Failed aristocrats

Without looking it up, let's see if we can name the wealthiest individuals in Louisiana. There's  Gayle Benson, Joe Cannizaro, Phyllis Taylor, Eddie Rispone. Probably Lane Grigsby is in there somewhere. Who else? Jim Bernhard? I can't think of a name right now. I'm sure it will come to me... 

The economic impacts of coronavirus have hit Louisiana’s largest daily newspaper. In a company wide email, The Advocate Publisher and President Judi Terzotis announced that all salaried employees and full-time hourly staff would be reduced to working four days a week, resulting in a twenty percent pay cut. The email also announced that “a number of our staffers will be temporarily furloughed.”

“Our world has turned upside down,” the email said. “It is a shame that a terrible economy requires these moves at the same time our importance to the community has risen. More people are reading our journalism, online and in print, than ever before.”

Seems like at this particular moment when the world is on fire and we are ruled by corrupt sociopaths and our city is a major epicenter of the crisis, you wouldn't want to go laying off reporters and cutting back on news production.  Unless, I guess, if you are one of the sociopaths.

I mean it certainly seems like people want to read about that stuff.  According to Kovacs and Terzotis, they do, anyway. 

Louisianians need accurate and unbiased coverage more than ever, and they are turning to us as never before. Online traffic on nola.com and theadvocate.com is running three to four times above normal.

The pace of new digital subscriptions has more than doubled in March, even though we are making our coronavirus coverage available free of charge as a public service.

Of course we know the news business isn't about selling the news to readers.  It's about selling the readers to advertisers.  And selling the readers to advertisers isn't as profitable as it used to be.  It's especially bad during this moment. But the current moment is extraordinary and, depending on what happens in Washington, it remains to be seen how bad and how lasting its effects will be. In the meantime, maybe the patrician overseer of the operation could throw in a little extra to help weather the storm. But that's not how any of this works.

We shouldn't be at the mercy of patricians like Georges.  Not in times like these or any other. 

The real problem with caring for the homeless is there's no money in it

Ozanam Inn is being kicked out of its building after 64 years. The reason is it turned out, finally, to have been bad business?

According to its tax filings, St. Vincent de Paul over the past four years has seen a sharp step-down in gross receipts, from nearly $900,000 in the year ended September 30, 2016 to below $600,000 in the year to end September, 2018, the latest tax year filed.

Expenses have consistently outstripped revenues, and in the latest year, the accounts show an unexplained $311,000 write off in the value of its assets which, together with the deficit, meant assets fell to $1.75 million from $2.1 million.

The society at one point operated a half dozen thrift shops in New Orleans, but this has contracted in recent years so that it now operates just one shop on the Westbank, on 4th Street in Marrero.

The article points a bunch of fingers at the St.VdP director. And who are we to say anything about that situtation. But the bigger question here is, was booting a homeless shelter out in favor of a "hotel and parking garage" during a housing crunch really the best solution?  Who decides these things anyway?

Maybe it's just plain old capitalism at work where all parties compete on perfectly equal footing in the fair and free market.  Right?

Demma went on to say that Ozanam Inn would have the right of first refusal to buy the Camp Street building if they could come up with $100,000 "earnest monies" and reach a deal on the final amount.

Last month, Demma told members that 843 Camp Street had been sold to an unnamed developer. Documents showed that the building was sold for a nominal $100 and that St. Vincent de Paul issued a $2.69 million mortgage note to Excel Advertising Group LLC, a company registered in Delaware, which is the official buyer.

Ozanam says their $3.5 million offer was rejected in favor of this $100 dollar up front investment. So whose money is that?  Stay tuned because it is a mystery.

Although the story does provide us with a tantalizing lead.

Excel lists Michael Boudreaux, a New Orleans property management agent, as its sole officer and he signed the sale document. Also, John Holmes of True Title in Metairie was listed as the buyer's authorized agent on the sale. Neither responded to requests for comment.

Several people who have been privately briefed and didn't want to be quoted by name said the owner is a long-time New Orleans developer who has built hundreds of condominium units, sub-divisions and commercial real estate in and around the city, including the conversion of a landmark riverside historic property into condominiums.

LOL, they obviously know who it is. Is it Sean Cummings? That sounds a lot like Sean Cummings. It could be several other people too. (I think the suggestion that it could be Marcel Wisznia is kind of elegant since it makes sense that the guy building a "co-living" development would be interested in a homeless shelter.) But why give us this many clues and not just say who it is?  I'll bet John Georges knows who it is.

John Georges, who along with his wife, Dathel, owns The Times-Picayune|The New Orleans Advocate, said the company — a direct neighbor of Ozanam Inn — is interested in jointly developing the proposed parking lot.

"We would certainly welcome the redevelopment, and I was happy to hear Ozanam Inn has opportunities for other locations that should be announced before the end of the year as part of a master plan to address the homeless situation," said Georges.

So instead of Ozanam buying the building for $3.5 million, we have this alternate transaction where it transfers (for $100!) to a mystery "long-time New Orleans developer" and John Georges is possibly cut in on it in some way.  Of course that looks real bad if it means actually booting homeless people onto the street. We're gonna need some help to keep that from happening.  Luckily the city has already stepped in to facilitate.

Ozanam Inn's plans depend on a broad agreement with homelessness agencies being negotiated with the city of New Orleans.

"We are aware of the recent sale of Ozanam Inn's building, and we're in close contact with their staff and board of directors as they determine their next steps," said a spokesperson for the City, who declined to comment on talk among homeless advocates that city land on Poydras Street near South Claiborne Avenue had been earmarked as an alternative location for Ozanam Inn and other housing.

This looks like it's been in the works for quite a while. Rich developer gets a free building. Local magnate gets a piece. The city gets to maximize the property's revenue potential. All they had to do was scoot a decades-old charitable institution out of the way. Remains to be seen what the city's homeless advocates and their clients end up with out of the deal.  We sure hope it's a "fair share."

This blog will sell to John Georges for one million dollars

He probably won't buy it, though.  He seems to have it in his head that there are too many "dangerous people" on the internet.  And, from his point of view, maybe that's true. Those people will just bring up any old thing if you don't watch them closely.  So I guess we shouldn't be too surprised that when Georges does decide to buy a website, he does it mainly to fire everybody.

New Orleans Advocate owners Dathel and John Georges have purchased The Times-Picayune and its nola.com website from the Newhouse family’s Advance Local Media.

The Advocate will publish a seven-day, home-delivered newspaper in New Orleans using the brands and features of both publications. The new paper will debut in June. The two papers’ websites will be combined under the nola.com brand around the same time.

According to Georges, this is being done in order to "ensure a strong print and online news company for years to come.” But you'd forgive us if we weren't entirely sold on the proposition that the "brands and features" of the two papers are worth as much to the reader minus the work of the actual reporters who once produced their content.  Georges laid off every single T-P employee effective 60 days from now. We haven't been told how many can expect to be hired on to the new company but the early indications are it will be very few. I guess, technically, you can call that an "expansion" of the Advocate.  The Advocate is certainly calling it that, anyway. 

The Advocate will be expanding its New Orleans news, advertising and circulation staff by hiring from current nola.com and Times-Picayune employees, and will increase its coverage of suburban communities, sports, and arts and entertainment, and also improve its opinion pages.

How will they be improving the opinion pages, exactly?  Somehow I doubt the opinions will improve. The current version of the New Orleans Advocate opinion page prominently features the conventional wisdom of political columnist Stephanie Grace, the curmudgeonly wit of veteran James Gill, and the all out right wing nuttery of Dan Fagan. Gill and Grace get some things right some of the time but, mostly, this is a centrist-to-conservative leaning page. The T-P's Jarvis DeBerry is a pretty moderate columnist himself but would add a relatively more progressive voice to this lot if they were to bring him on.  We've not seen or heard anything to indicate the Advocate management is inclined to go that direction, though. While pitching the Advocate's new online paywall to readers last month, editor Peter Kovacs chose to highlight the work of only one columnist in particular.

Six days a week, Smiley Anders captures the wit, kindness and good humor of the people of Louisiana. And even if the rest of the news centers on crime or crisis, you can’t read his column without walking away an optimist.

But maybe none of this matters. The significance of a newspaper opinions page is greatly diminished in the age of social media. Takes, even "good' takes, are cheap. Write your own whenever you like and share them with your friends. The value produced by a newspaper is in the actual news reporting. And John Georges just fired a whole lot of reporters.

It's never a good time for that. But it doesn't improve matters that Georges fired everybody during the height of the legislative session. At the very moment the mayor and the tourism industry are supposedly on the verge of a deal, and as the city council prepares to make a major decision on the future of the short term rental problem, nearly half of the beat reporters responsible for keeping an eye on that stuff just learned they're about to be on the street.

If any of that is worrisome to Lens editor Jed Horne, he isn't about to tell us. Instead he spends most of this editorial gloating. 

But starting a rival paper that was better than the T-P wasn’t the end of the drama. Now Kovacs and Shea  will run the whole shebang for Georges. Meanwhile, the buzz on the street is that the remaining T-P staff has been given layoff notices and 60 days of severance pay. Enjoying the pick of the litter, The Advocate is expected to offer jobs to a handful of reporters who toiled for its former rival. The reconfigured paper will begin publishing in June.

Yay! Everybody is fired and now has to grovel to one of the slimiest billionaires in the state. Why does Horne love this so much?  If there's one positive thing we can say for the six year "newspaper war" it's that the number of reporting jobs in New Orleans declined at a less dramatic rate than they otherwise would have. Now that anomaly has met with an abrupt end. Horne goes on to predict that the Times-Georges monopoly is likely to cull the ranks further. How are we supposed to feel about that?  Horne seems confused.

The Advocate editors sure aren't.  They think it's great.  And they're looking forward to welcoming "some" new colleagues.

We look forward to welcoming some new colleagues, serving new subscribers, helping new advertisers grow their businesses — and tirelessly listening to all of the voices in the great communities we serve.

So congratulations to those guys.  Everybody else, have fun reapplying for some of your jobs.

It was puzzling yesterday to see a few commenters describe the late news wars as a "David vs. Goliath" contest. Lamar uses those terms in his title here, though he only does that in a pointed, sort of ironic way.  He also hints at something in this paragraph that a lot of people have either missed or purposefully ignored so far. 

The decision to fire the entire staff, in one fell swoop, has been roundly criticized on social media by the paper’s readers and among fellow members of the press, while the announcement of the purchase has been met with a range of reactions. Still, among journalists and mass media professionals, the consensus seems to be one of cautious optimism and a sense of relief. In recent years, the Times-Picayune has been faltering under poor corporate management.

Why would a sudden mass firing be met with "cautious optimism and a sense of relief" among media professionals?  The most likely reason is they all expected to be losing their jobs soon anyway. It's possible Advance was getting set to shutter the T-P whether Georges bought it or not. Still, the move hardly makes him any kind of savior. He's just stripping the carcass.

Anyway John Georges  vs. Advance/Newhouse isn't a  David and Goliath story. It's more like Goliath vs. Very Sick And Dying Goliath.  And regardless of which Goliath wins, the losers are journalists, support staff and readers. Or maybe it's all just the natural way of market economics.  We don't really need two newspapers in a town like New Orleans where so very little news happens, right? 

One thing we did learn was this dumb Darren Rovell tweet from back in January turned out to be more accurate than anyone knew.  And that's the strangest news to come out of any of this.

"Times-Advocate" Now THAT is some breaking news... https://t.co/zpFEJ2VpXl

— skooks (@skooks) January 24, 2019

Blackface: An American rite of passage

It's just one of those things the lads have to do in their.. um.. academic clubs. We don't know why, exactly.  Let's just say it prepares them for leadership.

I didn’t think it was possible, but somehow, Virginia’s incredibly messed-up state of political affairs has gotten even worse, with an admission by Democratic state Attorney General Mark Herring on Wednesday that, as a teenager, he wore blackface to a party in 1980.

Yes, Virginia has another blackface scandal.

So yeah, big LOLs and all but this isn't really that much of a coincidence. The elite schools and fraternities where much of your political leadership is incubated have racism and harassment baked deeply into their cultures. Examples abound everywhere.  Since it's been in the news I'm a little surprised no one has mentioned former mayoral and gubernatorial candidate and Advocate owner John Georges is one. 

I guess Tom Benson was no longer available

When Tom died, the DuBoses figured they were running low on people to sell out to. (Oh who are we kidding, Clancy sold out a long time ago)  Luckily John Georges exists.

Gambit, New Orleans’ signature weekly news and entertainment paper, has been purchased by the parent company of The New Orleans Advocate.

Advocate owners John and Dathel Georges purchased the weekly from Margo and Clancy DuBos, native New Orleanians who have owned Gambit since 1991. Terms were not disclosed.

John Georges said the purchase was in line with his vision of preserving iconic Louisiana brands and creating a locally owned media company dedicated to traditional journalistic values, in print and online. Besides The Advocate, which they purchased in 2013, the Georges own the St. Tammany Farmer and weekly newspapers in Zachary and East and West Feliciana parishes. The Advocate is the state’s largest newspaper.

Anyway, in addition to this...

Do you love the buggy JavaScript ads that crash @theadvocateno ‘s ancient, jerry-rigged CMS? Well then you’ll *really* love those same buggy JavaScript ads crashing @The_Gambit ‘s ancient, jerry-rigged CMS.

— Newman (@helleaux_newman) April 9, 2018

... It is comforting to know that the Alt-Weekly home of "40 under 40" and music/nightlife listings and the College Student's Guide to New Orleans and various other signifiers of  youth-oriented liberal type content will be owned by the sometime politician who is upset about  the "Dangerous People On The Internet" who criticize him.  

Wonder what Georges wants with the building

The owners of the Swiss Confectionery sold him their building on St. Charles. 

What made Culotta decide to leave St. Charles Avenue?

"We own that building and somebody made us an offer," he said.

According to public records, a company owned by businessman John Georges bought the St. Charles Avenue property for $1.3 million in June 2017.

Georges owns a lot of things so it's one more to throw on the pile. This is a block down from his shiny new Advocate headquarters. Gonna make his own little corridor.

Update: According to Georges's paper, it's a potential Galatoire's expansion. (One of two!)

Life during crisis time

A couple of weeks ago at her mayoral campaign kickoff event,  LaToya Cantrell addressed the controversial but intriguing notion of electing a police chief. She seemed, at the time, to have given it some thought. Or, at least, she certainly talked as though she had.

One possible way to make the police department more responsive, Cantrell said to applause, would be to change the city charter to elect a police chief independently instead of making him a political appointment by the mayor.

“It’s working in our sister parishes. It’s working in other communities across the country,” Cantrell said. “It’s something we do need to be mindful of, and I want to have that conversation as your mayor.”

The idea is just a topic she wants to explore thus far based on ideas from constituents, and would ultimately require a vote by the public to change the structure of city government, Cantrell said. But it would offer one definite advantage of providing autonomy and consistency in the city’s police force that is insulated from the whims of changing mayoral administrations.

“How can we stabilize public safety in our city that’s not tied to a specific leadership style of a mayor?” Cantrell said in an interview after the event.

Even the most law-abiding of residents feel a lack of trust in the police when they call to report problems and it seems like nothing is done, Cantrell said.

“What I’m hearing is that there will be greater accountability. The people will then hold the chief accountable,” Cantrell said. “What people are feeling right now is that we’re not being very honest about our city in terms of its safety.”

Wednesday morning, though, we read that she's having second thoughts about it now. 

Cantrell's campaign turned down a request to interview the councilwoman about her idea. Her spokesman, David Winkler-Schmit, put some distance between the proposal and the candidate, saying Cantrell heard the idea from the community.

Asked if she was in favor of it, Winkler-Schmit said, "she did think about it and it's not something she can get behind because we have a crisis."

He added that Cantrell intends to appoint a new police chief if she is elected mayor. The idea of an elected police chief was floated to underscore Cantrell's view that the department needs accountability, he said.

Oh dear, "we have a crisis." All thoughtful discussion must cease until such time as the "crisis" has passed. If we ever determine what the crisis actually is, that is. One supposes they're saying they're concerned about the "crisis" that is our failing criminal justice system.  But, when it comes to police and public safety, policymakers most frequently invoke the word, "crisis," when they mean to short circuit debate over difficult problems and impose authoritarian solutions. It's typically the rhetoric of bullies, autocrats, and, yeah, active political candidates.

One bully, who happens to be John Georges's business partner, was granted space to publish a special guest column in John Georges's newspaper Tuesday. According to that guy, the crisis is that civil rights are not being violated fast enough to keep the "suspicious characters" off of his lawn. Maybe LaToya doesn't understand "crisis" in quite this way. Or maybe she does. Recall LaToya's aggressive statements in favor of Mitch Landrieu's "proactive" French Quarter surveillance scheme. That plan was announced over six months ago. Has the crisis gone on that long?  Maybe it never ends.

That would be convenient for mayoral candidates who don't want to stray too far outside of the conventional narrative.  Nobody wants to buck the paranoid trend during a crisis. Otherwise we might have to talk about the "crisis" facing the city's poorest victims of a criminal justice system this lawsuit claims is operating a "debtors' prison."

The lawsuit says that despite longstanding U.S. Supreme Court precedent that the government cannot imprison people just because they are poor, New Orleans officials routinely use jail and threats of jail to collect court debts from thousands of the city's poorest people. The result is an illegal, unconstitutional and unjust modern debtors' prison, the suit claims.

Among the officials named as defendants in the suit is Judge Harry Cantrell. He seems nice.

Cantrell routinely refuses to set bail below $2,500, regardless of the facts of a case or a defendant’s ability to pay, the suit claims. In most cases, the judge forces defendants to seek the services of a commercial bail bondsman, which in Orleans Parish charge a non-refundable 12-percent or 13-percent fee on the total bond amount.

“We don’t go any lower than $2,500 in this court,” Cantrell told one defendant’s attorney. “This court never goes any lower than $2,500,” he said in another case. “I don’t got any lower than $2,500 on my bonds,” he said in yet another. In one instance, he told a lawyer he was going to set bond at $2,500, regardless of what information the lawyer provided.

The suit provides examples of Cantrell threatening to hold defense attorneys in contempt of court for asking that their clients be released on their own recognizance, rather than on financial conditions. In one case, Cantrell pushes back against an attorney’s request by warning that he’ll revoke a previous release order for another of the attorney’s clients.

“Defense counsel is placed in the impossible position of having to weigh her own personal freedom against her obligation to advocate for her client’s constitutional right to a meaningful bail hearing,” the complaint says. “The threat of jail time in retaliation for an attorney’s basic oral advocacy would have a chilling effect on even the most zealous advocate and constitutes a gross abuse of authority.”

And, yes, that is LaToya's father in law. Over the next few months, we'll hear more about how unfair it would be for voters to take out any distaste they may have for his behavior on her. But, then again, when they're also being told that "there needs to be accountability" in the midst of a crisis, who knows if they'll have time to stop and parse all that out.

Always be privatizing

Nobody wants to privatize the Public Belt Railroad. 

Well... except for one party in particular.

Several board members, including board President Pro Tem David Schulingkamp and Kyle Wedberg, said that at this point, they are against moving toward selling the rail.

“I don’t know that anyone has presented in the initial valuation any logic on the sale that is compelling, and I don’t know that it’s even possible,” Wedberg said.

The board gave the study a 60-day timetable to be completed but with the potential of a sale being removed as one of the four outcomes being considered.

However, Ryan Berni, a longtime top aide to Mayor Mitch Landrieu, said after the meeting that the study would proceed with the four options. The city plans to foot the bill, which may cost up to $50,000.

Last time anyone checked in, the possible buyer was....

Questions about the railroad’s future have swirled for more than a year. Previously, Thomas Coleman, the former CEO of International Matex Tank Terminals, announced his interest in buying the Public Belt. Coleman is the father of Dathel Georges, who owns The Advocate along with her husband, John Georges.

Goatwatch

Will he or won't he?

New Orleans businessman and The Advocate owner John Georges continues to seriously mull a run for governor with just hours until qualifying ends.

Georges is out of the country, but has filled out the necessary paperwork to qualify and his attorney will file for him later today at the Secretary of State’s office should he decide to run, confirms pollster Verne Kennedy, who does polling for Georges. Earlier this week, Kennedy said Georges has no plans to enter the race.

“He initially said he is not running,” Kennedy tells Daily Report. “But he is reconsidering that now.”

Georges filing to run from "outside of the country" would be fun.  Not quite as fun as a candidate filing while under "house arrest" but we can't have everything, I guess.

"Right now no"

Raise the Goat Signal



John Georges has some polls he would like to tell you about.

On Wednesday morning in a text exchange with Gannett Louisiana, Georges remained coy.

“Right now no, but I’m getting lots of calls and yes, there is still time,” he texted.

Georges, 54, is chief executive of Georges Media, which owns The Advocate in Baton Rouge, the New Orleans Advocate and the Acadiana Advocate.

He also owns Imperial Trading in New Orleans, which he said is a $1.2 billion company, the related Harrison Co. in Bossier City, the legendary Galatoire’s restaurant and other businesses throughout the state and beyond.

Georges, who ran unsuccessfully as an independent in 2007, said his own polls show he could make the runoff.

“It’s ironic that eight years ago I decided to run when the polls showed I could not win and people did not want me to run,” Georges texted. “Now the polls have me in the runoff and in first place and people are calling for me to run ... What has happened after eight years of (Gov. Bobby) Jindal? Have I changed or have the voters?

“Today people understand the state’s budget is a huge problem and they feel an outsider is the only hope to overcome decades of special interest. It’s probably my time. I acknowledge what people are saying and believe me I am honored and humbled.”

Can we see those polls, please? Something isn't right here.  No, I don't mean the part about Georges running first... although that is dubious.  I'd like to see some numbers on whether or not people believe John Georges is in any way capable of being "humbled."

Amazingly, Georges talked about his humility in the same breath that he compared himself to Donald Trump.

Georges said he is fielding calls from Democrats and Republicans asking him to run and comparing him to Donald Trump.

“Democrats are calling because they don’t feel (state Rep. John Bel Edwards, D-Amite) is strong enough to defeat (Republican U.S. Sen. David) Vitter,” he continued. “Republicans are calling because they fear the PAC money will attack Vitter and knock him out.

“The business community is watching Donald Trump and believes a business person can be elected. Even the Times-Picayune would love me to run so they can poke fun at me.”

Yeah that would be fun. I wonder what the Advocate thinks. 

Anyway, he still says, "right now, no." But that phone is ringing.

Regular Election Season Preview

Preseason is ending.  This weekend, we.. slowly.. learned the final composition of the New Orleans Saints roster as they prepare to open regular season play next week. (Lots of rookies expected to start or play lots of snaps on defense this year. Yikes!)  This week coming we're going to learn the final roster of candidates in the fall elections.

Here are your important dates. The primary is October 24. If you need to register to vote, you have until Sepember 23.  If you are thinking about running for office, qualifying begins this Tuesday and ends Thursday. There may be some surprises next week. But, at the moment, this is your roster of candidates for Governor.

Public Service Commissioner Scott (T-Bobby) Angelle



Angelle worked in the Jindal Administration as head of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. Despite some effort to distance himself, his campaign has ties to Jindal's polling and fundraising infrastructure. He's seen by many as the current Governor's preferred successor.  This could be a liability, to say the least, with Jindal's statewide approval ratings sitting in the 20s and 30s these days.

In 2011, Angelle was the proud recipient of the "Blue Heron Award for Environmental Stewardship." That sounds nice. The award is handed out by the Louisiana Mid Continent Oil and Gas Association. Those guys really know their environmental stewards.

Aaron Viles, deputy director of the Gulf Restoration Network, questioned whether it is ever appropriate for an association to give an award to someone who oversees the regulation of its members.

"Mid Continent giving an environmental award to Scott Angelle is like GE giving a nuclear safety award to the leadership of Fukushima Prefecture," Viles said.

But Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who handed out the award, said in a statement that "Scott has been a warrior for our people and our coast."

"He has fought tirelessly to help get out people back to work after the federal government implemented a job-killing deepwater drilling moratorium and a de facto moratorium on shall water drilling," the governor said.

Heckuva job, T-Bobby.

Lieutenant Governor Jay Dardenne



Republican politics in Louisiana over the past decade has sometimes been described as kind of a three way turf battle between Jindal, Dardenne, and David Vitter.  To the extent that that's even true, Dardenne has been the minor player in it. It's probably more accurate to say that Dardenne has positioned himself as the anti-Jindal in terms of patronage and organization in Baton Rouge and Central Louisiana.  His beef with Vitter is more a default result of the fact that everyone has a beef with Vitter.

Still, Dardenne has substantial reach and name recognition. And his mild temperament allows him to be seen as something of a moderate alternative to the other Republicans even if this is not, strictly speaking, true. As Lt. Governor, he works closely with the tourism industry.  Expect him to call on support from friends there. He's also already pandering to the "Hollywood South" crowd despite the huge hole that program has eaten out of the state budget. (More on that in a bit.)

Dardenne also holds the distinction of being the only candidate to build a replica of the Poverty Point Native American historic site out of Mounds bars.

State Rep John Bel (Gomer) Edwards



You almost have to admire John Bel. He's come a long way during the preseason.  He began with certain strengths. He is a well respected leader among colleagues in the legislature. He's a veteran. And practically everyone in his family has been Sheriff of Tangipahoa Parish at some point. The Sheriff's Association still matters in Louisiana politics. Maybe not as much as it once did, but still.. nothing to sneeze at.

But he was also pretty much a no-name among voters statewide.

He's doing better now. Some polls over the summer even showed him leading the field. Edwards has done well to lock up endorsements from the state Democratic Party and Louisiana AFL-CIO early in the year before anyone else with a "D" behind his/her name could jump in the race. (More on that in a bit.)

He gives a pretty good stump speech. Here is Gambit's write-up of his appearance at this year's Jefferson-Jackson dinner in New Orleans. 

Edwards said the pressing issue on voters' minds going into the 2015 election is recovering from Jindal. And Jindal's not even on the ballot. But the party continues to link Republican candidates for governor to Jindal — in his speech, Edwards called his opponents "Jindal on steroids" (David Vitter), "Jindal Lite" (Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne) and "Jindal incarnate" (Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle). Former Gov. Kathleen Blanco, the last Democrat in the governor's mansion, introduced Edwards, whose supporters rang yellow bells with blue handles throughout his speech and at any mention of his name throughout the event.

Gomer rolls out that "Jindal Lite, Jindal Incarnate, Jindal On Steroids" line everywhere he goes. It must be working at least a little bit. At the JJ dinner he also worked in a shot at David Vitter. "100% of the voters know who Senator Vitter is. I'm not sure he can overcome that."

Speaking of which...

US Senator David Vitter




Presumptive front runner and eventual Governor unless something drastic happens.  Nobody likes him at all and yet nobody has any idea how to beat him.  Vitter is a smart, resourceful, and ruthless campaigner. He also has something like $9 million to spend between his campaign and supporting super PAC funds.  He's consistently polled ahead of the pack, or in the top two. It's impossible to imagine Vitter not at least being in the runoff.

Biscuit 4 Louisiana 



Fake Twitter account ostensibly managed by a housecat. Biscuit nonetheless poses a semi-viable alternative to most of the other candidates on the slate.  Thus far in his political career, he has stood against the reelection campaigns of Bobby Jindal in 2011 and Mitch Landrieu in 2014 on the grounds that he was at least as serious a candidate as any other challenger those years.  His platform mostly involves pointing out terrible policy choices his opponents might make and declaring that, instead of doing any of those things, he would probably nap or play with some string or some such.  Barely campaigns. Has no money, organization, or experience.  But please don't call him an underdog because.. well..

Mystery Last Minute Entrant?



Oh my God who could it possibly be!

As sort of a warm-up last week, the candidates participated in two pre-season forums. The first was something called a "Students Ask" forum Wednesday night in "Downtown Hammond."  Candidates answered questions posed by a panel of college students.  The other was a business community sponsored event at the Jazz Market on Friday.  David Vitter only participated in the second forum.  Like preseason football games, they were meh events. But we did learn a few things.

On Wednesday, one interesting question about coastal restoration came from a North Louisiana student.  In our part of the state, voters typically ask the candidates how quickly we can get moving with plans to meet the most serious existential challenge we face. But the way this young lady phrased it was, "Am I going to have to pay higher taxes to fund coastal projects."  It almost sounded, in other words, like "Why should I even care?" So that's one political obstacle to saving South Louisiana from the sea. North Louisiana doesn't care whether we do or not.

Another obstacle, we already know about. No one is willing to hold the oil and gas industry accountable for the destruction it has wrought. Gomer is the only candidate talking even a semi-OK game in that regard. At the students forum he said, "We cannot allow (oil and gas) to be immunized from paying their fair share." Sounds pretty good.  I'm wary of such statements, though, because "fair share" is such an intentionally vague phrasing.

The other candidates are even more timid in that they do everything they can to avoid linking coastal loss with oil exploration at all. At the business forum, Vitter even suggested the best way to make the industry pay their "fair share" is to promise never to make them pay.

Vitter, in sharp contrast, called for greater limits on those kinds of lawsuits to create a better investment climate in Louisiana.

One of the people in the audience was Loulan Pitre, a former state representative from Lafourche Parish who has created a political action committee with former shipbuilder Boysie Bollinger that is seeking to elect legislative candidates who will support Vitter’s view.

Other tidbits from the Students Ask forum: 

Dardenne and Angelle seem to be under the impression that black people all over the country are killing police and not the other way around. Angelle views nationwide protest against police violence as "folks turning against the badge," while Dardenne said, "It's tragic to see police being killed all over the country."  It was disappointing to watch Edwards avoid countering any of this poison. Instead he talked about how proud he is that pretty much everybody in his family is a Sheriff of one thing or another.

T-Bobby's primary message at the Wednesday night forum was that he has lots and lots of children and grandchildren.  Also he sometimes says things in French. A major tenet of his platform is about constructing a large electronic plaque that blinks "CATHOLIC CAJUN PERSON" for him to wear around his neck on a chain. 

The candidates had to answer one obligatory stupid question about which actor would play them in a movie. Dardenne says he wants to be Dustin Hoffman. We were all crushed that he didn't say Rowan Atkinson.

And of course, at the students' forum, they all talked about TOPS and what a shame it is that there's no money for things like TOPS anymore.

There was also some talk about cuts to the state employee retirement program and what a shame it is that there's no money for retirees anymore.  If you've been following along in recent years, you'd know Jindal destroyed a well run Office of Group Benefits in order to satisfy an ideological canard and, of course, hook up some cronies in the process.

Jay Dardenne must not have been watching any of that. His response more or less sent the following message to retirees affected by the boondoggle.





Anyway with all the talk about responsible belt tightening, you'd think the candidates could also agree on plugging up some of our more serious budget holes.  According to this Advocate special report last November, state "tax incentive" giveaways to various special interests have increased from $207.8 million to $1.08 billion (!) per year over the past decade.   These giveaways include oil and gas drilling tax rebates, the state inventory tax reimbursement the infamous "Hollywood South" tax credit program.

At the Jazz Market forum, though, only Edwards said anything against any of those three big budget holes.

Edwards, the only Democrat in the race, gave an answer that the sponsors probably didn’t appreciate. He said the Legislature and Gov. Bobby Jindal have cut spending during the past seven years and that taking a bite out of the business tax breaks was necessary to help balance the budget and stave off the possible bankruptcy of LSU’s main campus in Baton Rouge.

“For one year, we reduced some tax expenditures on a temporary basis,” Edwards said, adding that the Legislature and governor ought to limit the cost of tax breaks and how long they can remain in effect.

Edwards added that the revenue raised from curtailing some tax breaks by 28 percent helped pay for the operation of the big New Orleans hospital that opened a month ago.

This morning's Advocate reports that next year's budget already projects at least $700 million in deficit.  The next Governor and Legislature will have to choose between even further cuts to higher education and health care or patching the gaping hole in the budget due to corporate welfare. This question should be the central theme of this election.  Right now, Gomer is the only candidate who even acknowledges it.

The good news there is, should Gomer make the runoff as most polls suggest he will, the election will at that point be about a serious contrast in policy choices.  That's the sort of thing that makes for a compelling race, and maybe even a closer race than conventional wisdom suggests.

So despite the slow start, this could end up being a fun election season later on when... oh wait a sec. Almost forgot about this.



The late hour chatter this weekend suggests there might be a shake-up coming.

Recall early August when Video Poker and Newspaper Kingpin John Georges paid for a poll that.. for some reason.. also included his name as sort of a bonus question. 

The poll was partially funded by John Georges, a New Orleans businessman who co-owns The Advocate and ran for governor in 2007.

Kennedy included Georges’ name in the poll, asking only if the person was aware of his name and had an opinion about him.

“Currently, I have no plans to run for public office but I would never rule that out,” Georges wrote in an email. “I have included my name recognition and favorability in every poll since owning The Advocate to gauge public opinion on the things I am doing. I cannot see a scenario that I would run but I am flattered. I believe the field of candidates will not change.”

Let's just say that a lot of people aren't buying that right now. 

That poll was released amid a flurry of intrigue last month. My guess is most of it was purposed toward promoting Angelle. In addition to Georges, other names were floated as potential candidates. Mayor Landrieu and City Councilman Jason Williams were rumored to be considering it. 

This was strange since the only thing an extra Democrat in the race could do at this point is ensure that zero Democrats make the runoff. So any Democrat who jumps in now has to know that's what he/she is going to accomplish. The tradeoff for this, traditionally, is the spoiler candidate is either straight up bought off or gets to build some statewide name recognition and momentum to use later on. It's hard to see either of those things motivating Georges.  But there are other incentives.

For instance, it could also be that the realpolitkers in the State Democratic Party are thinking they need to submarine Gomer now in order to keep Vitter from taking the runoff in a cakewalk.  They don't think Edwards, or any Democrat can beat Vitter so they'd rather take their chances with a Republican of their choosing.  Anybody but Vitter, right?



Plus there are plenty enough prominent Democratic party insiders and donors in Louisiana who, thanks to their specific business interests would be as happy if not happier with Angelle as Governor than Edwards. John Georges is one such person.

Recall also that, when Geoges's poll was released, Clancy Dubos made the strange choice to report it in such a way that made it appear as though Angelle was surging and Edwards was falling behind.  The veteran reporter chose to leave this impression despite a rather obvious aberration in the numbers he decided to highlight.

Those percentages reflect the straight-up answers to direct questions. If the numbers are calculated for how voters in various demographics actually cast ballots, then the results change.

“My understanding of the poll is that I am in first place, with Vitter and Angelle tied in second place,” Edwards said Friday.

Kennedy’s poll showed when African-American responses are redistributed along historical voting patterns, a common technique used by pollsters, then Edwards’ support comes in at 34 percent, while Angelle and Vitter each have 21 percent. Dardenne and the “undecideds” are at 12 percent.

So why did Clancy write it the way he did? He tried to explain himself a few days later.

When Kennedy’s poll leaked out last week, I reported only the “raw” and “leaner” numbers because I was not trying to project the results forward. Think of it this way: A poll is like a photograph. It reflects voter attitudes and opinions at a particular point in time. Over time, the picture usually changes — especially when candidates start spending money and attacking one another. A poll, therefore, is not a crystal ball that predicts the outcome of an election. It merely shows where the candidates are at a particular moment during the campaign.


In not reporting the redistributed numbers, I didn’t intend to discount the validity of Kennedy’s analysis, nor did I intend to slight Edwards. However, when the redistributed numbers began circulating, people wondered why where were such different results from the same poll. I hope this explanation helps.

I don't know if that helps.  If anything it adds to the suspicion that Clancy knew exactly what he was doing when he reported the numbers the way he did. 

All of this suggests that Angelle is the candidate a lot of establishment pols and donors including John Georges (and possibly Clancy Dubos) like the most. If Georges jumps into the race this week.. and, again, a whole bunch of people seem to think this could happen... that is most likely the reason for it.

Or it could be we get through Qualifying Week with no extra drama to speak of.  In which case, these are the candidates we're stuck with.  That is, unless Biscuit comes up with the entrance fee by before Thursday.  Anybody got an extra $750 he can borrow?

Update:  Not long after I published this, I heard that Georges might not run after all.  This doesn't change anything about the dynamics and motivations described here, though. 

"Monitoring"

Oh dear

New Orleans businessman and newspaper owner John Georges has no current plans to run for Louisiana governor, but refused to rule out a 2015 campaign entirely during an interview with The Monroe News-Star.

"I'd rather not say one way or another. Right now I don't have plans to run, but I don't think it's too late," said Georges, when asked directly about whether he would enter the gubernatorial race this year.

This might be too much excitement. Our Governor's race already has Gomer, Mr. Bean, T-Bobby, and Vitty Cent.  Please don't make us add Goat Boy. I don't think we could take that. 

Quarter monopoly

NOLA.com: Napoleon House sold to Ralph Brennan

Great. Another damn Brennan-owned French Quarter establishment.  Brennan says he doesn't want to change anything. I hope that's true. Despite its obvious touristy quality, there was still a decided lack of pretentiousness about the place. (Also, Menckles and I got married there five years ago. It was by a wide margin the only affordable venue in the Quarter for losers like us to have an event like that.)

In related events, John Georges is cutting other local plutocrats in on his Galatoire's racket.

This week, that group added two high-profile members, with Louisiana
shipbuilding magnate Donald “Boysie” Bollinger and banker John C.
Simpson becoming minority owners.

John Georges, majority owner of the historic restaurant and
publisher of The Advocate, sold 10 percent of his ownership in
Galatoire’s to the two men, according to a statement from Galatoire’s
released Monday.

The 10 percent stake includes an interest in the related Galatoire’s
 Bistro in Baton Rouge and in Galatoire’s 33 Bar & Steak, located
adjacent to the original Bourbon Street restaurant, as well as “in any
future endeavors involving the Galatoire’s ownership group,” according
to the statement.

Bollinger is the chairman and chief executive officer of Bollinger
Enterprises and the former chairman and CEO of Bollinger Shipyards Inc.
Simpson is chairman of Alexandria-based Red River Bank.

Someday we'll learn who wins the big game of French Quarter Monopoly they're all playing. The winner gets to build his own Iconic hotel on the Moonwalk.

Throw me something, Wisnah

It's Carnival time and the mayor is throwing out trinkets.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu on Monday unveiled the list of local groups receiving Edward Wisner grants this year, apparently signaling the status quo remains in place for the contested piece of coastal real estate that has produced the revenue for Wisner grants going back decades.

More than 60 organizations, ranging from the Louisiana Children’s Museum to St. Augustine High School, will share about $1.2 million this year.

Back in September the Wisner heirs fighting to maintain control of the land trust that produces these grants lost rather decisively to the city in court but are still holding out hope that the State Supreme Court will take up their appeal.

The Advocate doesn't list all of this year's recipients but the city's website does if you are interested.

If there are further details as to the amounts distributed, they aren't posted in an obvious place. As you can see from the list, though, this money (however much of it might be waste or patronage or wasted patronage or whatever) actually does a lot of good.  Which is one reason the thought that the city might sell this golden goose is concerning.

Some of the heirs have said they worry Landrieu will simply sell off the land, part of which holds Port Fourchon, a hub for vessels serving offshore rigs.

The proceeds of such a sale would presumably be split among all of the beneficiaries that get a cut of the land’s proceeds today, including the city, Tulane University, the Salvation Army, LSU and a collection of some 50 different individuals. But the land would be gone as a regular source of income.

The mayor so far has not made any moves in that direction, although he said Monday that his administration is in the middle of evaluating how much the land is really worth.

He compared it to the Public Belt Railway, another city property that Landrieu has said he would be willing to at least consider selling. “I’m going to make sure that asset is valued correctly,” he said.

Like the Public Belt, it's not an easy asset to value.  For instance, it might depend on how many Georges family members are interested in buying. 

There's also the problem of just how long term an investment in land in that area really stands to run. Now might, in fact, be the time to get out of that sinking plot.

Seems like a cunning plan

Step One: Identify a city asset that is neither drains nor produces revenue.

The Public Belt Railroad, created in 1904, was designed to put all the tracks feeding the city’s ports under a single, public entity. The railroad — unique in that it is owned by a city government — owns and is responsible for about 100 miles of track and the Huey P. Long Bridge over the Mississippi River in Jefferson Parish.

The agency does not receive any taxpayer money or pay any money to the city. It is funded by revenue from the railroads that use the tracks.

Step Two: To quote Ray Nagin, "sell that sucker" off and put it back into commerce because, according to the Gospel of Aspen, privatization is always better.

Although the letter does not cite a specific price, it says the sale would allow the railroad to have access to money needed for improvements while providing an “immediate and significant cash infusion to invest back into basic city services, as well as ongoing tax revenues on property currently untaxed.”

Step Three: Identify a buyer through the usual transparent and above-the-board public bidding process.

A sale of the railroad likely would need the approval of both the board and the City Council. It also likely would require a public bid process.

Wait.. hold up.  Buyer already identified himself back before Step One even happened. He's pretty well vetted, though. 

The proposal to sell the Public Belt was sparked by interest from Thomas Coleman, a New Orleans businessman who served for four decades as the CEO of International-Matex Tank Terminals, a company — owned by his family until last year — that runs terminals and storage facilities in Louisiana and other states and a rail line in New Jersey.

Coleman is the father of Dathel Georges, who owns The New Orleans Advocate along with her husband, John Georges.

Anyway, Step Four is Profit!

(Ronnie Virgets Voice) Your New Orleans Advocate It's like the iPhone of newspapers

Not sure which is the best quote from this John Georges event to pull so I guess the part where he says he is "disrupting" the newspaper business is the default.

“It’s good to have outsiders,” Georges said, calling himself a “disruptor” of the traditional newspaper game. Georges pointed out that the people who created the now-defunct Palm Pilot personal digital assistant didn’t understand Steve Jobs’ concept for the iPhone and dismissed it out of hand, adding quickly, “I’m not saying I’m at his level.”

So I guess that makes him a "dangerous person" of the not-internet.

Georges said other things that make even less sense. Go read the rest.

Meanwhile, journalism is dying

We keep hearing about how there's no money for journalism or to pay journalists.  Thank goodness there's enough to build a Crystal Palace for the King of Louisiana, though.

King Of All Louisiana Media

John Georges buys four Baton Rouge area local weeklies.

The Advocate is acquiring four weekly newspapers to increase its coverage of the Baton Rouge area as it continues to expand across south Louisiana.

The papers are the Zachary Plainsman-News in Zachary, The Watchman in East Feliciana Parish, The St. Francisville Democrat in West Feliciana Parish and The St. Helena Echo in Greensburg.
The terms of the agreement between Capital City Press — the parent company of The Advocate — and Louisiana State Newspapers weren’t disclosed.

The sale of the four newspapers includes the assets of their websites and a free “shopper” publication, the Zachary Plainsman-Xtra.

Advocate Publisher John Georges, who bought Capital City Press in 2013, said the move builds upon the company’s strategy to give advertisers and readers more options for local news, in print and online. The Advocate recently upgraded its weekly publications in Ascension and Livingston parishes and started a weekly Southside Advocate in a section of East Baton Rouge Parish.

In order to further expand coverage, Georges is looking into several BR area church bulletins and probably one of those papers that runs people's mugshots soon as well.  

John Georges supports the troops

Tom Aswell speculates an Advocate editorial thanking the State Police for beating up Shamarr Allen protecting New Orleans this summer is really more about John Georges looking to butter up State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson.

Certainly the timing of the editorial had nothing to do with the controversy swirling around the secretive passage of an obscure Senate bill during the last day of the recent legislative session that proved financially beneficial to Edmonson.

And certainly it had nothing to do with the fact that Advocate publisher John Georges wants to keep Edmonson happy because Georges holds a majority ownership in seven firms which provide video gambling machines and other services to gambling establishments—and because Edmonson oversees gaming through the State Gaming Control Board chaired by Ronnie Jones who served as Edmonson’s confidential assistant prior to his appointment to the Gaming Control Board. He is still listed as Edmonson’s confidential assistant on the State Police web page even though Jones says he resigned from that position last August.

Okay, maybe.  But it's going a bit far to say the Advocate has swept the business about Edmonson's retirement under the rug.  It's not a difficult story to find in their archives.  Although, there is this prior Editorial blurb that more or less just says everything is OK.  I was looking to post a Gill column which was more critical of Edmonson but it's not currently accessible on the site.

Whatever the reason, Georges' paper is thanking the troopers. And that seems dubious enough as it is.

Guess Mitch pretty much has to run now

It's the only thing that can save us from this foolishness.

"I have no plans to run for governor, but I wouldn't rule it out," Georges told LaPolitics.com in an excerpt of an interview slated to be published in full Wednesday (Feb. 26). "I would only consider running if (New Orleans Mayor Mitch) Landrieu didn't run and if (state Rep.) John Bel (Edwards, D-Amite) didn't catch on."

In case you were wondering, John Bel Edwards is not catching on.   I wonder if maybe this phrasing isn't Georges's way of publicly nudging Mitch into the race a little bit.