Jindal, Tucker, Michot: Ethics Schmethics! And, Pay to Play is Thriving in the Jindal Era

All the huffing and puffing of the great ethics special session charade is over and now it's back to business as usual in Louisiana politics as run by Republicans.

Lafayette's The Independent weekly's blog, The Ind, has a story today about how the Ethics Governor, the Ethics Speaker and the Ethics Republican State Senator from Lafayette are joining forces to raise money for Republican campaign finance lawbreaker Don Trahan.

Trahan, The Independent reported in December, accepted more than $23,000 in political action committee (PAC) contributions in excess of the limit allowed by state campaign finance laws. Trahan won re-election with that illegal money by only 33 votes.

Michot, who took exception to Trahan campaign literature that claimed the senator had endorsed him over his opponent Nancy Landry, defended his embrace of Trahan now:

Michot characterizes the event as a way to help re-build Trahan's re-election war chest and a way to show unity in the Acadiana delegation. "A lot of legislators are having fund raisers right now; there were four last night in Baton Rouge," Michot says. "Most of them spent all of their money on their campaigns."

First elected in 2003, Trahan narrowly defeated independent Nancy Landry in the October primary to become the most senior member of the House from the Acadiana area. Tucker subsequently named him Education Committee chairman. "He's in a key leadership position in the House," Michot says.

Michot says he is expecting Democratic and independent legislators to show up at tonight's event. "I'm working hard to see that we work together as a group and bring some funding to Acadiana," says the senator, who chairs the powerful Senate Finance Committee.

For Jindal, who appeared in a pre-ethics session press conference in Lafayette with Trahan by his side, the appearance at the Trahan event is further evidence that his talk of wanting to end corruption in Louisiana was, at best, hollow.

Trahan won his election with money he could not have otherwise legally obtained. Yet, the worst thing that will happen to him is that he might be fined. He will keep the fruit of his corrupt campaign practices — his seat in the Louisiana Legislature.

For all the talk about ethics, nothing in Jindal's ethics call addressed campaign finance reform. Nothing will increase the penalties on campaign finance law-breakers like Trahan. And, nothing that came up in the session gave any indication that the Governor or his leadership team is remotely interested in campaign finance reform. The current system is working quite well for them, thank you!

And, as if to prove just how the "pay to play" system Jindal bewailed during the campaign is thriving, New Orleans CityBusiness had a story today about how Jindal's call for the second Special Session includes $1o million that will benefit Edison Chouest, the company headed by Republican heavy hitter Gary Chouest.

Sure, there may well be an economic development angle to this, but, judge by the standard that Jindal himself set on the campaign trail, it is suspect. It was candidate Jindal who said that Louisiana could not tolerate "even the hint of corruption."

Providing state funding for a project of a major contributor to your party certainly raises the prospect of a hint of corruption.

Republicans were quick to call it back in 2004 when Shaw Group CEO Jim Bernhard, a big supporter of then newly-elected Governor Kathleen Blanco, won a contract to build the Union Tank Car facility that Blanco recruited to Alexandria. There were state dollars involved there. Bernhard was a contributor to Blanco's campaign. The hue and cry went up.

In the Port of Terrebonne deal announced today, state dollars are involved. Chouest is a big contributor to Republican causes and campaigns in Louisiana.

Where's the hue and cry on this?

Does a double standard on ethics exist in Louisiana? Are certain act corrupt only when they involved Democrats?

What is certain that Governor Jindal and his Republican friends have done nothing to end "pay to play" in Louisiana politics. In fact, they've just made sure that their particular form of it is protected for at least another four years.

Jindal Campaigns for 'Ethics' in Lafayette with Finance Law-breaker Trahan at His Side

Governor Jindal might be the smartest guy in some rooms, but a sense of irony is apparently completely missing in the man.

Jindal brought his ethics campaign road show to Lafayette on Thursday. The new governor made an impassioned plea against "special interests" and others who drown out the voices of ordinary people in the political process.

Standing at Jindal's right hand in a Baton Rouge Advocate photo in Friday's edition was none other than Republican District 31 Rep. Don Trahan who, it has been revealed, used more than $23,000 in illegal contributions from political action committees (PACs) to secure his 33-vote win in the October primary.

Jindal has studiously avoided making substantive campaign finance reform part of the special session on ethics that he called and which will begin on Sunday. He gets downright antsy when the discussion turns towards campaign finance reform, probably owing to the fact that his own campaign has admitted to violations of state campaign finance laws.

Jindal is resisting making personal payment on the fine. Instead, Baton Rouge Business Report publisher Rolfe McCollister, who was Treasurer for Jindal's campaign, has said he will pay the fine.

That matter itself is raising ethical issues as this article in Thursday's Times Picayune about an exchange during a Legislative Joint Governmental Affairs Committee demonstrates:

Third-party payments

One of the sharpest exchanges came when House Speaker Pro-Tem Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, questioned whether "third parties" such as campaign treasurers should be allowed to pay ethics penalties that are assessed to a candidate or a campaign committee.

The question appeared directly aimed at Jindal's admitted failure to make timely disclosure of $118,000 in Republican Party contributions, which faces a July hearing before the Board of Ethics. Jindal's campaign treasurer, publisher Rolfe McCollister, has offered to pay a $2,500 fine to settle the matter.

"How do we permit a third party to pay a fine for me? That seems totally inconsistent with good ethics," Carter said.

When Waguespack said the administration will not be offering a bill during the session to ban such third-party payments, Carter said she would file one herself.

In yet another bit of irony, McCollister -- whose offer to pay Jindal's campaign finance penalty is raising ethical questions -- is also head of Believe in Louisiana, the newly-formed group of Jindal backers who are airing commercials across the state calling for support for Jindal's ethics package. For all their claims of transparency, Believe in Louisiana does not provide a list of officers, nor has it published a list of contributors. It was set up as a 527 — a political issues interest group, but not a PAC -- so it falls outside the coverage of Louisiana's campaign finance laws, meaning (among other things) there are no limits on the size of contributions that can be made to this group.

That Jindal would allow Don Trahan to stand next to him while he pitched his ethics package in Lafayette demonstrates a certain obtuseness about the role of campaign finance reform in ethics reform. Perhaps that's understandable coming as it did from a man whose campaign for governor reported raising more than $12 million, including direct contributions from corporations doing business or seeking to do business with the state government he now heads.

The Advocate article on his Lafayette stop contained this passage, quoting Jindal:

He said that, while special interests have lobbyists to push their concerns with state legislators, the people of the state do not.

Jindal called on people from around the state to call and e-mail legislators to support the ethics package and to go to Baton Rouge to push their legislators to support it.

“The reality is this is going to be a hard fight,” he said.

“Don’t kid yourselves.”

Those special interest lobbyists are also the people who direct the PAC money that pushed Trahan over the top, both in the amount of PAC money he received and in his race against independent challenger Nancy Landry. They were business PACs — the same sources that supported Jindal's campaign.

If Jindal's ethics push is to be taken seriously, he's going to have to come to grips with the fact that the only way to truly end the "pay to play" era in Louisiana politics is to tackle campaign finance reform. That will mean penalties with teeth for blatant violations like those of Trahan and his campaign. That will also mean banning direct corporate contributions to political campaigns.

If he can't deliver real reform on his signature issue, that's going to mean much bigger trouble for other initiatives down the road.

Money And Deception

The Louisiana Committee for a Republican Majority (LCRM) sprinted into today's election with a fresh infusion of cash.

In a special report filed with the State Board of Ethics Campaign Finance office on Friday, the LCRM reported receiving a $100,000 contribution from Koch Industries of Wichita, Kansas, and $2,500 from Michael T. Gray of Metairie.

Like most of the corporate contributors to LCRM, Koch is a privately held company that has its roots in the oil and gas industry. Like the others, it has deep and close ties to the Republican Party. Koch, in fact, has been a direct beneficiary of the Bush administration's willingness to ignore environmental laws and their violation, though the company proclaims itself a solid steward of the environment.

Michael T. Gray appears to be a member of the family that runs Gray & Company, which has already contributed $100,000 to LCRM. Maybe they made him pick up the tab for another working dinner at Drago's?

Meanwhile, the LCRM has been active in the field. In House District 31 in Lafayette and Vermilion parishes, the LCRM dropped no fewer than four direct mail pieces in support of incumbent Republican Don Trahan. One piece, featured a photo of Trahan along with pictures of retiring District 43 Representative Ernie Alexander and Senator Mike Michot, urging voters to keep "Lafayette's Winning Team." The flip side featured glowing quotes about Trahan from Alexander and Michot.

The only problem is that Michot is not backing Trahan. The Senator, who was re-elected without opposition, made that clear in statements to the press and through robo-calls throughout the district on Friday, which declared that he had not authorized the statement and had not endorsed Trahan.

The overall quality of the four pieces the LCRM dropped for Trahan was poor. They have the look of canned copy, with the appropriate name and photographs dropped in where needed (as detailed in Michot's complaint, "appropriate" would not be the correct word to use here).

The tone, certainly when compared to the LCRM's spring offensive in the House District 94 special election, was tame.

That was not the case for radio spots the LCRM has run in the Alexandria area against Democrat Chris Roy. According to the blog, CenLamar, the spots are so vicious that the intended beneficiary, Republican House candidate Lance Maxwell, has tried to distance himself from the LCRM and its ads.

Man, it sure would be nice to have an MP3 copy of those ads! The LCRM pieces for Trahan will be posted later today.

Anyone else who receives LCRM-sponsored materials (it will say so on mailed pieces) please forward them to this site via email link on the homepage and we'll continue building the archive of what we're calling "The Trail of Smears."