BATON ROUGE -- Donors contributed nearly $2 million to pay for Gov. Bobby Jindal's transition expenses and inaugural festivities before he moved into the Governor's Mansion.
Jindal, a Republican, released a list Tuesday of the latest round of donors, showing $541,954 in contributions raised from Dec. 16 through Jan. 14. Nearly $1.4 million was raised from Oct. 21 through Dec. 15, according to a previous report. More than 300 companies or individuals gave money to the new governor's transition organization.
However, in the list provided to the media Tuesday evening, it was difficult to determine exactly how those dollars were spent.
The release provided by the Jindal administration included a list of people and vendors who received payments totaling $354,920 from the last month of activities, but it doesn't describe what the spending covered. A similar list documenting $223,670 in expenses was released last month, lacking a similar level of specifics.
The list also doesn't offer any clue as to how much the three days of inaugural events, which culminated with Monday's swearing-in ceremony, may have cost.
Jindal spokeswoman Melissa Sellers said in an e-mail that the inauguration events were estimated to cost "a few hundred thousand" dollars, and she said more invoices would be coming in for payment, but she offered no other details. She didn't return a call for comment on Tuesday.
It was unclear how much money may remain in the transition organization account, though the documents provided so far left more than $1.3 million unaccounted for in spending. Another report would be released next month with remaining expenses and contributions, the governor's office said.
Though there is no legal limit on the size of contributions, Jindal capped his donations at $10,000 per donor, the same self-imposed limit set by former Gov. Kathleen Blanco four years earlier.
Among those who donated the maximum in the latest report were: Altria Corporate Services Inc., Bayou Health Care LLC, Central Crude, CH2M Hill Inc., Dave Roberts, Elanco Animal Health Dista Products Company, Gary and Beth Chumley, Helis Oil & Gas Company LLC, Innovative Emergency Management Inc., Joseph M. Bruno, LLB Consulting Inc., Louisiana Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Association, Michael and Leslie McGuire, Robert Bruno, Ronald A. Goux, Settoon Towing LLC, SSH Management LLC, and Tammany Holding Corp.
For the record, I'm really not very enthusiastic about nitpicking and Dragonslaying. But what we have here is something very like David Vitter and his hookers. It wouldn't matter one bit if he wasn't such a pompous ass about "family values." This is the governor who campaigned against "even the appearance of impropriety" so I think he should be held to the standard he demagogues. Louisianians should demand to know what happened to every cent of this money. Local Dragonslaying publications like the T-P and Gambit should be watching each of these donors and reporting on what stake they have in the new governor's policy decisions.
Somehow I'm betting that all we'll get is unmitigated praise for Jindal's heroic stoppage of the nefarious football ticket fund though.
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