PAC activity hits record high

There have been a record number of newly-registered political action committees created in Louisiana in 2015 and more registration renewals than ever before. 
Based on data compiled by the state Ethics Administration for LaPolitics.com, there have been a total of 281 PACs registered in Louisiana this calendar year, compared to 233 in all of 2005. 
But what’s truly telling is the number of newly-registered PACs, now at 58 this year, up from 33 just a decade ago. 
The boom in newly registered PACs started last year and was bolstered primarily by the U.S. Senate race pitting Mary Landrieu against Bill Cassidy. 
It was the first annual tally in Louisiana that exceeded 50, reaching 53, and represented a two-year total of 111. 
The last time a U.S. Senate race preceded an election for governor, in 2010 and 2011, those two years saw just 65 newly registered PACs. 
What’s driving the expansion? For starters, the inclusion of super PACs in our politics; they’re playing in a Louisiana gubernatorial race for the first time ever this year.
Super PACs are allowed, thanks to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that likened campaign cash to free speech, to raise unlimited amounts of money. 
Many of the PACs are being operated by consultants and funded by donors who are from outside of the state.
“What I’m most interested in this year is to see how much of a difference the Citizens United decision and the super PACs will make in Louisiana,” said Clancy DuBos of New Orleans, Gambit political editor and political analyst for WWL-TV. “Will all of our politics remain local or will all of our politics become national?”
In the governor’s race alone, super PACs have made an unmistakable difference, raising somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 percent of all of the money donated in the election, from Jan. 1 of last year through the primary. 

Tracking the country vote for governor 
Competing press conferences held during the week following the October primary helped draw part of the battle lines in the runoff for governor. 
On one side you saw parish sheriffs, a few of them Republicans, and some of the old courthouse cliques gravitating toward state Rep. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat. On the other side was the GOP establishment, anchored by members of Congress or their representatives, standing behind U.S. Sen. David Vitter, a Republican. 
At Vitter’s event, the newest name to the fold, at least on the invitation, was Congressman Garret Graves, who steered clear of making an endorsement in the primary. He was joined on the invitation by three men, among others, who are angling for Vitter’s job: Treasurer John Kennedy and Congressmen Charles Boustany and John Fleming. 
Edwards’ primary lead and early outreach for the Nov. 21 runoff are decidedly rural. But no matter which angle you view the developing trend, there are caveats that point to a long country road ahead. 
Edwards managed to win the most primary votes in 23 rural parishes that former U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu lost in 2014. It’s a starting point for the Democrat from West Point, but most of those parishes he won’t be able to cling to, including but not limited to Livingston and Beauregard, which split up its Republican votes between Vitter, Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle and Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne. 
The majority of these rural parishes that Edwards led in also gave 60 percent or more of their votes to the Republican candidates. Yet Edwards is showing that he’s not your typical Louisiana Democratic candidate — or rather he hasn’t been defined as such, which may be remedied by the TV dump that has already started. 
Edwards had a higher share of the vote than Angelle and Dardenne combined in nearly half of the state, or 31 parishes total in the primary, not including two parishes where he was tied with their collective tally.
It’s a small opening for a candidate who basically grew up in a courthouse, with a lineage of sheriffs in his family, and who lives in what amounts to a farm setting in Tangipahoa Parish. Edwards ran much better at home, carrying 55 percent of the vote, than Vitter did in Jefferson, where the senior senator chalked up 38 percent. Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand, who is unmistakably anti-Vitter, won his re-election on Saturday with 88 percent. 

From Christmas music to cancer, attacks get nasty
Challenger Beryl Adams Amedee has stirred up controversy in House District 51, stretching across Terrebonne, Lafourche and Assumption parishes, with a new radio ad attacking incumbent Rep. Joe Harrison, R-Napoleonville. 
The 60-second spot, featuring a Christmas-themed score, states that Harrison is under investigation by the FBI for alleged billing discrepancies over fuel expenses and gas receipts. 
The ad ends with an announcer saying, “The last thing we need is a state representative that goes to jail in the middle of his term.” 
Harrison, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing, was not amused. 
“I’m suing her and the radio stations,” he said.
Meanwhile in Baton Rouge’s Senate District 29, challenger Edmond Jordan has sent out 8,000 mailers to district voters questioning East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Councilwoman Ronnie Edwards’ ability to serve because of recent health issues. 
The mailer states that Edwards, who was diagnosed two years ago with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, has been “failing to fulfill her current duties as councilwoman and… absent from every forum and debate to date.” 
Edwards has responded by calling the attacks desperate and claiming she had clearance from her doctor to pursue higher office.

Business continues march toward Vitter
While Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne stole the news cycle with his Thursday endorsement of state Rep. John Bel Edwards for governor, business groups continue to gravitate to U.S. Sen. David Vitter. 
A press conference was expected this week for Vitter as he opens his Baton Rouge campaign headquarters and announces the latest endorsements from business groups. 
The Louisiana Home Builders Association, which represents 5,300 companies, is putting its forces behind Vitter’s bid. Also, the ABC Merit PAC and ABC Pelican PAC announced Thursday they will support his campaign, too. The two political action committees represents builders and contractors in south Louisiana. 
Vitter has already received the backing of the Louisiana chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business and the Louisiana Oil and Gas Political Action Committee. Still pending is support from the PACs overseen by the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry. LABI started polling its PAC members recently to see if they wanted to wade into the race.

They Said It
“In Baton Rouge, a secret means you only tell five people.”
—Columnist and LSU journalism professor Bob Mann, repeating an old political saying about leaks
For more Louisiana political news, visit www.LaPolitics.com or follow Jeremy Alford on Twitter @LaPoliticsNow.