Honore out

Russel Honore just sent out a press release announcing he is not running for Governor.  Check your local media outlet in a few minutes for more commentary, I'm sure. The email is unnecessarily long but here's the key bit.

For those who have offered themselves as candidates for governor and the legislature, please keep in mind that public service means serving the public, honoring the public trust and putting the people before donors and special interests We need politicians who stand up and lead, not lay back and cash checks. We need to stop being stuck on stupid, stop believing that slash-and-burn business methods create jobs, stop believing that starvation wages are good for the people of Louisiana. We need to invest in ourselves, not out-of-state political donors. Louisiana belongs to Louisianans. We must take care of our own because it's our own who take care of Louisiana.

I want to continue to serve the people of Louisiana, as an advocate for the government we all deserve. . . but after nearly four decades as a loyal and proud soldier serving our country, after much thought and reflection over the past several weeks, I’ve concluded that I can best continue to serve the state I love by, not by becoming a politician and running for governor, but by working with the good people of Louisiana to reorder our political priorities and hold all of our elected officials accountable to the people they swear to serve. The coming elections represent a golden opportunity for all of us: an opportunity to hold our elected representatives accountable and demand that those seeking our votes propose real solutions to the big problems facing our state and its hard working families. And to hold them to their campaign promises.

Basically Honore is promising to stay out of the campaign but not promising to stay off of your TV talking about stuff.  So with that and Mitch Landrieu's continuing insistence that he's not in either, we might have a full dance card for this fall. 

Honore was a keynote speaker at Rising Tide 8 a few years ago just as speculation that he might become a candidate was beginning to form.  Here's that video. He was pretty entertaining.

Rising Tide 8 - Keynote - Lt. General Russel Honore from Jason Berry on Vimeo.