest of full disclosure, I am proud to serve as Communications Director (traditional media) for the Justin DeWitt for Congress campaign.
What we lack in financial resources, we make up for with enthusiasm, social media savvy, which is the new normal political communications strategy, and the energy of youth,
Jerel M. Giarrusso
https://www.dewittforcongress.com/
https://twitter.com/dewitt4congress?lang=en
Well it would be nice if members of congress voted as a representative of the people in their districts, but they do not in most cases. Eliminate PACs and eliminate political parties and maybe constituents would be represented except probably when the vote personally affects the member’s interest.
Attempting to get the comments on track with the original post.
In the interest of full disclosure, I am proud to serve as Communications Director (traditional media) for the Justin DeWitt for Congress campaign.
What we lack in financial resources, we make up for with enthusiasm, social media savvy, which is the new normal political communications strategy, and the energy of youth,
https://www.uygunkrediler.info/