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If ethics board investigates Livingston assessor for political campaigning, it should also investigate Jindal’s involvement

Posted in BESE, Ethics, Governor's Office, Transparency on November 30, 2011| 1 Comment »

The Louisiana Ethics Board recently announced it was investigating Livingston Parish Tax Assessor Jeff Taylor for his involvement in the local race for Livingston Parish President. Taylor sent out letters to Livingston Parish voters endorsing challenger Layton Ricks over incumbent Mike Grimmer. Ricks won in a runoff with 56.8 percent of the vote.

The ethics board said it was investigating the propriety of Taylor’s involving himself in the election with his letter. The letter was sent out under his private letterhead but included the telephone number of the tax assessor’s office. Taylor said the inclusion of the telephone number was an oversight. Taylor also said he spent his own money on the mailout.

The Board is looking into whether the flier violated state law which says public servants can’t use their authority to coerce people to engage in political activity.

If the ethics board can somehow find wrongdoing in Taylor’s involvement in the race, it will be interesting to see how it treats the presence of Jindal’s heavy hand in the BESE elections. In those races, his campaign generated automated phone calls in which he used his voice, his name, his influence and the status of the governor’s office to urge voters to cast ballots for his favored candidates—including Chas Roemer and Jay Guillot, among others. Moreover, Jindal contributed thousands of dollars from his own campaign war chest to favored candidates. That would seem to qualify as a public servant using his authority to coerce people (voters) to engage in political activity.

Frankly, it’s quite a stretch to define the activities of either Taylor or Jindal as illegal or even unethical. A public servant’s use of his authority to coerce his employees to engage in political activity would be illegal but Taylor’s letter went to voters throughout Livingston Parish–not just to his employees. Jindal? His biggest sin was to become a nuisance during the campaign. It got a little tiresome to pick up the phone and hear a pre-recorded message from the governor. A live call from Jindal would at least afford the opportunity for a little voter feedback but it’s somewhat unfulfilling giving a Bronx cheer to a recording.

There are other matters that warrant the board’s consideration as well.

Jay Guillot, recently elected to the District 5 seat on the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), won’t have to bother getting an opinion from the ethics board on the propriety of his serving on a state board while holding a multi-million dollar state contract.

LouisianaVoice has saved him the trouble.

Guillot, for whatever reason, neglected to get an opinion from the ethics board prior to qualifying to run against incumbent Keith Guice. Guillot won the election with 54.6 percent of the vote, thanks in large part to the support of Gov. Bobby Jindal who, along with other key donors, poured tens of thousands of dollars into Guillot’s and other BESE candidates’ campaigns.

A sampling of contributions to Guillot included $5,000 from the Jindal campaign committee; $7,100 from the state Republican Party for television advertising; $10,000 from ABC Pelican Political Action Committee; $4,000 from Charter Schools USA of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; $5,000 from the Louisiana Federation for Children; $5,000 from ISC Constructors, a contributor to ABC Pelican PAC; $5,000 from another ABC contributor, Cajun Industries; $5,000 from Todd Grigsby, an executive for ISC Constructors, and $10,000 from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Guillot contacted Ruston’s Morning Paper on Sunday to say that his attorney, Jimmy Faircloth, Jr., would complete his request to the ethics board for an opinion on his legal status sometime this week but that the agency for the board is closed for December. That would mean that the board would not be able to consider a request from Fairchild until January—after Guillot is sworn in at BESE’s January meeting.

But not to worry; LouisianaVoice got its request in on November 2, one day before the cutoff for the December 15-16 agenda.

In fact, the request submitted by LouisianaVoice was two-pronged:

• Should Guillot be allowed to serve on a state board when he simultaneously holds nearly $17 million in contracts with the state—one contract alone is for $16 million?

• Should Chas Roemer be allowed to continue to make motions and vote on matters coming before BESE pertaining to charter schools when his sister, Caroline Roemer Shirley, serves as executive director of the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools?

Normally, a candidate in Guillot’s position would have sought an ethics opinion long before qualifying for and spending tens of thousands of dollars on a bitter campaign for public office.

Guillot, in fact, showed no inclination to seek such an opinion until pressed by the Morning Paper and even then, his responses were vague and non-definitive.

With the latest revelation that he would seek an opinion after all, only caused further head-scratching at his choice of legal counsel for the request.

Faircloth is the one-time and once-again legal counsel for Jindal and was apparently retained by Guillot to make the inquiry of the ethics board. That, in itself, would seem to be a conflict of interest, given Jindal’s political and financial support for Guillot’s candidacy and the governor’s tacit yet unmistakable influence on the board.

But it’s not as if Faircloth, who worked from January 2008 until July 2009 as Jindal’s executive counsel and now is again employed by the governor’s office, is unfamiliar with the ethics board and breaches in ethics.

On March 18 of this year Faircloth signed a consent judgment in which he agreed to pay a $1,000 fine for accepting $7,000 in fees for representing the Louisiana Tax Commission, beginning on Jan. 12, 2010. State law requires a waiting period of one year before a former state employee may represent a state agency.

He did the work for the tax commission under a $20,000 contract approved by the Attorney General’s office and the Office of Risk Management. Faircloth’s entering into the contract was in violation of Section 1113D(3)(a) of the Code of Governmental Ethics, according to the ethics board.

So now it comes down to what the board will decide and what board attorney Tracy Barker will write regarding Docket No. 2011-1688 later this month.

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Got change? Jindal wants your spare $100K for BESE race

Posted in BESE, Campaign Contributions, Education, Governor's Office, Transparency, Uncategorized on November 2, 2011| 1 Comment »

BATON ROUGE (CNS)—Gov. Bobby Jindal is at it again and this time it’s for really big bucks—as in solicitations of $100,000 a pop.

Let that sink in: he is asking for individual contributions of up to $100,000.

And just what does he want to do with that money? He wants at least $200,000 to finance the re-election of Chas Roemer to the BESE seat from Baton Rouge.

Let that sink in, folks. Gov. Bobby Jindal wants to purchase the District 6 BESE seat for $200,000.

We recently wrote about the big fundraiser in his behalf that was held at the L’Auberge du Lac Resort in Lake Charles. That little event, hosted by the Louisiana Association of Self-Insured Employers (LASIE) was asking contributors to become Gold or Silver sponsors by giving $5,000 or $2,500, respectively.

That fundraiser was for a governor who won re-election without breaking a sweat or making a significant dent in his $9 million campaign fund balance. Yet he wanted more. For what purpose we really don’t know. He won re-election and he’s term-limited now, so why does he need the money?

We reminded you then and we remind you again that this is the governor who loved to boast that 90 percent of his donors gave $100 or less.

Ah, but that 10 percent was what he didn’t talk about. Those were the fat cats who not only gave the $5,000 maximum allowable under law, but got their wives, their children, and any corporations they controlled to give up to $5,000 each. And there were plenty of those.

Take the owners of Chouest Offshore and C-Logistics, both in Lafourche Parish and both run by the Chouest family. The two corporations and 12 separate family members made 17 campaign contributions totaling $90,000 between December of 2006 and December of 2008.

To a lesser extent, Hunt Guillot & Associates (HGA), Trott Hunt, and Alex Hunt of Ruston teamed up to give $11,750 to Jindal between February of 2007 and September of 2010.

The Chouest companies benefitted from Jindal’s decision to invest $10 million into the Port of Terrebonne to accommodate LaShip, another Chouest subsidiary.

Hunt-Guillot, of course, has those four state contracts worth nearly $17 million.

Oh, did we mention that Jay Guillot, one of the principals of Hunt-Guillot, won the BESE seat in District 5 on Oct. 22?

But all that, it seems, was just penny-ante stuff. Now Jindal has rolled out the big guns and he’s got Donald Songy in his crosshairs because Songy had the temerity to force Republican Chas Roemer into a runoff for the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) District 6 seat.

Jindal campaign finance director Allee Bautsch has sent out a blanket email to “Friends of Bobby Jindal” in which she is seeking to wring still more money out of Republican supporters in an all-out effort to defeat Songy.

Here is the text of that email:

Dear _____________________,

Thanks so much for all of your help throughout the years. With your help, we were able to secure the Governor not only a second term, but a historic victory. The Governor not only won all 64 parishes, but was elected with the highest percentage of the vote ever won by a candidate since Louisiana instituted the open primary system. The Governor was humbled by the overwhelming support on election day, and is hugely appreciative of your continued friendship and support.

As you know, the Governor was heavily involved in races for the State House, State Senate, and the BESE Board. In total, 87 candidates endorsed by the Governor have been elected, but we’ve also got nine more advancing to run-off elections in November – and that’s why I’m contacting to you today.

In addition to making sure that LA continues to outpace the national and Southern averages when it comes to economic development wins and job creation, the Governor is prepared to lead the charge on education reform. We need conservative reformers in the Legislature and especially on the BESE board so we can ensure that parents have more options, our schools are accountable, and every Louisiana child has the opportunity for an excellent education.

Already we have had tremendous success this election cycle in Legislative races and we are on our way to a reform majority on the BESE board with 3 big wins last Saturday.

But we have one more BESE race left to be decided.

Chas Roemer ran first in the primary, but fell just short of the 50%, necessary to avoid a runoff. This is a must win race. We will need to raise $200k quickly to wage a strong campaign for Chas and provide him the support he needs to win election in 4 weeks. Winning this last BESE race will give us a pro-reform majority on the BESE board, giving the Governor and strong partner in reforming our education system so every child can attend a good school and receive a great education.

You have already been very generous with your support of the Governor and the Victory effort, but the battle is not over and we can not rest until the last vote is cast on election day. The Governor would like for you to consider contributing to the Victory fund to help get these candidates across the finish line with a win on election day.

I have attached the information here on contributing to the Victory fund, please consider helping us get a team elected to aide the Governor over the course of the next four years.

Most Sincerely,
Allee Bautsch

Friends of Bobby Jindal
bautsch@gmail.com
(o) 225-389-1180
(f) 225-389-1182

PO Box 4168
Baton Rouge, LA 70821

Then came the reply card to the 2011 Republican Victory Fund—the real nuts and bolts of the email—complete with disclaimer:

Reply Card to the 2011 Republican Victory Fund

____ I will become a Governor’s Council Member. Enclosed is my contribution of $100,000.
____ I will become a Pelican Cabinet Member. Enclosed is my contribution of $50,000.
____ I will become a member of the Committee for Louisiana’s Future. Enclosed is my
contribution of $25,000.
____ I will become a Bobby’s Club Member. Enclosed is my contribution of $10,000.
____ I will become an Elephant Sponsor. Enclosed is my contribution of $5,000.

Names:________________________________________________
Company:_____________________________________________________________________
Address:______________________________________________________________________
City:_________________________________ State: _______ Zip:___________
Phone:______________________ Email:________________________________
Make checks payable to: Republican Victory Fund of Louisiana: PO Box 3557, Baton Rouge, LA 70821
If you wish to pay by credit card please provide the following information:
Type of Credit Card: { } Master Card { } Visa { } American Express { } Discover
{ } Diner’s Club International
Amount: ________________ Card #:_______________________________
Expiration Date: ________________Security Code:________________
Name as it appears on card:_____________________________________
Signature:_________________________________________

Contributions to the Republican Victory Fund of Louisiana are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. Contributions may be corporate, union, PAC or personal funds. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.

Contributions will be deposited into the RPL’s state account. All contributions are solely for the use of the Republican Party of Louisiana. Contributions from foreign nationals are prohibited.
Paid for by the Republican Party of Louisiana.

If you like brass bands, at least Jindal has the brass.

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Losers and statistics: picking apart the election results

Posted in BESE, Campaign Contributions, Education, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators on October 28, 2011| 4 Comments »

BATON ROUGE (CNS)—While the media was busy gushing over the “overwhelming,” “record-setting” landslide re-election victory by Gov. Bobby Jindal Saturday night and on into Sunday, they overlooked a couple of pretty important points.

Someone once said statistics are for losers. Okay, so let’s look at the statistics while we lick our wounds.

Sure, Jindal pulled down a whopping 65.8 percent of the vote. But he had a $9 million campaign budget. If you lived in Louisiana and you have a phone, you received no less than a dozen pre-recorded messages from him. Those cost money, but he had plenty.

His opponent? Well, Haynesville school teacher Tara Hollis had a campaign budget in the neighborhood of $50,000. Most of that was in the form of in-kind contributions. In actual monetary expenditures, the total was more like $18,000, so give Jindal a 500-1 advantage in available bucks. Still, she managed to account for 17.8 percent of the vote.

The official numbers show that Jindal, with a four-year track record and that $10 million war chest, tallied 673,155 votes to Hollis’s 182,808. In all, 1,022,770 people cast votes.

But let’s look back at the last two gubernatorial elections.

Four years ago, when nearly 1.3 million people voted, Jindal got 699,275 votes. But in 2003, when 1.4 million voted, he got only 676,484. That means that Jindal has basically been a standstill candidate at best, incapable of drawing more than 700,000 votes from some three million registered voters.

That’s hardly a mandate by any measure. A mandate would have been reflected in a much larger turnout than the dismal 33 percent of registered voters who cast ballots last Saturday.

A mandate would seem to dictate that he would have received more votes in this election than he did in 2003—when he lost. But he didn’t.

If he were as great as the media makes him out to be it seems he would have gained substantial strength over the past eight years. Instead, he is held to 65.8 percent of the vote against an opponent with a mere fraction of his financial resources.

In 2003, in a head-to-head contest with Kathleen Blanco, those 1.4 million voters gave Blanco 52 percent to Jindal’s 48 percent. And Blanco was no Edwin Edwards.

Let’s look at 2007 a little more closely.

Four years ago he had two candidates who poured money into their campaigns. John Georges spent $9 million (roughly the same amount as Jindal spent this year) and got 14.4 percent of the vote. Walter Boasso spent $5 million and received 17.4 percent.

Did we mention that Tara Hollis spent $18,000 this year and got 17.8 percent?

That begs the question of what might the numbers have looked like had the Democratic Party run a candidate with greater name recognition—and a larger campaign war chest.

Jindal, knowing he was a lock for re-election, was not content to merely run for governor; he threw his support—and campaign money—behind 86 legislative candidates and five candidates for the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE).

But, it turned out much of that support—and money—was more style than substance, designed to make Jindal appear to be a wizard at handicapping elections. All one has to do is look at the track record of candidates endorsed by him in the past. A hint: he has a worse winning percentage in backing candidates than David Vitter. Ouch.

Of the 86 legislative candidates whom he endorsed, 54, or 63 percent, were unopposed. It’s pretty easy to back a winner that way. Of the remaining 32, He picked 18 winners outright (56 percent) and lost six. The remaining eight are headed for Nov. 19 runoffs.

Even more significantly, none of the incumbents targeted for defeat by Jindal lost. Repeat, none. These include Sen. Ben Nevers (D-Bogalusa), Rep. Bernard LeBas (D-Ville Platte), Rep. Robert Johnson (D-Marksville) and about a half-dozen others.

With the exception of districts in which incumbents were pitted against each other because of reapportionment, not a single statewide official or legislator running re-election was defeated. That says more for voter apathy than it does for Jindal’s ability to influence an election.

When the new legislature convenes next spring, Jindal will have 24 Republicans in the 39 Senate seats and, depending on the outcome of the November runoffs, between 54 and 62 in the House.

That means he will have a majority in both houses—but significantly, not the super (two-thirds) majority needed for him to push through certain of the major proposals he has planned for his new term.

Easy to overlook, however, is the one area in which Jindal did score major victories—BESE.

Education is at the top of Jindal’s to-do list and to that end he contributed $5,000 each to five favored BESE candidates (The legislative candidates he backed got only $2,500 each). Three of those won, another lost, and the fifth, District 6 incumbent Chas Roemer, is in a surprise runoff with Democrat Donald Songy.

Jindal was successful in BESE District 5 where Jay Guillot of Ruston unseated incumbent Keith Guice of Monroe, thanks in part to an influx of Jindal cash and a vicious attack campaign by Guillot. Guillot, it should be noted is a principal in the Ruston engineering firm Hunt Guillot & Assoc. (HGA) that has contracts with the state totaling nearly $17 million. The firm, along with partner Trott Hunt, was a major contributor to Jindal’s campaign.

Guillot has said he will seek a ruling from the State Board of Ethics on whether or not he can serve on BESE and contract with the state. He had ample opportunity to seek such an opinion in the months leading up to the election, but did not avail himself of that opportunity.

Roemer has his own ethics issues because of his repeated votes on matters involving charter schools. His sister, Caroline Roemer Shirley, is executive director of the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools. She has already been directed by the ethics board not to participate in discussions of charter school matters coming before BESE because of her relationship with Chas Roemer. That, however, has not deterred him from voting on those same matters.

Republican Jim Garvey of Metairie, a Jindal endorsement, won the District 1 BESE seat as did another Jindal endorsement, Holly Boffy, a Republican from Youngsville, who easily won in District 7.

Ironically, Glenny Lee C. Buquet, the only Democrat whom Jindal backed financially for a BESE seat, lost to Republican Lottie Polozola Beebe.

If Roemer wins his runoff with Songy, Jindal will be all but unstoppable in his efforts to establish a statewide system of for-profit charter schools that will in all probability have selective enrollment of only the best and brightest students while at the same time providing a financial windfall for the charter operators.

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How much is enough, Governor? How much is enough? Does your insatiable greed for more money know no boundaries?

Posted in BESE, Campaign Contributions, Economy, Governor's Office on October 26, 2011| 5 Comments »

The question of the day has to be: How much is enough?

The election is over. Bobby Jindal won in a cakewalk—just as every pundit said he would. It was, after all, a no-brainer. He had somewhere in the neighborhood of $9 million to $10 million with which to literally overwhelm and obliterate a Don Quixote-type opponent who had all of $50,000.

There’s no way on earth Jindal could have spent all that money, even with the $2,500 in financial support he gave to each of 86 legislative candidates (54 of whom were unopposed) and the $5,000 to each of five candidates for the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE).

We repeat. No freaking way.

If he did go through that money, can Louisiana really afford to have this guy keeping watch over the state’s financial interests?

But wait. An email sent out by unnamed supporters is announcing yet another fundraiser.

To quote Oliver Twist, Jindal is now saying, “Please, sir, I want some more.”

Holy mother of all fundraisers. The man wants more.

The email says:

“A fundraiser for recently re-elected Governor Bobby Jindal will be held at the L’Auberge du Lac Resort on Wednesday, November 2 from 11:30 to 1:00 in the Embers Restaurant.”

(We can only assume that’s from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.)

It goes on:

“Participants will meet with Governor Jindal to discuss economic and leadership plans to move the state forward. Promoting all aspects of economic development are key components of the Governor’s goals. Governor Jindal will address the LASIE (Louisiana Association of Self Insured Employers) Conference from 1:15 to 2:15.

To put things into perspective and to illustrate to whom the governor is cozying up, consider this: if a business can afford to be self-insured, it’s not your basic mom and pop corner grocery. These are major players–corporations like AT&T, Entergy, Exxon Mobil, Dow Chemical, and the like. That’s not to say these corporations are participating, but companies of that caliber certainly are.

The email continues:

“See the attached draft invitation for details.”

There was no attachment to the email, but the rest of the email contained the real zinger:

“Please consider being a Gold ($5,000) or Silver ($2,500) sponsor. There is still time to add your company’s name. Call 225-338-0705 with questions.”

So, how much influence do you think your little $25, $50 or $100 contribution will have with the governor if your interests and the interests of one of these heavy hitters should happen to conflict?

Remember, this is the same governor who boasted only a few short months ago that the majority of his donors were from supporters giving $100 or less.

But that was then. This is now.

Note, too, that Jindal, with his political smarts, waited until after the election to hold a fundraiser of this magnitude in Louisiana.

It’s a safe bet, however, that all those out-of-state fundraisers over the last couple of years attracted the same kind of corporate money.

If you’re still not convinced, just be sure to check out the legislative bills introduced during Jindal’s second term and follow the money back to these same corporate donors.

Again, the question of the day: how much is enough?

Does your greed know no limits?

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Jindal raises the ante: his candidate contribution list

Posted in BESE, Campaign Contributions, Education, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators on October 21, 2011| 3 Comments »

Gov. Bobby Jindal over the past year made multiple out-of-state fundraising trips to ensure that his own re-election campaign didn’t suffer the same financial dilemma as the state he was supposed to be running.

To that end, he has to be considered an unqualified success. He amassed some $10 million for his campaign that, barring an upset of monumental proportions, has attracted only token opposition.

Jindal must be given due credit. That he was able to attract so much money for his campaign at the same time the state was drowning in red ink is truly remarkable.

He couldn’t, after all, sell state prisons or the Office of Group Benefits (OGB) to finance his campaign but he could certain attract cash in large chunks from adoring benefactors in such remote reaches as Wisconsin, California, Florida, New Hampshire, New York, and Ohio—places with such an obvious stake in the outcome of a Louisiana gubernatorial election.

But, hey, that’s ancient history, right? All that hard work paid off. He’s a lock for re-election. The loss of a few public school teacher jobs is just collateral damage. The fact that health care premiums are going to cost more for fewer benefits after the privatization of OGB—along with about 150 OGB employees who will lose their jobs—is just one of those unfortunate things. When those three prisons are ultimately sold and the state prison guards who work there are forced to take drastic pay cuts, the election will be long past and no one will even notice, right?

Right? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

But we digress. The point of all this banter is to illustrate how serious Jindal really is taking this election, his own cakewalk notwithstanding.

His campaign has shoveled money into 93 separate legislative races, 49 in which his candidate is unopposed.

That’s right: $2,500 each to 49 hand-picked candidates ($122,500 total) who didn’t even draw opposition.

Even more interestingly, he dumped $2,500 each into the campaigns of nine ($22,500 total) legislative candidates all on the same day—Sept. 19, a full 11 days after it was apparent they would have no opposition. The others got their blood money well in advance of the qualifying deadline of Sept. 8.

Most of those 49, of course, were incumbents but some were somewhat surprising at first but on reflection, probably made perfect sense to the governor.

But the most significant contributions from the Jindal campaign coffers went to candidates for five of the eight seats on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Those five candidates, including one currently holding a $16 million contract with the state, received $5,000 each—double what the individual legislative candidates received.

That should illustrate just how much importance Jindal places on those races. It is the current BESE membership, after all, that has blocked his attempts to appoint John White as State Superintendent of Education. White was brought in (from New York) to replace Paul Vallas of Chicago as Superintendent of the Recovery School District (RSD). Only a few weeks after White’s appointment to head RSD, Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek resigned (some say he was forced out) and Jindal immediately moved to place White in that position, only to be thwarted by BESE. Now he wants revenge and he wants his way.

Of the three races in which he did not place bets, one candidate, DeSoto Parish Superintendent of Schools Walter Lee, is unopposed in District 4 which includes the parishes of Caddo, Bossier, Webster, Bienville, DeSoto, Red River, Winn, Natchitoches, Sabine and Vernon. The remaining two apparently are considered as lost causes. They are District 2 (all or parts of the parishes of Assumption, St. James, St. John, St. Charles, Jefferson, and Orleans), and District 8 (all of the parishes of East and West Baton Rouge Parish, Avoyelles, East and West Feliciana, St. Landry, Pointe Coupee, Lafayette, St. Martin, Iberville, and Ascension), in which no incumbent is running but three of the candidates are Democrat and a fourth is No Party.

In District 1, comprised of St. Tammany and parts of Jefferson and Orleans parishes, Jindal has tossed $5,000 to incumbent Jim Garvey of Metairie who is opposed by fellow Republican Sharon Hewitt of Slidell.

In District 3, Jindal is supporting another incumbent, Glenny Lee C. Buquet of Houma. She is opposed by Lottie Polozola Beebe of Breaux Bridge. Both candidates are women but what makes Jindal’s endorsement unusual here is that his candidate, Buquet, is a Democrat while her opponent is Republican.

Keith Guice, a Monroe Democrat, is the incumbent in BESE District 5 and Jindal is going after that seat. He kicked in $5,000 for his Republican challenger, Jay Guillot of Ruston.

Guillot is a partner in the multi-disciplined engineering firm of Hunt, Guillot and Associates (HGA) that has contracts with the state totaling nearly $17 million. A single contract in the amount of $16 million calls for the firm to manage grants for infrastructure “and other projects undertaken as a result of damages incurred as a result of hurricanes Katrina and Rita and to a lesser extent as a result of hurricanes Gustav and Ike,” according to the contract description provided by the Division of Administration.

Guillot has said if elected, he will request an opinion from the State Ethics Board on the propriety of his serving on the board while contracting with the state. The question of why he would wait until after the election remains puzzling since that avenue has always been available without having to wait for the results of an election.

The most high-profile and perhaps most controversial BESE candidate is incumbent Chas Roemer, a Baton Rouge Republican in District 6. He is being opposed by fellow Republican Elizabeth Meyers of Denham Springs and Democrat Donald Songy of Prairieville and Jindal has cast his lot—and another $5,000—with Roemer.

What makes this particular race controversial is Roemer’s sister, Caroline Roemer Shirley. Ms. Shirley is executive director of the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools and Chas Roemer has consistently voted on matters concerning charter schools and which directly benefit his sister’s organization. In some instances, Chas Roemer has even made or seconded motions on actions involving charter schools in which his sister has a vested interest.

The State Ethics Board has even issued a ruling that Ms. Shirley may not appear before BESE on matters involving charter schools because of her brother’s membership on the board. The ethics board also has ruled that she may not even communicate with BESE members on matters involving charter schools for that same reason.

This obvious ethics question apparently causes little or no concern to “the most ethical administration in America,” the administration that is “accountable and transparent.”

In BESE District 7, Jindal has taken aim on another incumbent, Republican Dale Bayard of Lake Charles. Instead, the governor is backing challenger Holly Boffy, a Youngsville Republican.

The nine unopposed legislative (eight House and one Senate) candidates to whom Jindal contributed $2,500 each more than a week after the close of qualifying included:

• Stuart Bishop of Lafayette (House District 43);
• Walt Leger, III of New Orleans (House District 91);
• J. Rogers Pope of Denham Springs (House District 71);
• Hunter Greene of Baton Rouge (House District 66);
• Eddie Lambert of Gonzales (House District 59);
• Jared Brossett of New Orleans (House District 97);
• Mickey Guillory of Eunice (House District 41);
• Helena Moreno of New Orleans (House District 93);
• Sharon Weston Broome of Baton Rouge (Senate District 15).

All but Bishop are incumbents and five of the nine (Leger, Brossett, Guillory, Moreno and Broome) are Democrats.

Why would Jindal sink $12,500 into the campaigns of five unopposed Democrats?

Possibly….no, definitely to build a consensus for his political agenda. Call it quid pro quo. A Democrat indebted to a Republican governor when a key bill comes up for a vote. What could be sweeter?

Other unopposed legislative candidates to whom Jindal contributed $2,500 each but prior to the qualification deadline included Republicans:

• Gordy Dove of Houma (House District 52);
• Page Cortez of Lafayette (Senate District 23);
• Dan Morrish of Lake Charles (Senate District 25);
• Steve Carter of Baton Rouge (House District 68);
• Jody Amadee of Gonzales (Senate District 18);
• Tom Willmott of Kenner (House District 92);
• Tony Ligi of Metairie (House District 79);
• Frank Howard of Many (House District 24);
• John Alario of Westwego (Senate District 8);
• Charles Chaney of Rayville (House District 19));
• Patrick Connick of Marrero (House District 84);
• Norby Chabert of Chauvin (Senate District 20);
• Neil Riser of Columbia (Senate District 32);
• Craig Hensgens of Geydan (House District 47);
• Mike Walsworth of West Monroe (Senate District 33);
• Mike Huval of Breaux Bridge (House District 46);
• Joseph Harrison of Gray (House District 51);
• Eric Ponti of Baton Rouge (House District 69);
• Charles Kleckley of Lake Charles (House District 36);
• Kirk Talbot of River Ridge (House District 78);
• Joseph Lopinto of Metairie (House District 80);
• Clif Richardson of Baton Rouge (House District 65);
• Ronnie Johns of Sulphur (Senate District 27);
• Taylor Barras of New Iberia (House District 48);
• Johnny Guinn of Jennings (House District 37);
• Cameron Henry of New Orleans (House District 82);
• Henry Burns of Haughton (House District 9);
• Scott Simon of Abita Springs (House District 74);
• Fred Mills of St. Martinville (Senate District 22);
• Brett Geymann of Lake Charles (House District 35);
• Daniel Martiny of Metairie (Senate District 10);
• John Schroder of Covington (House District 77);
• Gerald Long of Winnfield (Senate District 31);
• Kevin Pearson of Slidell (House District 86);
• Conrad Appel of Metairie (Senate District 9).
Unopposed Democrats who received $2,500 from Jindal before qualifying:
• Francis Thompson of Delhi (Senate District 34);
• Girod Jackson of Harvey (House District 87);
• David Heitmeir of New Orleans (Senate District 7);
• Major Thibaut of New Roads (House District 18);
• Mike Danahay of Sulphur (House District 33);
• Jim Fannin of Jonesboro (House District 13).

Republican legislative candidates who received $2,500 contributions from Jindal and who have opposition include:

• A.G. Crowe of Pearl River (Senate District 1);
• Joel Robideaux of Lafayette (House District 45);
• Frank Hoffman of West Monroe (House District 15);
• Garrett Monti of Luling (Senate District 19);
• Kirby Roy of Hessemer (House District 28);
• Steve Pylant of Winnsboro (House District 20);
• Sherman Mack of Albany (House District 95);
• Thomas Carmody of Shreveport (House District 53);
• Barrett Byrd of Alexandria (House District 25);
• Billy Chandler of Dry Prong (House District 22);
• John Smith of Leesville (Senate District 30);
• Dan Claitor of Baton Rouge (Senate District 16);
• Simone Champagne of Jeanerette (House District 49);
• Tim Burns of Mandeville (House District 89);
• Jane Smith of Bossier City (Senate District 37);
• Franklin Foil of Baton Rouge (House District 70);
• Don Menard of Carencro (House District 39);
• Greg Cromer of Slidell (House District 90);
• Sam Little of Bastrop (House District 14);
• Bodi White of Watson (Senate District 6);
• Richard Burford of Stonewall (House District 7);
• Steve Pugh of Ponchatoula (House District 73);
• Joseph Harrison of Gray (House District 51);
• Jim Morris of Oil City (House District 1);
• Jack Donahue of Mandeville (Senate District 11);
• Julie Harrington of Krotz Springs (House District 38);
• Paul Miller of Ville Platte (Senate District 28);
• Bob Kostelka of Monroe (Senate District 35);
• Fenn French of New Orleans (House District 98);
• Nancy Landry of Lafayette (Senate District 26);
• Alan Seabaugh of Shreveport (House District 5);

Democratic legislative candidates who received $2,500 contributions from Jindal and who have opposition include:

• Elbert Guillory of Opelousas (Senate District 24);
• Karen St. Germain of Pierre Part (House District 60);
• Andy Anders of Vidalia (House District 21);
• Rick Gallot of Ruston (Senate District 29);
• Rick Ward of Port Allen (Senate District 17);

One thing each of those 93 legislative candidates and five BESE candidates–and every voter–might want to keep in the back of their minds as regards all those contributions:

Bobby Jindal considers those payments as nothing more than an investment–an investment in commodities and the recipients of those donations are the commodities on which he expects high–very high–returns.

So much for the myth of an independent legislature.

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