Saturday, March 15, 2025
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Don’t Drink the Water!

By
Sue Lincoln
-

Louisiana has an abundance of water, from her powerful rivers to her sleepy bayous; her lakes, swamps and marshlands; and even her average humidity in excess of 70%. We’re also blessed with a lavishness of rainfall – 60 inches a year, on average – second only to Hawaii.

That profusion of precipitation falls on the rich alluvial soil of the state (deposited over millennia by the flood and ebb of river waters), and percolates down into the subterranean sands of Louisiana’s aquifers, filtering and purifying the water as it moves downward into the underground rivers.

We dig wells and pump the freshwater up for our use in drinking, washing, flushing, and watering our flowers.

But in DeSoto Parish, where thousands of oil and gas wells punch through the Carrizo-Wilcox aquifer to reach down into four different deeper oil and gas-bearing strata, that life-sustaining water source is now contaminated.

When I met with Louisiana Department of Natural Resources officials on August 23, I asked them about the drinking water supply in DeSoto Parish, and the status of the Carrizo-Wilcox aquifer. I was told the Office of Public Health had recently sampled wells and water systems in the area, and reports were expected “shortly”.

Those reports are in.

Don’t drink the water.

The contamination of the aquifer is more widespread – and has been going on longer in the Bethany-Longstreet area – than state officials have been publicly acknowledging.

Three different state agencies have responsibility for permits and monitoring of drinking water, water wells, and the aquifers in Louisiana. The Department of Natural Resources issues and certifies the water well drilling permits; Louisiana’s Department of Health, Office of Public Health, tests public water wells and public and private water systems; and the Department of Environmental Quality monitors the aquifers. None of them seem to be communicating with each other overmuch, and therefore they’re not recognizing the extent of the contamination or officially aware they’re now faced with a major and massive crisis.

Previous articles in our “Frack This” series have documented the visible manifestations of the emergency from water-well blowouts to boiling ponds to off-the-charts readings of hazardous gases. We’ve also documented the efforts of DNR and its Office of Conservation to minimize concerns and public attention on these unnatural events, with their reassurances that “it’s all under control.”

Now the Office of Public Health has published the reports of the latest testing done on the eleven public water systems in DeSoto Parish,conducted from July through September. The info comes from their Louisiana Drinking Water Watch website.

Nine of DeSoto’s public water systems have elevated chloride levels, ranging from 50 times the allowable limit, to more than 2300 times the allowable limit. These two groups of disinfectant byproducts are haloacetic acids (HAA5) and total trihalomethanes (TTHM). Generally, when chlorine or chloramine is used to treat source water, it binds with organic and inorganic matter in the source water, forming compounds like bromoacetic acid, chloroaceticacid, and chloroform. The EPA standard for total haloacetic acids in drinking water is six – one hundredth of one microgram per liter (0.06ug/L). For total trihalomethanes, it’s eight – one hundredth of one microgram per liter (0.08 ug/L)

Haloacetic acids are carcinogenic, and cause developmental and reproductive defects. Trihalomethanes are liver, kidney and neurotoxins, also cause developmental and reproductive defects, and are carcinogenic. The risk with TTHM isn’t just from ingestion. Because these are gases, they can also cause respiratory problems from inhalation and skin absorption during showering or bathing.

These systems in DeSoto Parish are providing their customers with drinking water containing as much – or more – chlorides as a swimming pool that’s just been “shocked”.

Higher than allowable levels of these chlorides have long been considered a symptom of the water system using too much disinfectant, though the literature on these contaminants also says it’s typical for levels to rise during the summer months, as water systems disinfect more heavily due to warmth-related growth of organics like algae. And all of these most recent tests on the DeSoto Parish water systems were conducted during the height of Louisiana’s oppressive summer heat.

But a study by American Chemical Society scientists from Duke University and Stanford University, and published in the September 2014 Environmental Science & Technology journal, says even .01 percent of fracking wastewater added to source water would create a 70-140% increase in TTHMs and HAA5.

Further study by Duke and Stanford University scientists, published June 2017 in the water research journal El Sevier, show that salinity in groundwater will also increase the formation of these disinfection byproducts.

One of the euphemisms for fracking wastewater is “brine”.

The EPA states: “When a public water system exceeds the maximum contamination level (MCLs) for both total trihalomethanes (TTHM) and haloacetic acids (HAA5), it must issue a public notice to inform consumers.”

An official with the Louisiana Department of Health has advised me that two of the water systems in DeSoto – Logansport and South DeSoto — have been issued violation notices for being out of compliance with safe drinking water standards. They, along with a third water system, Highway 513, had the highest readings of HAA5 and TTHM. But because Highway 513 had lower readings earlier in the year, they narrowly escaped a violation, since their annual average was still within the allowable limits.

These were the regularly scheduled water system tests. Until I spoke with this LDH official, they were unaware that there was any probable cause for concern, nor that there was any sort of problem brewing in DeSoto Parish.

What about the Keatchie Water System, which has a well near the nine-square-mile area that DNR has been focusing on as “ground zero” for the well problems?

In 2012, the water system was cited for violations of the HAA5/TTHM limits, and in 2013 was ordered to make an emergency connection to the DeSoto Parish Water Works. Though the system’s wells have been tested regularly since then, they have continued to exceed the HAA5/TTHM limits, resulting in continued major violations being issued, and the continuing requirement to provide water to their customers from a source other than their own wells.

What does Louisiana’s Department of Environmental Quality’s required monitoring of the entire Carrizo-Wilcox aquifer show? First, they only sample and test every three years, and they don’t test using the same wells each time. From 2006 to the present, five different wells in DeSoto Parish have been sampled – usually three each time – and those results have been combined with readings from nine other wells in the five other parishes that use water from this aquifer.

The last time DEQ did full test samples in DeSoto Parish was 2015. They are due to sample again before this year is over, and file the composite report next year. None of the water wells they have previously used for checking the aquifer are in the Bethany-Longstreet area.

What can be seen from the details provided in DEQ’s ASSET program reports is that the salinity levels, and specifically the sodium levels, in the Carrizo-Wilcox aquifer beneath DeSoto Parish have been increasing steadily since the advent of Haynesville Shale fracking activity in 2008. As far as this aquifer is from the Gulf of Mexico, it’s highly unlikely that this is the result of saltwater intrusion from that source.

And because the data for DEQ’s FY 2016 triennial report on the aquifers had not yet been posted on their new website, I had to specifically request the data from that agency. They provided it, and have now been informed of the “DeSoto Parish matter” – information which DNR has yet to officially share with them – or, apparently, with LDH.

Meanwhile, Shreveport TV station KTBS reported last Thursday (Oct. 11) that benzene has been found in “several water samples taken in the area that’s being investigated”, and that DNR has now notified “the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, Department of Environmental Quality, Department of Health, and the DeSoto Parish Police Jury.”

DNR spokesman Patrick Courreges told KTBS, “You know we get pockets of gas in the aquifer here and there in North Louisiana…That’s just part of the geology. This is some deeper gas from several thousand feet down that’s made its way into the aquifer and charged a little area.”

That’s right – DNR is still maintaining that the problem is “confined” to this 9-square-mile area, but that they’re actually “dealing with an area much smaller than that.”

Further, Courreges told the TV station, “There’s no imminent threat of harm to the public.”

Sure.

Don’t drink the water.

Don’t shower or bathe in it.

And whatever you do, don’t light a match.

In the race for Alexandria mayor, state Rep. Jeff Hall loads his campaign with massive debt.

By
Lamar White, Jr.
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Jeff Hall has spent $21,163.92 on campaign signage, accounting for 42% of the money he has raised in donations. Photo credit: Jeff Hall for Mayor.

Regardless of who wins, the next mayor of Alexandria, Louisiana is guaranteed to make history, following Mayor Jacques Roy’s decision to forgo running for a fourth term. Before Roy’s win in 2006, there hadn’t been a competitive mayoral campaign in twenty years. Ned Randolph, a former state senator, had easily coasted into City Hall in five consecutive elections before his retirement.

For the first time in more than 200 years, there isn’t a white man on the ballot. If Jeff Hall wins, he would become the city’s first-ever African American mayor. If either of his two challengers, attorneys Catherine Davidson and Kay Michiels, were to win, one of them would become the first woman to occupy the Second Floor. (Davidson, it’s worth noting, could make history in more than one way. She would also become the first openly gay mayor ever elected in Louisiana). 

All three candidates are Democrats. 

Hall, a two-term state representative who had previously run for mayor four years ago, had been largely presumed to be the frontrunner, at least in the primary election on Nov. 6. However, financial disclosures, which were publicly reported on Oct. 9, reveal that Hall is loading up his campaign with massive debt, notable for an election in which fewer than 15,000 people are likely to vote. Thus far, he has loaned his campaign $85,000, accounting for more than 62% of his total contributions and allowing his campaign to appear, at least on paper, to be financially solvent. In actuality, Hall has spent $28,293 more than he raised in donations.

Although Catherine Davidson had made an early splash, she reported less than $9,000 cash-on-hand, after spending more than half of her campaign fund on yard signs, t-shirts, and Facebook advertising.

Meanwhile, Kay Michiels, an attorney and the former chief operating officer for outgoing Mayor Jacques Roy, has raised $139,000 and spent less than either of her two opponents, leaving her with slightly more than $117,000 in the bank.  

According to several sources, at least two different polls have been recently conducted, the results of which have not been released to the public. Both suggest that Hall is well below the 50.1% he would need to win outright and that the election remains difficult to gauge.

While it is not unusual for independently wealthy candidates to lend money to their campaigns, Hall reported less than $5,000 in business income last year and also claimed that he had not made any financial transactions worth more than $5,000, highly unusual for a person who also asserts his wealth is in mutual funds. Hall also neglected to include the salary he earns as a state legislator on his most recent personal financial disclosure report, despite the fact that his business, apparently, is an accounting and tax preparation firm. 

Taken together, the campaign and personal financial disclosure reports raise serious questions. Hall, a former executive-level officer at CLECO, owns a home in the gated community of Rue Left Bank that is currently assessed at $589,000 and farmland in Grant Parish worth less than $100,000. He did not rely on an outside financial institution for his $85,000 in campaign loans.

Hall’s campaign expenditures are also unusual.

He has spent more than $21,000 for campaign signs, another $7,300 for a D.C.-based Republican political consultant (originally from Alexandria), nearly $10,000 for rental furniture, $750 for lawn care, and $3,900 for locals to assist with “campaign literature distribution.”

In addition to paying a D.C. consultant, Hall is also paying a salary to a former employee of his sister, Wanda Hall Davis, during her tenure as the head of the Alexandria Housing Authority. Davis was fired from her position after a legislative auditor’s report revealed she had made unauthorized payments to herself of more than $185,000 and nearly $350,000 in unauthorized payments to her top staffers. 

Hall’s campaign should be $28,000 in the red, but because of his personal loans, it shows a positive balance of $57,000. 

The reports submitted by Davidson and Michiels, on the other hand, are fairly standard, based on a comprehensive review of campaign spending in Alexandria during the past sixteen years.  

All three candidates share many of the same donors, though Hall is the only candidate who has accepted donations from political action committees and Davidson is the only candidate whose top contributors are almost entirely from outside of Central Louisiana. 


He’s a millennial, a Democrat, and a farmer. And he is running for Congress in one of the nation’s poorest districts.

By
Lamar White, Jr.
-

Loranger, Louisiana is an unincorporated town in Tangipahoa Parish, about fifteen minutes north of Hammond and an hour east of Baton Rouge. Its most notable “sightseeing” attraction, according to Facebook, is the Methodist Church, which had been listed on the National Register of Historic Places until its building was torn down and replaced three years ago. The Southern Baptists own a small summer camp there, Living Waters, on the banks of the Tangipahoa River. 

There’s a local donut shop and a Dollar General, which both earn a mention on the town’s Wikipedia.

This place is tiny. 

It’s also the hometown of Jessee Carlton Fleenor, the 34-year-old Democrat challenging Ralph Abraham, a two-term Republican congressman from Alto, another tiny town on the other end of Louisiana’s vast Fifth District.

Abraham, a physician and veterinarian, is the state’s wealthiest member of the U.S. House.

He represents the state’s poorest district, the tenth poorest congressional district in the entire nation in fact. All told, more than 25% of its citizens live under the poverty line.

Abraham recently supported a bill that “could take food off the table for as many as 155,000 Louisiana families and saddle Louisiana taxpayers with millions of dollars in new, bureaucratic mandates that state government cannot afford,” Davante Lewis of The Louisiana Budget Project explained. “That’s because the bill would force people to work in exchange for receiving benefits, even if there is no work to be found.”

Prior to Gov. John Bel Edwards’ decision to accept Medicaid expansion funding, 20.9% of the district’s residents were uninsured, the highest in the state. Since then, that number has been cut in half. Abraham, on other hand, has relentlessly opposed expansion, despite the fact that his constituents have benefitted more than anyone else in the state.

The fifth is also home to more African Americans (slightly more than 40% of its population according to the most recent American Community Survey) than any other district in the country controlled by a Republican. 

After addressing the Press Club of Baton Rouge in February, The Advocate‘s Lanny Keller described Abraham as “out of touch, lacking ideas, (and)… not ready for prime time.”

Ralph Abraham endorses David Vitter for Louisiana governor in 2015. Vitter, a Republican, lost the election to Democratic candidate John Bel Edwards by more than 12 points. Credit: KTVE. Edited by The Bayou Brief.

Despite this, Abraham is signaling his intention to challenge John Bel Edwards for governor next year, and until the final day of qualifications, it appeared that no Democrat would oppose his reelection to Congress.

In fact, the fifth was one of twelve districts across the country that some believed would not attract a Democratic candidate; as it turned out, only three of the 435 contests lack a Democrat. Republicans aren’t running in an astonishing 39 different races, including Louisiana’s Second District, held by Cedric Richmond.

Fleenor, his wife, and three children live on and operate Berry Hill Farm in Loranger, Louisiana, along with their horse Anne. Source: Berry Hill Farm.

Jessee Fleenor had heard rumors that conservative political operatives were considering planting their own, phony Democratic challenger, but when he learned it was likely no Democrat would challenge Abraham, he decided to do something he had been discussing with his family and closest friends: He climbed into his 1995 Dodge Ram 1500, and he headed straight to the Secretary of State’s office in Baton Rouge to qualify as a candidate for the United States House of Representatives. 

Abraham, he said shortly after qualifying, “is just an overpaid horse doctor.”

“We currently have a multi-millionaire representing the poorest district in one of the poorest states in the nation,” Fleenor tells me. We spoke candidly for more than an hour on Thursday. “But this man doesn’t really represent the people of this district. He is out-of-touch with the daily realities here.” 

He should know: Since qualifying, Fleenor has put thousands of miles on his old Dodge pickup truck, visiting all 24 of its parishes and the small towns that dominate its landscape. 

Fleenor is a vegetable farmer. He grows lettuce, bell peppers, corn, broccoli, and cucumbers, among other things. It’s seasonal work, 12 weeks in the spring and 12 weeks in the fall. For the past few years, he’s operated what he calls a “farm to door” program, delivering bags of 8-10 items, including a small selection of fruit and flowers, every week to customers across the region. In the fall, he includes organic eggs and fresh bread as well.

He’s not in it to make a fortune. Most years, he says, he earns between $20,000 to $30,000; the average household income in the district is slightly more than $37,000 a year.

The fifth is the geographically largest congressional district in Louisiana, a consequence of Republican-directed gerrymandering. It spans all the way from the Arkansas border to the heart of Cajun Country to the Florida Parishes, only an hour north of New Orleans. A roundtrip from one end of the district to the other takes 13 hours.

Louisiana’s Fifth Congressional District

A Democrat should be able to win this district. There are nearly twice as many registered Democrats than Republicans, though, to be fair, a sizable percentage of white Democrats are conservatives who simply haven’t gotten around to changing their party affiliation. But the primary problem, it seems, is voter apathy. “Everywhere I go in the 24 parishes, no one – outside of the hard-core political types- even know Abraham’s name,” Fleenor says.

“We’re not a red district; we’re a non-voting district,” he explains, echoing comments made by many Democrats in Texas, including Wendy Davis and Beto O’Rourke. 

According to analysis by elections guru Nate Silver, Ralph Abraham has a 99.9% chance of winning. He expects Fleenor to receive around 33% of the vote, which essentially anticipates that white progressives and African Americans simply won’t show up. 


Fleenor isn’t naive about the enormous odds he is up against, but during the past few months, as he has traveled across the district, he has developed a working theory about why Democrats have failed to compete in what should be a Democratic stronghold. “We need to bring together white Democrats and black Democrats. I have to go to some of these cities twice, once to meet with white Democrats and again to meet with African American Democrats,” he tells me.

He’s also reaching out to white conservative women, who, he believes, have become increasingly dissatisifed with Donald Trump and the Republican Party. At a recent event with the Republican Women’s Association of Bogalusa, which was attended by more than 500 people, Fleenor encountered a surprisingly receptive audience. “I was raised by Republican women,” he says, “and I know these are good and decent people.” Fleenor showed up to listen to their concerns, and he quickly discovered he was the only candidate who decided to take the time. Abraham was a no-show. 

In fact, according to Fleenor, there is very little evidence his opponent is campaigning at all or is even interested in campaigning. “I have reached out to Abraham’s campaign several times to schedule a debate,” he claims. “His campaign has been entirely unreceptive. In a democratic society, people should be able to stand up and speak about their ideas and defend their record.”

Fleenor is also showing up at college campuses across the district, and he is quick to credit Louisiana Tech’s College Democrats, led by student Nik Durman, for their advocacy and support.

Fleenor is a millennial, and he is optimistic about his (our) generation’s potential. “If our generation can take all that irony we cultivated in our twenties and turn it into authenticity, there’s nothing that can stop us,” he says. 

He’s also optimistic about the capacity of African Americans to shape the future of Louisiana’s Fifth District. He was so inspired by the work and the message of the local NAACP chapters he’s met with that he decided to join the organization. As a college student at LSU, Fleenor lived for a year in West Africa, traveling extensively through Ghana, Benin, and Burkina Faso. The experience changed his life. 

On the campaign trail, he emphasizes the basics, ensuring clean water and updating rural sewage systems, for example.

“We need to double the minimum wage,” he says, “and we need to remember that even when we do, those earning the minimum wage will still be among the poorest in the entire country.” 

He is also emphasizing criminal justice reform. “Up to 80% of the people we lock up are there because of our outdated approach to drug crimes,” he says. “We also need to do away with private prisons. We cannot sell off the responsibilities of criminal justice to corporations. It’s unethical.”

The odds may be stacked against him, but Jessee Carlton Fleenor believes he has tapped into something real, a network of like-minded progressives, both black and white, who are destined to be the future of Louisiana.  

“I’ve fallen in love with the good people of the Fifth District,” he says. “And I am so fortunate to have so many good friends from all across the district.” 


Can’t Win for Losing: Bluffing, Bid-Rigging and Baloney in the Secretary of State Race

By
Sue Lincoln
-

Even though it’s the top-of-the-ballot race for the November 6th election, the campaign for Louisiana Secretary of State has yet to generate much – if any – overt enthusiasm among voters. The few polls that have been done, each paid for by certain candidates themselves, have shown as much as 40% undecided.

On the other hand, most of the contenders for the job — which came open due to Tom Schedler’s resignation over allegations of sexual harassment – have ample furor to spare. Most of it is directed at the interim holder of that office, Kyle Ardoin.

Conventional political wisdom would hold that Ardoin, as the current – if temporary – officeholder, alphabetically at the top of the ballot, and with the second-most money in his campaign coffers, is almost guaranteed a spot in the runoff. Yet the 51-year-old Republican, originally from Ville Platte, is exhibiting all the signs of someone so enamored by his own cleverness that he has become a caricature of the “typical politician”.

He’s been around the state Capitol for a long time, working as a lobbyist for the medical sector in the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2007, he ran for the state House, District 68, and lost to Steve Carter in the runoff. He spent $25,000 of his own money on that race. He worked for the House for a couple of years, and in 2010 was hired as Tom Schedler’s 1st Assistant Secretary of State, at $130,000 a year. (The elected Secretary of State has a salary of $115,000 annually.)

Ardoin is an affable guy, with a smile and handshake at the ready. He was also either clueless or complicit in keeping quiet about his boss’ dogged pursuit of a female employee in the office.

The sexual harassment lawsuit claimed Ardoin, as her direct supervisor, knew, and simply told the woman to “stay out of sight.” Yet when members of the media quizzed him about it, as public pressure mounted toward Schedler’s resignation, Ardoin insisted, “I was unaware of any sexual harassment issues or allegations between the secretary and his accuser until the day the lawsuit was filed.”

It’s a bluff he has stuck with, even this week.

L to R: Renee Fontenot Free, Kyle Ardoin, Heather Cloud

Monday, October 8, five of the candidates for Secretary of State participated in a forum with the Baton Rouge Press Club. (A sixth candidate, former state Sen. A.G. Crowe, was a last-minute cancellation due to a severe illness within his family.)

One of the first questions posed asked the three women and two men how they would go about restoring public confidence in the office in particular, and politicians in general, in this aftermath of so many sexual harassment scandals.

State Rep. Rick Edmonds of Baton Rouge, a Republican, Baptist minister, and the former vice-president of the Louisiana Family Forum, answered first.

“Integrity is what you do when no one is looking,” he said. “Either you have it or you don’t. It’s something anyone can see, in how you treat people, and how you treat your wife.”

One might expect the pastor to be a bit more forceful in speaking out against the societal ills caused by turning a blind eye to sexual aggressiveness and intimidation. Apparently not.

Renee Fontenot Free, a Democrat, is also based in Baton Rouge. Currently on leave from her administrative position with the Attorney General’s office, she formerly served as first assistant Secretary of State, and helped stand up elections in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

“My experience in state government is proof of my fairness and impartiality. There were no issues of this sort while I was with the Secretary of State and none within the Attorney General’s Office – and I have overseen Human Resources in both departments,” she stated.

Heather Cloud is the mayor of Turkey Creek, an Evangeline Parish village with a population of less than 500 people. Cloud, a Republican, lost her mayoral re-election bid in 2014 by four paid-for votes. She sued then-Secretary of State Tom Schedler to have those votes tossed, and a new election held. She won that case, and the subsequent election.

“This issue hits at the roots of the election system,” she said, in response to the question about restoring public confidence following the harassment allegations against Schedler. “You have to set boundaries, and I will not tolerate any nonsense.”

Ardoin zipped right past the opportunity for a mea culpa, and indulged in some braggadocio, instead.

“I began work on a new policy as soon as I took over,” he said. “It is now the strictest such policy in state government, requiring any instance to be reported.’If you see something, say something’.”

State Rep. Julie Stokes, a Kenner Republican and CPA, was more heated in her response.

“This seat is not open because of election misconduct, or corporate filings misconduct. It is open because of sexual misconduct,” Stokes said, as she turned and glared at Ardoin. “I will not tolerate that. If you remember, when a bipartisan bill to help prevent human trafficking came up, and a hateful amendment belittling women was attached, I spoke on the House floor, making it clear that type of atmosphere is utterly unacceptable.”

Stokes was referring to the 2016 House floor debate on SB 468, which would have barred anyone under the age of 21 from working as a stripper. Rep. Kenny Havard (R-St. Francisville) offered an amendment.

“Members, in the spirit of this legislative session, I offer up this amendment of trimming the fat. I have put an age limit on it of no more than 28 years of age and shall be no more than 160 pounds. And I’ll take any questions,” Havard said, chuckling over his own wit the entire time.

The ladies of the House were not amused, rising to tell Havard – in no uncertain terms – that they found his “joke” offensive. Stokes was particularly outraged.

“All the women in this body are disgusted at what you just did,” she told him. “I hear derogatory comments about women in this place regularly. I hear and I see women get treated differently than men. And I’m going to tell you what – you gave me a perfect forum to talk about it right now, because it has got to stop. That was utterly disrespectful and disgusting.”

Julie Stokes and Rick Edmonds

Disrespect for Ardoin has been on display throughout the campaign, with many of the group-speaking engagements for the candidates taking place a Republican-sponsored events. At one such event the previous week, he was castigated for sending out letters on his official letterhead, under the guise of “voter education”. On Sept. 20, more than 47-thousand letters were mailed to elderly chronic voters, reminding them their participation in the permanent absentee voting by mail program made them part of an exclusive list that cannot be shared with candidates or causes.

“It’s really unfair,” Cloud commented.

“Sending a campaign-oriented letter on the taxpayers’ dime to a confidential list is blatantly wrong,” Edmonds said,

“This is the very reason I’m running. People can’t stand when politicians do things like this,” Stokes remarked.

As Monday’s Press Club forum continued, the criticisms of Ardoin escalated, with the candidates being asked about the controversy over the new voting machines contract. That contract, which has subsequently been voided in a decision released by the Office of State Procurement Wednesday night, was then under challenge by one of the losing vendors, who alleged “bid-rigging” by Ardoin. In August, the Office of State Procurement had completely removed Ardoin from any further involvement in the bidding process.

Ardoin, who went first in this round of forum questions, immediately demanded a chance at the end of the round for rebuttal to anything his opponents might say. Then he made light of the controversy.

“The same thing happened when we last replaced the voting machines in 2005. There was a protest and the losers filed a lawsuit. I expect one now.”

“It’s unfortunate, certainly,” said Free, who was the 1st Assistant Secretary of State in 2005. “I handled the RFP (request for proposals) in 2005, and though there was a lawsuit, the court quickly dismissed it. But throughout that process, I did not interject myself into the dispute.”

She was referring to Ardoin’s public statements defending the selection process, and his own decision to double the number of machines, thus nearly doubling the size of the bids and contract.

Cloud said, “We’re blessed to have federal money to help pay for these machines, but this is all taxpayer money, so there should be no cloud over the bid process. And at all cost, a public servant should avoid the appearance of impropriety.”

Stokes said, “We need a fresh set of eyes in the office. This all started because of a scandal, and we have had enough scandal. We need to remove all the scandal, and those involved in it, from the office.”

Edmonds agreed with Stokes, saying, “We can no longer tolerate scandals in the Secretary of State’s office. When the complaints of bid-rigging first came out, I asked Kyle Ardoin to halt the bid process. He refused. Additionally, as a member of House Appropriations, I am well aware that we allocated between $45 and $50-million for the election machine contract – based on what Kyle told us it would cost. Now it’s $95-million, and that will not be tolerated.”

“They’re just trying to cook up political news and create baloney,” Ardoin rebutted, with a smirk. “When you’re the front-runner, you have to expect that.”

“Here’s some mayo for your baloney – when you testify before House and Governmental Affairs, keep your word!” Rep. Edmonds replied, barely containing his ire.

The day Schedler tendered his resignation, Ardoin addressed the House and Governmental Affairs Committee, with a prepared statement.

“Let me say to everyone, I am interested in running this office, but not in running for this office. My time and expertise are best used in running the Secretary of State’s office, not running for Secretary of State,” Ardoin said. “This is a model used previously by Al Ater, upon former Secretary of State Fox McKeithen’s passing. I intend to follow that leadership style in purely focusing on the needs of our agency and what’s best for the citizens of Louisiana. We need to prove ourselves to be an office of integrity, credibility, transparency and accountability.”

It certainly seemed like anything but “integrity, credibility, transparency and accountability” when Ardoin signed up to run in this race during the last ten minutes of the three-day qualifying period in July. More than a few of the other eight candidates see it as a betrayal, and that Ardoin’s words to the legislative committee were a convenient lie, much like his denying any knowledge of Schedler’s improprieties.

And while he claimed he only decided to run moments before he qualified, a month prior he had tweeted pictures of his newly purchased vanity license plates: “SOS 44”, even as he popped his picture prominently overlooking the banner at the top of the Secretary of State website.

Additionally, he assailed his own integrity, credibility, transparency, and accountability with his latest official statement as Secretary of State, issued in response to the 17-page Office of State Procurement decision to cancel the voting machines contract.

“This decision by Gov. Edwards’ administration is an embarrassment and reeks of old-school Louisiana politics. The governor sided with his political buddies over election security. It’s executive overreach and why the Secretary of State is independently elected.”

Speaking of reeking…That’s a campaign statement, not an appropriate official’s response.

And dude, YOU haven’t been elected.

As for “old-school Louisiana politics”, haven’t we had enough – on the national, state, and local political stages – of good ol’ boys and their turning a blind eye to misuse of power, bluffing past their own blame, bumping up the bills and bid-rigging, and serving us all a bunch of baloney?

The Saints head into the bye week with a proper celebration

By
Nath Pizzolatto
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DREEEEEEEWWWWWWW BREEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS
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TREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE’ QUAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNN SMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITH
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Okay– we’ll have more to say about Drew Brees’ record-setting career in its own space. For now, though, let’s look at the Saints absolutely dominating once again at home in prime time, a game which seemingly confirmed that the team is, indeed, back to last year’s level of performance. The Good: The Saints dominated Washington on both sides of the ball from the jump, as a huge hit on Adrian Peterson by P.J. Williams set the tone for the evening. By the end of it all, New Orleans had out-gained Washington 7.1 yards per play to 4.7. Both the running and the passing game hummed along nicely; Brees completed a ludicrous 26 of 29 passes for 363 yards and three touchdowns. (Five games in and he still hasn’t thrown an interception.) Tre’Quan Smith turned his three targets into three catches for 111 yards. The defense made the Washington run game nonexistent and the pass game ineffective, keeping pressure on Alex Smith all day and forcing incompletions and interceptions even when they weren’t sacking him. Mark Ingram is back: I suspected the team would be looking to get Ingram back into the rotation seriously, not only to break him back in but to give Alvin Kamara a rest. Not only did Ingram score the team’s two rushing touchdowns, but he also was the primary back for closing out the game. Ingram out-touched Kamara 18-9, which won’t happen every week, but it’s clear the team wants to keep Kamara as fresh as possible for the truly important games. And none of the other tailbacks they’ve kept on the roster in Ingram’s absence– Mike Gillislee, Jonathan Williams, and now Dwayne Washington– are the same kind of runner or all-around back as Ingram is, let alone understand the offense as well or execute it effectively. Having them both back diversifies the offense and gives Kamara some rest. Ingram played 36 of 66 offensive snaps Monday night, while Kamara played just 31 (meaning they shared the backfield once). Kamara’s 47% of the snaps was a marked downturn from the first four games without Ingram, where he played 82% (229 of 279) of the offensive snaps. Michael Thomas watch:  Thomas “only” caught four of five targets, but the missed completion was due to poor placement by Brees. His performance was not only enough to get big-money cornerback Josh Norman benched for part of the game, but to lead Norman and several other Members of the Washington secondary to complain about Thomas afterward. Maybe next time, play better? Thomas is now at a 93.9% catch rate on the season, with 46 receptions for 519 yards. This would put him on pace for 147 receptions for 1,661 yards. The Bad Several players left the game with injuries, a tough break after the team had stayed relatively healthy for so long this season. The biggest concern is Marshon Lattimore leaving the game early with a concussion after colliding with A.J. Klein on a play. With two weeks off, Lattimore will probably be cleared to play against the Ravens in week 7. But concussions are worrisome in that a player who gets them becomes more prone to them, and the defense cannot afford to be without Lattimore for long. They played admirably the rest of the game on Monday night, but that may be in part due to the Washington offense not being particularly geared toward its receivers, as having Alex Smith at quarterback tends to require a short passing game. Klein himself also left the game with a lower leg injury, unclear whether he would return. With Manti Te’o already out, this theoretically would clear more playing time for Alex Anzalone, but he’s still not getting on the field much, and Craig Robertson played a few snaps as well. It’s not clear if the coaches have already lost faith in Anzalone or if his previous injuries have kept him from getting up to speed on the defense. Klein and Robertson are adequate but they’re no great shakes; if Anzalone is the player the Saints thought he was when they drafted him, he should be getting more playing time by now. Ted Ginn also missed the game with a knee injury, although that gave Tre’Quan Smith the chance to show off his deep route-running and ball skills. (As seen above.) Hopefully going into the bye week will allow everyone to get healthy. Lattimore is obviously the most important piece here, as his coverage abilities make the rest of the defense’s job that much easier. That said, Justin Hardee saw increased playing time after Lattimore went out, and I’d be remiss not to include his highlight of the day:
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Marcus Davenport highlights He’s playing more snaps every week and getting better and better. This is a good breakdown of how he made an impact on the field Monday night. Of course, the two plays you’re probably most interested in are the ones where he sacked Alex Smith:
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View post on imgur.com
(Okay, that first one wasn’t technically a sack, but how could I not include it?) I was skeptical of the trade for Davenport and will always remain so of any major trade up (something that, in my opinion, the Saints do far too often), but Davenport’s development seems to be coming along nicely, as he gets increased playing time each week and seems to be doing more and more with it. It’s exactly what we hoped for; if his playing time continues to increase, finishing the regular season with 8 sacks or so is a real possibility, a very encouraging performance from a rookie who was expected to need some developmental time. Conclusions This version of the Saints is a Super Bowl contending team– an offense that can score at will and a defense that can stop opponents regularly enough to throw them off schedule and force them into unfavorable down and distance situations, then take advantage when they are forced to play from behind. Not every team the Saints play will have the kind of lack of downfield passing Washington had, though. On the bright side, Washington’s line is very good, with a lot of high draft picks invested into it, and the Saints’ ability to consistently pressure Smith despite that speaks well to how the pass rush is coming together. Hopefully the Saints use the bye week to get healthy and to tweak schematics as they see fit. We need the best version of this team going forward. The five weeks after the bye are brutal: at Baltimore, at Minnesota, home vs. the Rams, at Cincinnati, and home vs. Philadelphia. The Saints could easily be 5-5 at the end of week 11. If they can hold on to something more like 7-3, they’re in great shape to get a first-round bye in the playoffs. (And if they beat the Rams at home, that tiebreaker could be a huge leg up on home-field advantage.) Coming up on the bye week A look at how Drew Brees became the all-time passing yards leader, as well as an evaluation of the team to date and some projections looking forward.

Mark McKinnon helped launch the Roemer Revolution. He has some solid advice for Beto O’Rourke.

By
Lamar White, Jr.
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On the night of Oct. 7th, a Sunday, in a normally vacant, small city park in the center of downtown Dallas, directly across from the old city municipal building, more than 5,000 people attended a sold-out campaign rally for Beto O’Rourke disguised as a music festival.

The Polyphonic Spree, the nation’s most well-known choral pop rock band donned white choir robes and played a full-set of their psychedelic secular gospel music, complete with a dazzling display of pyrotechnics. In the back, they sold t-shirts reading,”The Polyphonic Spree supports Beto O’Rourke.” Someone else, outside, sold shirts featuring the personage of Willie Nelson and the caption, “Turn Out Texas for Beto for Senate.” Those shirts, which were designed by a couple of friends originally from Missouri, were a sensation.           

The Polyphonic Spree performs at the Buffalo Tree Music Festival in Dallas, Texas on Oct. 7, 2018. Credit: Mark White, The Bayou Brief.   

Earlier in the night, I met up with Beto backstage. “You’ve managed to catch lightning in a bottle,” I told him, while also explaining to him that some of my friends in New Orleans were actually phone-banking for him. 

“That’s incredible,” he said. “This is how we’re going to win. All of us working together.”

Rep. Beto O’Rourke and Lamar White, Jr. (seated). Credit: Mark White, The Bayou Brief. 

“This is second-most fun I’ve had since Ted Cruz’s music festival,” I joked.

“Oh shit,” he laughed. “Have you seen the latest SNL?”

“No, not yet.”

“You have to. I bet you can find it on YouTube. The whole thing is a riff on that joke.”

So, I went home and looked it up.

He was right. 

There was a palpable- albeit nervous- energy among the thousands gathered that Sunday night in Dallas, and for many Democrats, myself included, the only apt comparison was the experience of witnessing Barack Obama’s nearly-perfect campaign for the presidency in 2008.

After The Polyphonic Spree finished their set, the candidate took the stage, and for over fifteen minutes, he spoke passionately about the issues that have propelled his campaign into the stratosphere.

I brought a conservative friend of mine- a veteran- and watched as he applauded O’Rourke’s comments about the need to seriously consider the strategies and the ultimate purpose of our numerous military conflicts across the globe. My friend isn’t anyone you’d think would be a supporter of the liberal Democrat; his wife, he says, will probably still vote for Ted Cruz. But it wasn’t just O’Rourke’s thoughtful consideration of foreign intervention policies that convinced him. “If Ted Cruz tomorrow decided to come out in favor of marijuana decriminalization, my decision would be more difficult,” he said. “This has nothing to do with the War on Drugs. This is a war against those small children who suffer from terrifying seizures and whose only medicine that works is THC or CBD.”

Beto talks often about the nation’s absurd policies against marijuana, and for him, it also reflects a central truth about Texas culture: Fierce independence, an almost libertarian sensibility about government control. The same beliefs are reflected in his positions on the nation’s immigration policies and the government’s treatment of the approximately 12 million “Dreamers.” 

Republicans may call him a radical leftist, but even among die-hard conservatives and evangelicals, the only thing radical about O’Rourke is his willingness to speak commonsense truths about a dysfunctional government led by predominately white, older, conservative men who have been fighting the same culture wars for the past thirty years. Texas, perhaps more than any other state, champions its independence. 

“I care as much about babies at the border as I do about babies in the womb,” Tess Clarke, an evangelical Christian woman from Dallas, recently told The New York Times. Ms. Clarke is supporting O’Rourke, “confessing that she was ‘mortified’ at how she used to vote, because she had only considered abortion policy.”

“We’ve been asleep,” she said. “Now, we’ve woke up.”

After Beto left the stage, the main act- the band Spoon- took the stage, and hundreds of people began streaming out. They weren’t there for the music, even Spoon’s energetic cover of The Clash’s “The Clampdown,” a song O’Rourke mentioned in his first debate with the junior senator; they were there for Beto. A week before, in Austin, 55,000 people showed up for a Beto rally featuring Willie Nelson, and similarly, much of the audience thinned after the candidate wrapped up his speech, before Willie even took the stage.

Beto O’Rourke addresses supporters in Dallas on Oct. 7, 2018. Credit: Mark White, The Bayou Brief.

Mark McKinnon is one of the most respected and well-known political consultants in America, and during the past three decades, he has been a force of nature in Texas. Today, he has become even more prominent as one of the stars of the hit TV docu-series “The Circus,” which, more than any other show of its kind, has allowed viewers an unprecedented level of access in the most exclusive corridors of American political power.

McKinnon also knows a thing or two about Louisiana politics. During a recent podcast with Texas Monthly, he was asked about the similarities between a campaign he helped run in Louisiana and what is happening right now in Texas. 

Mark McKinnon (right) got his start in politics working for Lloyd Doggett.

“I say that it would probably take the second coming of Jesus for a Democrat to win Texas, but you know what? Beto’s walking on water,” he said.

The host jumped in and quoted this passage of a story McKinnon had written for the publication years ago:

“We drove around the state, parish by parish. (Buddy) Roemer would grab newspaper editors and publishers by the lapels and say, ‘This is our chance to break from the past. We can break from the politics that have dragged this state into the swamp of thieves and crooks, the politics that have landed Louisiana in last place in virtually every meaningful category. For once, don’t look at the horse race. Look at the horse. We can make a difference if you’re willing to make a difference.’ It worked.”

The host then asked, “That’s Beto’s campaign. Right?”

“Wow, I never thought of that,” McKinnon said. “You’re right.”

I wanted to know more about McKinnon’s thoughts on the similarities between the Roemer Revolution and Beto-mania, so last week, I asked him if he’d be willing to answer some questions for The Bayou Brief. 

Fortunately, despite his busy schedule (production on “The Circus” is ongoing, and, of course, we’re in the middle of the midterms), McKinnon was happy to oblige. 

Our conversation, which was conducted via email, was supposed to be about Beto and Buddy; McKinnon had been Roemer’s press secretary during his historic 1987 campaign for governor against the single-most dominant force in Louisiana politics, Edwin Washington Edwards.

So, it was impossible not to ask him about his lasting impressions of Louisiana. 

I began with a couple of questions about the Cajun Prince, the Silver Zipper, the 92-year-old former governor of Louisiana who, after returning home following an eight-year stint in a federal penitentiary, married a smart and beautiful blonde bombshell more than half his age and, thanks to the wonders of science, had a baby with her. 

“If Edwin Edwards were to pass away tomorrow, what should be the opening sentences of his obituary?” I asked. 

“The original Robin Hood of politics. He stole from the rich and gave to the poor,” McKinnon said. “And Louisiana loved him for it.  Until they locked him up.” 

McKinnon may now be more commonly associated today with Republican politicians, but he got his start in the business working alongside prominent Democrats, though his most notable candidate was a Republican, Texas governor and future president George W. Bush. However, in 2008, he made a deal with Sen. John McCain, pledging to work for him unless and until Barack Obama became the Democratic nominee. McKinnon deeply admired both men, but from the very beginning, he vowed that he would never work to help defeat Obama. McCain, in a testament to his own integrity, honored their agreement and allowed McKinnon to gracefully exit once it became clear the young Senator from Illinois would become the Democratic Party’s nominee.

“Okay, so what do you think of Edwin Edwards today” I asked.

“One of the all-time scalawags and raconteurs of American politics,” he said.  “When I was trying to decide what to do with my life in 1986, a mentor said, ‘If you think you know anything about politics, go to Louisiana and get your PhD.  And I did.  And he was right.”  

According to McKinnon, “Edwin Edwards and Buddy Roemer debating each other was a master class.”


I asked him to reflect on the political dynamics that have changed both Louisiana and Texas during the past decade. “In hindsight, do you think the emergence of the Blue Dogs presaged Republican dominance in both states?”
 
He was direct. “Louisiana like Texas used to be a two-party state.  But the two parties were progressive Democrat or conservative Democrat,” he said,  “And the conservatives were Blue Dogs.  As soon as there was Republican option, all the Blue Dogs switched.”

“The Roemer revolution and Beto-mania seem to be both grounded in an anti-establishment zeitgeist and a desire to speak more directly and more honestly with constituencies from across the state,” I said. “Are there lasting lessons of the Roemer revolution that you see reemerging? For example, campaign finance fraud? Voter contact?”

“The analogue between between Roemer and Beto,” McKinnon explained, “is authenticity, taking on the establishment and monied interests, and an ability to convince skeptics that change is not only desirable but possible.”

One final question.

“Mark, if you were advising Beto, how would you take the lessons you learned from Roemer and apply them today?” I asked.

“Tune out the noise and stay on the signal.  And keep throwing deep — the motto of the Roemer Revolution.”




Plaquemines Parish: Microcosm of Louisiana’s Near-Cosmic Dysfunctionalities

By
Sue Lincoln
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With less than a month to go till election day on November 6, campaigns across Louisiana could be described in one word: “lackluster.” Few TV commercials have been aired, and lawns sprout more toadstools than campaign signs.

Yet down in the toe of Louisiana’s boot, campaign activity is hot and heavy, and the battles being waged there have implications for this state’s entire future.

As Louisiana Oil and Gas Association (LOGA) president Gifford Briggs put it in an August 15 editorial: “Plaquemines Parish has their Council and Parish President up for election in 2018. This parish is ground zero for the coastal lawsuits. It is important for those inside and out of Plaquemines Parish to pay close attention to these elections.”

In 2013, Plaquemines Parish filed suits against 21 oil and gas companies, seeking to recover damages for coastal land losses due to the industry’s activities. Five other parishes have also filed suits, with a total of 42 similar cases against 202 oil and gas operators now moving – albeit slowly – through the court system. Currently, the first case in the group, Parish of Plaquemines v. Rozel Operating Co., et al, is set for trial in state court next March.

Both Governor John Bel Edwards and state Attorney General Jeff Landry have intervened in the suits, exacerbating the friction between them and amongst all the parties involved. Meanwhile the oil and gas companies named as defendants have been using every available legal maneuver to push back any day of reckoning before a jury. The industry has also been singing their usual tune – “jobs, jobs, jobs” – to the people and politicians in Plaquemines.

And now, the Plaquemines Parish Council is meeting on Thursday, October 11, to vote on a resolution to “have all outside counsel cease and desist action, and dismiss all lawsuits, effective November 8, 2018.”

This isn’t the first time the parish council has flip-flopped on this issue. After the council voted unanimously to initially pursue the lawsuits, shortly after the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East filed the first action along these lines, then-Governor Bobby Jindal, state lawmakers and the oil and gas industry threw more than a year’s worth of hissy fits. With the 2014 election, a new group of council members took office in 2015. At least one of them, Nicole Smith Williams, had run on a platform of doing away with the lawsuits.

Yet Williams, who works as an administrative assistant for Targa Industries, should steer clear of any votes on the lawsuits, to avoid violating state ethics laws. You see, Targa Industries owns Gulf Coast Fractionators, in partnership with Conoco-Phillips and Devon Industries, both of which are named defendants in the Plaquemines suits. The Bayou Brief reached out to Williams to ask her about this and her current stance on the upcoming resolution vote. She did not respond.

And she’s not the only council member with conflicts of interest. We’ll come back to that later.

Within months of taking office in January 2015, Williams proposed an ordinance to delay the lawsuits, even as former Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser was campaigning to become the next Lt. Governor of Louisiana. Nungesser, who had signed the parish contracts with outside counsel to instigate the lawsuits, was now castigating the action from the stump, calling the suits “bad for business”, as he filled his campaign coffers with contributions from the oil and gas industry.

On November 12, 2015, with the showdown at the ballot box between David Vitter and John Bel Edwards just nine days away, the Plaquemines Parish Council voted 5-1 to suspend all action on the lawsuits. Two of the nine-member council abstained from voting. One member was absent.

Edwards, who had made it part of his own campaign to state his support of the lawsuits, won the governor’s race. And shortly after taking office, new state Attorney General Jeff Landry jumped into the fray, moving to intervene in all the suits on behalf of the state, saying his was the constitutional right to make claims on the state’s behalf.”

Governor John Bel Edwards intervened as well, hoping to facilitate settlement agreements with the oil and gas companies. Both the governor and the attorney general met with local officials from the parishes involved, to explain their intervention.

And on April 14, 2016, Plaquemines councilmembers backtracked from their prior decision, voting to rescind their previous resolution and then passing a new resolution to proceed with the suits.

Councilmember Benny Rousselle, a previous parish president and the one who was absent when the suspension resolution was passed, explained the reasoning for their renewing activity in the litigation.

“This is an issue that has been bantered back and forth,” Rousselle stated. “After meeting with the Governor and his staff, and the Attorney General and his staff, it is quite obvious that these lawsuits are going forward – with us, or without us. Now, in my opinion, I believe we should be at the table when these lawsuits are settled.”

Rousselle also tried to shed some light on how the A.G. and the Governor differed in their reasons for joining the suits.

“The Governor’s Office says we are way ahead of the curve – that we have these issues well in hand. And they want to bring their weight to bear, and their expertise, to settle it. On the other hand, the Attorney General’s staff wants to make sure that the oil and gas industry comes out with a settlement that they can live with, so that the oil industry can move forward without having to look in the rearview mirror, wondering if they will be attacked again with litigation in the future.

“We’re elected to represent the interests of Plaquemines Parish, and you cannot be representative if you quit the game,” he concluded.

Councilman Kirk Lepine, who had previously supported the resolution to suspend the lawsuits, chimed in, “Who has the maximum destruction, the worst damage? Of course, we all think it’s Plaquemines Parish. Now when the state steps in with the money, it’s going to be distributed all over, and that bothers me. So I stand with Mr. Rousselle today, and I’ve got to have a seat at the table. I’ve got to stand up and say, ‘Look, no matter what we do, we’ve gotta be there.’ If we don’t we’ll be left out.”

Even Councilwoman Nicole Williams spoke in favor of returning to action with the litigation.

“I came in here standing firm that I didn’t think that we, as a parish, needed to be pursuing these suits against these oil companies. But the ball game has changed. The suits are going to go on, with or without us. Us having a seat at the table, we will have say-so as to where the money is distributed. If we do not, and we sit back and the state takes complete control, they’re going to distribute the funds, if any settlement is reached, as they see fit.”

The council then voted, 6-1, with two abstentions, to rejoin the lawsuits.

Five months later, the council witnessed their hopes for a swift resolution through settlement negotiations dashed, as the simmering bad blood between the AG and the Governor boiled over in connection with the coastal lawsuits. A state judge ruled one of the Jefferson Parish cases needed to go through administrative proceedings with the Department of Natural Resources before it could come to court. Landry applauded the ruling, and was supported in his approval by a joint statement fro, LOGA and LMOGA (Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association)

Further, Landry was blocking the governor’s contract with outside attorneys for the cases, saying it did not comply with the law because it did not allow the AG’s Office to take the lead role in representing the state.

Governor John Bel Edwards was not amused.

“I’m not going to allow the oil and gas industry to decide who represents the state of Louisiana in litigation against the oil and gas industry,” Edwards said, and then urged other coastal parishes to file suits, as well.

Landry, who achieved some notoriety as a “poster child” for oil and gas development when, as a Louisiana congressman, he displayed a sign saying “Drilling = Jobs” throughout then-President Obama’s September 2011 jobs-themed speech to Congress, has subsequently been making it clear his intervention in the coastal suits is to aid the defendants, rather than supporting the plaintiffs.

“I am — and make no bones about it — a un-bashing [sic] supporter of oil and gas and our energy sector here in this country,” Landry said when speaking at the Shale Insight Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on October 14, 2017.

In February this year, Landry filed suit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, charging them with exceeding their allowable servitude, since the Gulf Coast Intracoastal Waterway is now 900-feet wide through some parts of Vermilion Parish, rather than the 300-ft. width originally authorized. A ruling against the Corps would likely impact Vermilion Parish’s suits against the oil and gas companies, by establishing an additional responsible party for coastal land loss. Any damages recoverable from the companies would be reduced proportionally, according to their percentage of responsibility.

And in an editorial he penned for the Lafayette newspaper last month, Landry wrote, “Nationwide, a trend is developing that could eventually endanger jobs in Louisiana. Local governments in several states are teaming with for-profit attorneys to file public nuisance lawsuits, hoping to score massive paydays from energy manufacturers.

“As Louisiana’s chief legal officer, I have significant concerns that these junk suits could find a home here and have serious negative effects on our economy.”

He wasn’t referring to the 42 parish lawsuits here – technically. He was opining on lawsuits filed by East and West Coast states, arguing the oil and gas industry bears responsibility for global climate change. He has filed amicus briefs (along with 14 other state AGs) urging dismissal of those suits.

And should the Plaquemines Parish Council vote to drop the lawsuits this Thursday, it becomes more ammunition for Landry to use trying to paint John Bel Edwards as a “loser by association”, during the statewide elections next year. Landry is, of course, hoping to challenge Edwards for the Governor’s Mansion. While the AG has generally deferred to U.S. Senator John Kennedy, Landry’s impatience with Kennedy’s indecision over entering the race has been flaring of late. In an interview with the Monroe News-Star’s Greg Hilburn, published Aug. 1, Landry said of Kennedy, “If running for governor is what he wants to do, let’s get on with it.”

Meanwhile, there’s money pouring into Plaquemines Parish, trying to influence the council vote this Thursday, as well as trying to stack the next council in case this resolution fails to pass.

The Plaquemines Gazette just published a full-page ad from the “Grow Louisiana Coalition”, urging residents to contact their council members for a “yes” vote Thursday on the resolution. Though the ad says “The People’s Message: Jobs, Not Lawsuits”, the group behind the ad has a board of directors made up of Chevron, Shell, Exxon, and BP officials – companies which are, not coincidentally, defendants in the lawsuits.

The Grow Louisiana Coalition, a 501c4 organization, spent $1.3-million on advertising and promotions last year, and another $700-thousand on “public relations.”

The same group is also sponsoring “Plaquemines Parish Hometown Industry Day” on October 23 – free barbeque and refreshments for the whole family. Sharing in the sponsorship are LOGA, LMOGA, LCA (Louisiana Chemical Association), Plaquemines Association of Business and Industry, and Chevron. That’s the first day of early voting for the Nov. 6 election. Convenient.

What are the chances the resolution to halt the lawsuits will pass? Let’s take a deeper look at the current council members, their prior votes, and their affiliations.

John L. Barthelemy, Jr., represents District 1. A Democrat, he is also one of Governor John Bel Edwards appointees to the Southern University Board of Supervisors. A retired school district superintendent, he abstained from voting to suspend the lawsuits in 2015, and then voted yes on reinstating them in 2016. He is now running unopposed for re-election to the Council. He’s a likely “no” vote on Thursday.

William “Beau” Black, a Republican, represents District 2. Also a candidate for re-election this fall, his lone opponent dropped out of the race. A corporate security advisor, he abstained from voting on both the previous resolutions. He’s a likely abstention this Thursday, as well.

District 3 is represented by Kirk Lepine. A Republican, he voted yes on suspending the lawsuits in 2015, voted yes on reinstating them in 2016, and is a likely yes vote this week, as well. Lepine, who is a hairdresser/barber by trade, is now running for Parish President (a non-voting position), challenging current Parish President Amos Cormier, Jr. He has yet to file his required “30 Days Prior to Primary” campaign finance report with the Louisiana Board of Ethics, which was due Sunday. Without that, we can’t say with any certainty who is now contributing to his campaign, but part of his campaign has been stating the parish should drop out of the lawsuits. Phone calls by the Bayou Brief to ask about his stance have not been returned.

Irvin Juneau, an Independent, represents District 4. He voted yes in 2015, no in 2016, and is the sponsor of the resolution up for vote Thursday, so is an expected yes. He’s running for re-election, but has not filed an annual report for 2017, nor has he yet filed his 30-day report for the present election cycle.

That’s not the only ethics concern about Juneau, however. A retired oil refinery worker, his wife of 45 years was Kay Madere. Though he is now a widower, it still makes him “immediate family” of the ownership of Madere and Sons Towing, whose biggest clients include the oil and gas companies being sued. Under state ethics laws, Juneau should be recusing himself from all these votes. His sponsorship of the resolution currently up for consideration is especially problematic.

Benny Rousselle, the 5th District councilman, was absent for the 2015 vote, and the sponsor of the 2016 reinstatement resolution. He’s running for re-election now, and his opponent, Republican Wayne Meyers, has taken campaign dollars from Lepine, Billy Nungesser, and a couple of PACs that oppose the suits. Rousselle, a former state legislator and former parish president, may vote against the resolution.

6th District Councilman Charlie Burt voted yes in 2015, abstained in 2016, and is not running for re-election. It’s expected he’ll vote yes this time, though he – like Juneau – should recuse himself from any and all of these votes. Burt is the sales and business development manager for Madere and Sons Towing; his wife is the assistant to the company’s treasurer; and one of his accounts is Hillcorp, a defendant in the lawsuits.

Audrey Trufant Salvant represents District 7, and she’s a solid no vote on the upcoming resolution. She voted no in 2015, yes in 2016, and is not running for re-election.

District 8 Councilman Jeff Edgecombe will vote with the majority, as he supported the 2015 resolution, and the 2016 resolution, and is not running for re-election.

District 9 Councilwoman is Williams, whose need to recuse has been previously discussed, though she will likely vote yes.

So the likely score stands at 4 yeas, 3 nays and two abstaining, although – ethically – four council members should recuse themselves, including the resolution’s sponsor, rendering the entire issue moot.

Continuing with the lawsuits would ignore the industry’s omnipresent carrot-and-stick of “jobs”. And if we insist that the oil and gas industry pay to restore the land they destroyed over the many years that they “giveth the jobs”, they could very well “taketh” them away.

And choosing to respond to the “jobs” bait-and-switch would be ignoring the rapidity of the parish’s land loss. Of the 2,567 total square miles within Plaquemines Parish’s borders, only 780 square miles of it is land. The rest is water. Louisiana’s Coastal Management Plan for the parish states that “between 1956 and 2006, Plaquemines lost approximately 248.7 square miles of land.” Assuming an average rate of 5 miles of land lost per year, the parish will lose half its current land mass by the end of this century.

Less land equals less people equals less jobs.

That’s foresight, however. And all we seem to care about is now, and maybe next year.

Are the 2017 Saints back?

By
Nath Pizzolatto
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The Saints were 2-1 going into Sunday’s game in East Rutherford, and while the Giants weren’t a particularly good team, there’s no such thing as an easy road matchup in the NFL. (Certainly not for a team like the Saints, which has such a strong home-field advantage.) But despite some early struggles in the red zone, the Saints seemed to be thoroughly in control this entire match, and Alvin Kamara hit paydirt three times in the second half to make up for the early lack of scoring. Against a team the Saints clearly outclassed, the question isn’t necessarily whether they would win. Winning is important, of course, but the team’s actual performance is just as important. And the Saints showed enough this time around to make me think they might be headed back to the 2017 level of performance. There were some disappointing moments on offense, particularly when Drew Brees missed two touchdown throws on one goal-to-go series, but I have to believe that Brees being Brees and everyone else on that team being who they are, that the offense will be fine in the long run (it’s been pretty darn good in the short run, too). The Giants also pretty clearly prioritized stopping Michael Thomas, as he only finished with 4 catches for 47 yards. (Of course, this was on 4 targets, thus boosting his preposterous catch rate even higher, if “only” from 95.0% to 95.5%.) The real question for the team this year has remained: Can the Saints defense get close to their level of production in 2017, or are they going to have to win games by scoring 40 points a week? Having already given up 48 and 37 points in two of their previous games (and if Baker Mayfield had been starting for the Browns, they probably would have given up a lot more than 18 points and lost that game, too). Well, the Giants’ offense has its share of problems, starting with the offensive line, but they also have a lot of talent, and the Saints defense showed up in a way that both took advantage of the Giants’ weaknesses and responded well to their strengths. The Giants, of course, have All-World wide receiver (and LSU product) Odell Beckham Jr. to start the offense. Beckham has become famous during his time in the NFL not only for his preposterous quickness and route running, but the secure set of hands that let him catch anything in his vicinity (made most famous by his one-handed end-zone grab his rookie year in Dallas). Marshon Lattimore would be matched up against Beckham, and it was fair to wonder if he would struggle, especially after we watched Mike Evans torch him for a big TD in week 1. Lattimore pulled through, however; Beckham caught his share of balls, but was largely limited and unable to make big plays, catching 7 passes on 11 targets, but for only 60 yards and with a long of 11. You can’t completely shut down a player like Beckham, but for two consecutive weeks now, Lattimore has faced one of the best wide receivers in the league and made him look ordinary. Unfortunately, the other side of the field didn’t look nearly as good, with Sterling Shepard catching all ten of his targets for 77 yards and a touchdown. Still, he was largely held without any big plays, as the Saints defense took advantage of the Giants’ poor offensive line to steadily pressure Eli Manning and prevent longer routes from developing. The Saints totaled three sacks and five QB pressures on Manning, including two sacks from their big free-agent signing at linebacker, Demario Davis. Davis has been one of the best run-stoppers in football this season, and his ability to contribute in coverage and as a blitzer (five sacks last season) has helped shore up a linebacker crew the Saints have been looking to upgrade seemingly since the days of the Dome Patrol ended.
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And for the Marcus Davenport watch, we got a big stop in the backfield of Saquon Barkley, a play that showed off the kind of athleticism, physicality, and awareness that made him such a coveted target of the Saints in the 2018 draft:
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The Saints also saw their fumble luck start to even out. After two games, the Saints had fumbled four times and their opponents had fumbled four times; their opponents recovered all four fumbles. (Week 3 saw Calvin Ridley fumble out of bounds for Atlanta, and Drew Brees fumble and recover his own fumble.) This week, Eli Manning and Wayne Gallman both fumbled for the Giants, and the Saints recovered both. In addition, Brandon Tate bobbled a punt and got one of the most fortunate bounces I’ve seen in a while to recover it:
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Between the solid defensive performance, another outstanding Kamara game, and bounces finally going the Saints’ way, they secured a necessary win despite a game where Michael Thomas only saw four targets and Drew Brees threw for 217 yards and no touchdowns. That more than anything is what makes me think of last year: The Saints have long had a high-flying offense, but being able to win with the running game and defense, when the passing game isn’t working, is what made the team well-balanced enough last year to be a legitimate Super Bowl contender. This week was our best sign yet that they can get back to that level. (Before I forget to mention it: Taysom Hill had his biggest game yet, returning a kick, keeping the ball four times on option plays for 28 yards, and successfully completing a fake-punt pass to Justin Hardee for a first down.) Stat Watch Drew Brees: 75.8% completion, 1295 yards passing, 8 TD, 0 INT; on pace for 5180 yards, 32 TD, 0 INT Alvin Kamara: 275 yards rushing, 5 TD; 35 receptions, 336 yards receiving, 1 TD; 611 yards from scrimmage, 6 combined TD. On pace for 2444 yards from scrimmage, 24 TD Michael Thomas: 42 receptions on 44 targets, 445 yards, 3 TD; on pace for 168 receptions, 1780 yards, 12 TD If these paces held, Brees would have his sixth 5,000-yard passing season (out of ten in the all-time history of the NFL) and break his own completion percentage record again, Kamara would finish with the second-most yards from scrimmage in history behind Chris Johnson’s 2,509 in 2009, and Thomas would shatter Marvin Harrison’s single-season receptions record of 143. Of course, this kind of pace is unlikely for all of them; Mark Ingram is coming back and will relieve Kamara of some of his workload, Brees is unlikely to go an entire season without throwing an interception, and Thomas’ catch rate is so preposterous as to likely be unsustainable. However, I expect them all to remain fantastically productive and be legitimate candidates for both MVP and Offensive Player of the Year. (The receptions record is the one I think is most likely to be broken, followed by Brees’ completion percentage record.) Next week: I don’t often write previews for next week, but this one is important. The Saints are hosting Washington on Monday Night Football, and Drew Brees is a mere 98 yards behind Brett Favre for second place all-time in passing yards– and more importantly, an even 200 yards behind Peyton Manning for first place. Brees has thrown for fewer than 200 yards in a game only three times since 2011, and two of those were last year in games the Saints scored 52 and 47 points. It’s virtually inconceivable he doesn’t break the record Monday night, so I recommend getting a front row seat for the experience. (Metaphorically, I mean. Although you might still be able to get tickets.)

Book Review | Stormy’s Louisiana

By
Lamar White, Jr.
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The childhood home of Stormy Daniels in north Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Source: Google Maps, 2011.

The most well-known living person from Baton Rouge, Louisiana isn’t Steven Soderbergh, the Academy Award-winning director, or CNN’s Don Lemon or Randy Jackson, a judge for thirteen years on “American Idol.” It’s not Bobby Jindal, the former two-term governor and unsuccessful candidate for President of the United States. And it’s not even Odell Beckham, the NFL superstar and LSU phenom.

No, at least right now, there isn’t anyone from Baton Rouge more famous, all across the world, than Stephanie Gregory Clifford, better known by her stage name, Stormy Daniels. 

To be sure, Daniels, the adult film director and actress, had already been a celebrity, at least within her industry, for more than a decade; it was her status as a porn star that earned her a dinner invitation in 2006 from the guest of the presidential suite at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe Casino and Resort, the New York real estate tycoon Donald J. Trump.

The story of that night isn’t exactly riveting. During the past year, however, the nation learned the extent to which Trump and his personal lawyer went in order to pay for Daniels’ silence on the eve of his election as president, and that is a riveting story.

Already, because of Stormy Daniel’s tenacity and her unwillingness to accept what she believed to be a fraudulent deal, Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges, including campaign finance violations. His sentencing hearing is scheduled on Dec. 12, but in the meantime, Cohen is said to be cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller. 

Not surprisingly, Daniels wrote a tell-all book, Full Disclosure, which was released today. As she reminds readers multiple times, she is a capitalist; she doesn’t apologize for selling her story. And she shouldn’t.

If you’re only interested in the lurid details of her encounters with Trump, you can skip to Chapter Three. Daniels anticipates many readers will do just that. But if you start on Chapter Three, you will likely appreciate what those who started from the beginning of her book quickly realized: Stormy Daniels may not be a great writer, but she is definitely a good writer. 

“Her book is not exactly a gripping read or a remarkable piece of literature, but it’s blunt, funny and authentic,” Jill Filiponic of The New York Times opines. “She is all the things women are not supposed to be. And yet you like her — not in spite of her rule-breaking but for it. Perhaps more important, when you read her story, you believe her.”

Phil Scher of Politico read every single memoir written by a “presidential mistress,” all the way back to the book written by President Warren Harding’s former lover. Stormy’s book, he said, ranks as one of the best. “The emotional heart of Full Disclosure stands on its own, and the book is sure to find an admirable place in the canon of presidential mistress memoirs,” he writes.  

I haven’t read the entire canon of “mistress memoirs,” but after reading Stormy’s book, I am not sure it’s even fair to assign Full Disclosure to that genre. Stormy Daniels didn’t just write a trashy tell-all, though she understands her obligation to reveal some of the details that most readers expect, and because of her profession- porn director and actress, there are parts of her story that are undeniably X-rated. 

I may be one of the very people who didn’t read the book to learn more about her (rather boring) sexual encounter with the current President of the United States. Instead, I wanted to know what she wrote about our home state of Louisiana, and as it turns out, that is the most important part of the story. 

In the chapters about her childhood and adolescence in Baton Rouge, her early career as a stripper at the Gold Club (today known as the Penthouse Club), and her brief but high-profile campaign for U.S. Senate against David Vitter, Stormy Daniels proves why she deserves to be taken seriously. The story she tells is compelling and heartbreaking and painfully honest.

She wants you to know that she is not a victim of her own circumstances, thank you very much; she is a self-made success story who rose to the top of her industry through her own hard-work, discipline, and smarts- not just her looks or her surgically-enhanced breasts, which she calls “Thunder” and “Lightning.”

****

Stephanie Gregory’s high school yearbook photo. 

Stephanie was the first and only child of Bill and Sheila Gregory, who split up when their daughter was only three years old. She recalls a remarkable number of details from her earliest years. She claims to have a photographic memory. Although Baton Rouge was always home, her parents weren’t exactly settled down, and they spent much of their time driving across the country, their baby daughter in tow. She vividly remembers those places and even the name of the first horse she ever rode, at the age of two.

When Bill decided, once and for all, to leave Sheila for a different life in Alaska with his new girlfriend, three-year-old Stephanie hid in the back of his truck. He drove two miles before she surprised him, and in retelling the story for her book, she realizes- for the first time- that the only reason her father hadn’t noticed her is because he hadn’t even thought to tell her goodbye before he pulled out of the driveway and headed to Alaska. 

With her father gone, for good, her mother Sheila fell apart. She stopped taking care of herself and her daughter, and for those first few years, her grandparents picked up the slack. But when her grandmother died, her grandfather moved away.

Sheila was, by her daughter’s account, a terribly negligent mother. Their small, ranch-style home in a majority African American neighborhood in north Baton Rouge became infested with cockroaches and rats. She’d sometimes leave her child for days at a time, without warning or explanation.

Stormy does not believe her mother was an addict or an alcoholic; she claims to have only seen her mother drunk five times. But clearly, her mother wasn’t fit to provide or even care for a young child. 

When Stormy was only nine years old, she and a childhood friend, Vanessa (one of the only people mentioned in the book whose name is changed), were repeatedly raped by a man living next door to her friend’s home. He first lured the girls into his home by screening movies for them. Neither Stormy nor her friend, who was a year and a half younger, ever told an adult about the abuse until Vanessa broke her silence to a middle school guidance counselor.

Daniels doesn’t provide the counselor’s name, though she does disclose their school: Istrouma Middle School (which closed in 2004). The counselor called Daniels into his office; Vanessa had mentioned her name as someone who was also abused. The counselor didn’t believe either of the girls, and he directly and repeatedly accused Stormy of lying. She didn’t tell anyone else that she had been molested as a young girl until June of this year. 

The middle school guidance counselor wasn’t the only adult authority figure who dismissed her. She overheard Vanessa’s Christian conservative parents lament that their daughter had made friends with “white trash” and worry their daughter’s room would reek of cigarettes, which hung on Stormy’s clothes because her mother was a chain-smoker. They were judging her, and at the time, they had no idea that their own daughter and Stormy were being repeatedly molested by the man living next door.

Stormy Daniels survived a troubling and traumatic childhood through the sheer force of her own intellect. She was always a straight-A student, and she had always been confident of her own intelligence. Because of her stellar grades in middle school, she was accepted into Scotlandville Magnet High School; she had wanted to attend Baton Rouge Magnet, which emphasized arts and humanities, but Scotlandville was closer.

She also made straight-As in high school, and by her senior year, she became the editor of the school’s newspaper.

But school wasn’t her only focus that year. As a kid, she became passionate about horses; it was the one and only luxury in her life, a way to escape from her erratic and toxic mother. In middle school, her alcoholic stepfather arrived to pick her up from horseback riding lessons in order to take her Christmas shopping. He was more than an hour late, and when he showed up, he was obviously drunk. The instructor refused to let Stormy go home with him, and he plopped down $500 in cash, in a rage, and told her that was her Christmas money. Once he left, the instructor offered to sell her a horse, and for the next several years, Stormy kept her horse, Jade, at LSU’s Farr Park Equestrian Center.

She worked odd jobs at Farr Park to pay for the horse’s boarding, but when she was seventeen, she met a young woman who seemed to be making a fortune as a dancer at a tiny strip club in Prairieville called Cinnamon’s.

Stephanie Gregory first became Stormy at that club. At first, she had been known as Stormy Stephanie, but a couple of years later, she adopted the surname Daniels as a tribute to Jack Daniels. After Cinnamon’s, Stormy was hired as a dancer at the notorious Gold Club, and from there, her career kicked off.    

The Baton Rouge of Stormy’s childhood isn’t as vivid in her retelling as the people in her orbit, but there are details that should be familiar to those of a certain age from her hometown: As a teenager, she hung out at the old location of Coffee Call on College Drive, which was demolished to make room for a Wal-Mart. Her favorite band of all-time, she says, is Acid Bath, the emerging “sludge rock” group from Houma whose promise was cut tragically short after bass guitarist Audie Pitre and his parents were killed by a drunk driver.

There are many ironies and coincidences in her story, an undercurrent of a vague belief in destiny or design: Her first kiss was with a troubled boy named Damien, who told her he would always think of her when he heard the Bon Jovi song, “You Give Love A Bad Name.” Damien had moved away from Baton Rouge, and later, she found out that he had been shot to death. The lyrics to the song resonated. “Your very first kiss was your first kiss goodbye.” Her very first “boyfriend” also died young. “Fucking black widow,” she jokes.

Her horse shared a birthday with her; the horse ended up dying on their birthday. She fell for her husband Brendon, who was born in Missouri, when he correctly guessed the name of her favorite band: Acid Bath.  

For the most part, the Baton Rouge of her childhood is a dreary city, populated by racists and uncaring adults. Yet, throughout her book and her life, she has been drawn back to Louisiana, most notably, when political consultant Brian Welsh convinced her to challenge David Vitter, who had just been named as a client of the D.C. Madam, for the U.S. Senate.

At least initially, Daniels seemed to have enjoyed her brief campaign, though she never acknowledges its fatal flaw: She was no longer a resident of Louisiana, and it’s likely her residency would have been challenged had she decided to show up for qualifying. Still, there is plenty of evidence that the Vitter campaign was rattled by her presence on the campaign trail. One night, famously, Welsh’s car was fire-bombed; it was a suspicious crime that remains unsolved. Thankfully, no one was injured. 

Stormy tells readers the fate of her would-be opponent, and she drops a name that political observers in Louisiana would never expect to be included: Lane Grigsby. 

Obviously, she has kept up with state politics. From her book Full Disclosure:


There is no redemptive ending to her story, at least yet, but what emerges from the book is much more than a crude and sleazy protagonist. Instead, Daniels asserts herself as a thoughtful, flawed, tenacious, and accomplished woman. 

The book opens with the story of Stormy Daniels, alongside her attorney Michael Avenatti, receiving a key to the city of West Hollywood, California. It’s unlikely her hometown would ever honor her with the same distinction, but maybe one day, they’ll consider it.

People may disagree with her lifestyle and loath her profession, but Full Disclosure is ultimately a story of success by Baton Rouge’s most famous native daughter. 

Commentary | In Kavanaugh scandal, Cassidy and Kennedy rely on “himpathy.”

By
Lamar White, Jr.
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Himpathy, as defined by Cornell University philosophy professor Kate Manne, is the “pathological tendency to disproportionately or excessively sympathize with the male point of view.”

Yesterday, Manne spoke with a friend of mine and a former professor at LSU, Vox‘s Sean Illing, about the concept of “himpathy,” and the ways in which it has manifested during the controversial nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. 

You should read the entire interview.

Manne elaborates. “(The) tendency to dismiss the female perspective altogether, to empathize with the powerful man over his less powerful alleged female victim, is what I call himpathy,” she tells Illing. “It’s a refusal to take the female perspective seriously, and it amounts to a willful denial rather than a mere ignorance.” 

It may be a broad cultural or sociological critique, but “himpathy” is also an elegant explanation of the reaction among partisan Republicans to the instantly-historic testimonies provided by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.   

And it’s also an accurate diagnosis for how both of Louisiana’s U.S. Senators, Bill Cassidy and John Neely Kennedy, have responded to Dr. Ford’s account of being sexually assaulted by the Supreme Court nominee when they were both teenagers. Even Donald Trump, a man who once bragged on tape about sexually assaulting women, called Dr. Ford a “very credible witness” (though he is still standing behind his nominee, at least for now).

Sens. Cassidy and Kennedy, however, have both attempted to shift the focus away from the extraordinary decision to open up an FBI investigation into Dr. Ford’s “very credible” allegations of sexual assault. Instead, both men seem far more concerned with the way those allegations were disclosed to the Senate and the public.  

“What Senate Democrats really want is more time to smear Judge Kavanaugh, regardless of the toll it takes on his wife, his daughters, and our country,”  Cassidy wrote on Thursday, in an “exclusive” for the alt-right online publication Breitbart (founded by the late Andrew Breitbart, a graduate of Tulane University in New Orleans). Cassidy is demanding the FBI also investigate “potential coordination between the Democrat operatives and lawyers that assisted in bringing (Dr. Ford’s allegations).”

He doubled-down on his argument in an interview Saturday morning on “Fox and Friends.”


Without citing any evidence, Cassidy argued that a cabal of unnamed Democrats must have conspired to “smear” Kavanaugh through a “coordinated” campaign. The FBI, he said, must investigate them too.

But Cassidy isn’t alleging any crime was committed, even if there was “coordination” (which is dubious, considering Dr. Ford first disclosed her identity to The Washington Post). No, he’s just indignant about the timing of that disclosure, the political optics, and as he has made abundantly clear, he’s far more concerned about how these allegations became public and not if Kavanaugh’s denial or Ford’s account can be substantiated. 

There are significant and compelling reasons to believe Dr. Ford’s testimony, and most Republicans have been careful not to impugn her, focusing instead on Michael Avenatti’s representation of a third accuser as an example of the politicization of the process. 

Embed from Getty Images

Cassidy, however, implies Dr. Ford could be a participant in his elaborate conspiracy theory about a coordinated smear campaign.

He demands the FBI also investigate notes from Dr. Ford’s psychologists, falsely claiming that those records- which were referenced in The Washington Post‘s very first report- are somehow unverified. He incorrectly asserts those notes are the only corroborating evidence provided by Dr. Ford, when, in fact, she also submitted sworn affidavits from four different people who verified that she had told them about the sexual assault months- and in some cases, years- before Kavanaugh’s name had ever been mentioned as a potential Supreme Court Justice.

And, of course, she also gave her own testimony, under penalty of perjury, in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the entire country. 

Similarly, John Neely Kennedy, Louisiana’s junior senator who has earned national attention for his work on the Judiciary Committee, has also largely ignored or dismissed the allegations made by Dr. Ford. Like his colleague, Kennedy is much more sympathetic to Kavanaugh. 

Prior to Thursday’s committee meeting, Kennedy was repeatedly asked, on video, about voting in favor of a nominee who has been accused of sexual assault. Kennedy panicked. He called for security. The question was never answered.

Source: Bridge Project

This is what Manne means when she talks about “himpathy;” both Cassidy and Kennedy have reflexively- perhaps instinctually- decided to empathize with another powerful man, and both have refused to “take the female perspective seriously.” 

Christine Blasey Ford may have been a “very credible witness,” but she must be confusing Brett Kavanaugh with someone else. She may have stated, under oath, that she’s 100% certain it was Kavanaugh who assaulted her, but she can’t even remember the exact date or the address of the location. Bill Cassidy needs to see the notes from her doctor!  

Before Dr. Ford testified on Thursday, it may have been easier for like-minded conservatives to believe in his innocence or to argue that the good judge was being victimized by a coordinated smear campaign. But afterward, the only excuse now offered is that Dr. Ford is misremembering things, even if- bless her heart- she thinks she is telling the truth. They’re himpathetic. 

We need to remember what this discussion is ultimately about: The credibility and integrity of the highest court in the country. 

On Thursday, we saw an earnest and honest college professor tell the entire nation about one of the most traumatic experiences of her life. She was exceedingly respectful to the committee; she never obfuscated. She acknowledged the lapses in her memory, the missing details, and the personal reasons she had kept her story to herself for so many years. She was authentic.  

The man who would like to serve as the next Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court said he didn’t even listen to Dr. Ford’s testimony, which- in and of itself- shouldn’t inspire confidence in his approach to the law. 

He lumbered in the hearing room, scowling, and he began his remarks by implying the woman that the entire nation had just heard from was a pawn in a political campaign against him. Bless her heart. He spoke about “left-wing” organizations financing attacks. He blamed “revenge on behalf of the Clintons.”

And then he started crying, while speaking about his father- who is still very much alive- mentoring him on the art of calendaring, as he introduced what he hoped would be exculpatory evidence: His calendar from the summer of 1982. 

He told us how much he liked beer, still likes it, and whenever questioned about his drinking, he tried to turn the question back on the senator asking it.  “Do you like beer?” “Have you (gotten blackout drunk)?”

Throughout the hearing, the nominee was belligerent, disrespectful, and nakedly partisan, and none of those are qualities of a Supreme Court Justice. At least, they shouldn’t be. If Kavanaugh is confirmed, the Court’s credibility on split decisions, particularly those regarding contentious issues in our politics, will be irreparably undermined.

Kavanugh lied about the meaning of commonly-known sexual innuendos he’d written in his yearbook. He claimed it would have been virtually impossible for him to have ever had time to attend the party Dr. Ford described, even though his own calendar proved otherwise.

For the 53.9% of the country that voted against Donald Trump and rejected the Republican Party’s new orthodoxy, the manufactured urgency of confirming a nominee accused of sexual assault seems all too predictable, albeit ironic considering the story of Merrick Garland. This is the kind of presidency we expected and feared and warned about: The era of himpathy.  

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