The Home Stretch. Vote for Roy.
The election is less than a week away, and during this final week, I think it’s important for us to remember what we’re voting for and what, in my opinion, we should be voting against.
When I first began blogging back in March, other bloggers and concerned citizens sent me letters with information about consulting companies, backdoor ordinances, and insider deals. Granted, we bloggers are known to suffer from a healthy amount of paranoia, and some of this material was more innocuous than they first thought.
However, where there is smoke, there is fire.
In my humble opinion, in the course of an election, it’s not negative to tell the public about an opponent’s professional record; it’s informative. It provides an insight into the way our local government currently operates.
Have we all forgotten this? Why is it rude, at this point, to remind people about the issues? When a candidate lies to the public why is it that our first inclination is to kill the messenger? (And we’re not talking about a little white lie. We’re talking about a lie that goes to the core of a candidate’s ability to operate with a governing body that must be dealt with on a daily basis).
I understand: We like our campaigns to be polite. But friends, at one point does our desire to be polite impede on the public’s right to know the truth?
We deserve a government that believes in and practices honesty and transparency.
Let’s really talk about this.
Is it okay for the mayor’s chief of staff to create an acquisition company to place a six-figure bid on a government-sponsored relocation contract? (And doesn’t this at least deserve a thorough explanation?)
The chief of staff and the city attorney’s wife BOTH bid on a contract to be decided by a board in which four out of five members are appointed by the mayor. How is this fair?
During the past twenty years, Alexandria has undergone a number of positive changes, and yet, we continue to recycle the same consultants, lawyers, insurance salesmen, and engineers.
Unfortunately, most people aren’t paying attention, and of those who do, some (even those who express the best intentions) are still complicit in the enterprise. Why? Because during those twenty years, these consultants, lawyers, insurance salesmen, and engineers aren’t just business partners; they’ve become friends.
If Alexandria is to take advantage of our growing economy, we must look toward young, fresh, and unconnected leadership. As much as people want to discount the Town Talk’s endorsement, there’s a good reason they selected Jacques Roy. Mr. Roy met with their editorial board for two hours, answering very specific questions and accounting for his vision of Alexandria’s future. They selected him, because he presented a clear plan, not just a series of talking points and abstractions, and he demonstrated his committment.
During this election, Jacques Roy has been the only candidate to really tackle the issue of smart growth. Campaigns can make promises about cleaning up crime and revitalizing our downtown, but without clear principles and a plan to accommodate for our growth, Alexandria will continue down the same path– disconnected, disjointed, and inefficient.
After my initial endorsement of Jacques, I’ve shied away from blogging about his candidacy, but with less than a week away, I want to share some of the things I’ve learned during his campaign.
First, Jacques has always been approachable, willing to listen, and willing to answer the most difficult questions. I have listened to Jacques campaign at block parties, coffee shops, music events, restaurants, and living rooms throughout our community.
But don’t just take my word for it. Ask others who attended these events. Ask Robert Randow, a local musician, who was so impressed by Jacques’ enthusiasm and honesty during an event at the House of Java, that he wrote a letter about it to The Town Talk. People who otherwise felt disinterested and disenfranchised, particularly young professionals, from our government are now speaking out and taking an active interest.
On a personal level, no one has promised me anything, and I do not expect anything. No one has ever told me what to write, for better or worse.
I support Jacques Roy, because I recognized, from the first letter he sent me in early July, that he truly wants good government. And I know what my naysayers will say: That I’m star-eyed and naive, that I’m too close to Jacques to have an objective perspective. Perhaps these are valid criticisms, but it doesn’t make them relevant.
Let me make this clear: I simply want what is best for our community. (I’ve never claimed to have all of the answers, but after reading and writing about Alexandria every single day for five months, I think I have a good handle on the issues). In two years, it’s possible I’ll be in graduate school. Contrary to the opinions of some, I do not have a vested financial interest in any candidate. My immediate family has not donated a dime to any political candidate. And after a lengthy due diligence period on the downtown Weiss and Goldring building, my family’s company has decided to move onto other projects (primarily, improving our existing inventory). As many of you may know, my two objectives are to reopen Bringhurst Golf Course as a non-profit and to create a truly independent press. That’s it.
I hope that my opinion will be read for what it is: That of someone motivated and inspired by the opportunity for change, someone who has carefully followed this campaign, someone dismayed by the insider deals, the lies, the consulting contracts, and the lack of transparency, and someone willing to speak out, even if it means catching a lot of anonymous grief.
CenLamar 
WELL SAID.
Openness is the key to democracy, something that I deeply cherish. What we seem to be forgetting in this race is that the public has a right to know truths concerning the candidates. No matter what side you are on. If the candidates want any respect for their positions, they need to be open about what they have done and be accountable for past actions.
I find that people want to treat this election as if many events are part of national security. There are things that shouldn’t be discussed, nor should they be brought up in polite company. That fact is that Brewer’s, or Roy’s or Sams’ or Fuller’s, past is an integral part of the decision making process. The Housing Authority deal and the lies are a major reason I cannot side with her. Nor do I feel comfortable reading the postings of Scarlett and others who constantly try to act on the sly. It sickens me.
I wonder if roy’s negative campaigning might not come back to haunt him?
You go guy!
I am somewhat troubled by his complete lack of experience.
You mean that you are troubled by his complete lack of experience WITHIN THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION.
Personally, I am encouraged by this, because Jacques represents a real chance at cleaning house and effecting change.
Hey Lamar,
Can you put up with one English teacher’s pedantic correction? (This is only prompted because it’s such a rare departure from your usual high standards of writing!)
In your second paragraph, the sentence beginning,”Granted, us bloggers…” should begin, “Granted, we bloggers…” As you know, the subject of a sentence is in the nominative case, not the objective case.
Thanks for allowing me this OCD moment–occupational hazard for those in my profession. I read and enjoy your blog frequently.
Haha. You’re right. My bad!!
What has been negative about Mr. Roy’s mail-outs? They’ve told the truth, and I’m thankful he has the courage to stand up to Brewer’s claims.
Tomorrow will be an interesting day for Roy and his supporters. I challenge you to say the same about the truths that are about to be told about him. I have a feeling you’ll think that’s negative. But I will be here to remind you that it’s simply the truth. Can’t wait.
Reality check? How do you anticipate verifying or validating the “truths” that the Brewer camp will release tomorrow?
Are they just hearsay, or do you have it on KALB so the people can make their own observation?
Get ready for a lesson on the way this Swine-heart guy from Florida campaigns.
It’s late in the campaign, and the other side is finally asking the right questions about Brewer’s lies and family deals. So what to do?
Why not spread rumors and implications about the Roy’s PERSONAL life? Textbook dirty campaigning.
Show us how desperate you are, Swiney. Show the people of Alexandria how you advise a candidate who lies, attempts to use her connections to score a lucrative contract, and pretends like she had no idea her own husband was doing business with the housing authority.
Better yet how her husband got appointed to the Alexandria Regional Port Authority!!!!
Court documents and other public records obtained through professional 3rd party research. You’ll see.
will this third party actually be professional and release all information concerning these public records? or will they be selective? will they pretend like they’re not associated with brewer?
or will it just be the same type of slimy, one-sided b.s. that brewer’s people write on the blogs?
Brewer has benefited from the Roy sling. If she trys to out-do him she will go from the moral high ground to the trenches and her campaign will die there.
She will re-read this post on November 1st and curse her advisors.
What????? You think people are saying “Aww, poor Delores Brewer. She got called out on a lie. Shame on Roy.”??????
Doubtful. The only people really upset are the bluebloods and friends of Delores Brewer. The rest of us have some perspective on this. We remember the headline stories from three months ago!
i wonder if the delores supporters really have a bomb they plan to drop today, or it’s just their usual BS.
I feel Roy is beign negative but that is just my opinion.
I’m sure the Delores camp has something relevant like his lawsuits or that time he stole gum from his brother when he was 7.
Sadly, it is true. I have 3rd party sources and court documents that tell me Mr. Roy stole gum over 20 years ago. And then he lied about it. How can we have a mayor with such a checkered past?
I can see it now.
“Mayor Roy lies to city council about not having anymore gum.” Quote Mayor Roy: “It was just a figure of speech, I just did not have any gum… on my person.”
“Mayor Roy gives city contracts for gumball machines to wife.”
“Mayor Roy and Bridgett Brown squabble over piece of Hubba Bubba.”
Can’t we just elect someone with a checkered present?
Just got a mail piece on J. Roy. Ouch! Says drunk drivers are dangerous and that’s why the police take them off the streets, puts many in jail, etc. It says Roy sued multiple times on behalf of DWI offenders to get their drivers’ licenses back so they could get back on the road. Says we don’t need a mayor who’s done that.
Ouch. The truth hurts.
Real check,
2 questions:
1) Did you really just get that mail piece?
2) Did it really hurt?
Expect a measured and proper response from Jacques Roy later this week to be placed on his website, proving this latest mail-out concerning DWIs to be yet another “misspeak” (at best) in at least three different ways.
He will also have a thorough response regarding any litigation with public bodies, including the City of Alexandria.
He is proud of his record as an attorney– and consistent with his committment to absolute transparency– will share the details of any case involving a public body with all of you.
Delores Brewer would not be running for Mayor had she been successful in the manipulation to have her position as Capitol Projects Director established under Civil Service. Just think, she could have saddled succeeding administrations with this position and have job security with benefits of retirement until death although not at $136,000.00 per year which was her next futile attempt.
Delores Brewer engineered through the Council an appraisal deal for her brother-in-law, David, who had become a newly licensed appraiser and needed work. This deal was to appraise the baseball property across from Cabrini Hospital as a part of trying to sell that property to Cabrini. This was surreptiously done through an arrangement with an appraiser in Lafayette to give the appearance of being arms length or without connection. It weren’t so!
Great job Lamar !!!
jaques roy is the scum of the earth
I don’t know who Jaques Roy is, but Jacques Roy is definitely not the scum of the earth.
He is scum for keeping the voters informed of governmental inpropriety? More like “salt of the earth” it would seem.
That is a LIE about delores trying to get her job declared civil service. Also a lie about a supposed deal for her brother in law re: ballpark and Cabrini. She and her brother in law have NOTHING at all to do with that property. Just ridiculous! No truth whatsoever! Roy camp claims DB people are making up stuff. But in reality, that is what Roy camp is doing. Desperate people do desperate things! Wake up voters! Do the right thing and cast your votes for DB!
Is it a lie that David Brewer did the appraisal for the StarTek building?
The only scummy thing is putting either of them down. I know Delores and Jacques both personally and they are both great people.
I happen to know it is NOT a lie that he did the appraisal for the StarTek building – I personally saw it.
Is it a lie that her husband was appointed to the Alexandria Regional Port Authority and that he is still on that Authority serving as a commissioner? Is it a lie that the power over the Port was transferred after the Port Authority was established legislatively from the City of Alexandria and the City Council to the Alexandria Regional Port Authority? I don’t think so!
Only question left to answer is this – who does John Brewer represent? One of the 5 city appointees or is he the Rapides Parish appointee?
Geez, even more fodder for the Roy campaign. It should be very clear to Alexandria that Delores Brewer, although she’s a woman, is still just a good ol’ boy.
Jacque is a buff-head who drinks too much. Hardly what you want to represent this city.
I gotta know what a buff-head is? Please elaborate.
jacques simply started out to late. he will come close, but not close enough.
Anyone see the new Roy commercial this morning during Jambalaya and Today Show? It is a direct hit on Delores, John and David Brewer regarding contracts with the Housing Authority. Points out that Delores tried to get a fat contract, John Brewer sells insurance to the Housing Authority (true) and David Brewer has done some kind of work as well. Though supposedly none of that is against the law, it doesn’t pass the smell test for most people. I think this is gonna hurt her campaign.
If Roy truly is for smart growth I will change my mind and vote for him. Does he understand what “smart growth” means? Right now we don’t have a lot of ugly suburban sprawl in Alexandria, but we are headed in that direction. Hwy 28 west is starting to look like one strip mall and cookie-cutter subdivision after another.
Yes, Jacques Roy understands what smart growth means. He’d like to employ principles of new urbanism and models of growth used in similarly-sized cities to effectively manage our city’s growth.
He writes about it extensively on his website: http://www.jacquesroyformayor.com
And yeah what is a buff-head? Heheh. You obviously don’t know Mr. Roy at all.
To Biff, don’t buy the Magginis stuff. He was fed old information from the Brewer campaign for his latest Political Fax Weekly. After writing in early September that Jacques’ timing was perfect, Magginnis suddently retracted his position. Why?
Because he was fed this Verne Kennedy poll taken BEFORE Jacques had even entered the race, way back in July, the one that had Delores at 38%.
Magginnis should have really done a better job checking his facts. Second time this year he’s pulled a stunt like this.
lamar, i certainly realized how stale the numbers were that magginis used. also, he said jacques got into the race the day before qualifying. it wasn’t magginis’ proudest momemt. as i have been saying for quite some time delores is in free fall. and the latest fliers and commercials roy has sent/run are just burying her. unless she can come up with a skeleton of her own, and SOON, she is gonna finish in fourth place.
Wonder if Maginnis will have a different spin on the Alex. Mayor’s race in this Friday’s Fax Weekly. I would hope camps such as Roy’s or that business group get him some better poll numbers. Cause he seems clueless about the momentum and support Roy gained.
Biff, yeah not his proudest moment.
I also hope Maginnis will get his information updated for Friday.
Mr. Reality Check,
When you get a DWI, generally you hire an attorney to represent you in any further proceedings. The first hearing is usually an administrative hearing where an administrative law judge decides whether, based on the facts before him, the driver, who has not been convicted of any crime, is entitled to have his drivers license returned to him/her. The attorney presents the facts to the judge and the judge makes the decision. The lawyer never sues anyone to get the license back. His job is simply to present the case in a light most favorable to his client and let the judge make the decision.
Thus, Mrs. Brewer’s first piece of mail was a misstatement of fact. If the mail would have said that Jacques Roy representing a person accused of driving under the influence and persuaded a judge to return to the accused his drivers license, then it would have been a correct statement of the facts. And I do not think that Mr. Roy would be embarrased by this fact, since an attorney has an ethical obligation to represent his client to the best of his ability. Remember, at this stage in the “DWI process,” the client has not yet even been convicted of any crime. I sincerely hope that you would not criticize an attorney for doing what he took an oath prior to being admitted to the Louisiana Bar Association.
Excuse me Mr. Reality Check, I noticed a grammatical error. I meant to say the following in paragraph 2:
“If that mailout would have said that Jacques Roy represented a person accused of driving under the influence of alcohol and succeded in persuading a judge to return the accused’s drivers license, then it would have been a correct statement of the facts.”
One more error:
The last sentence should read that “I sincerely hope thay you would not criticize an attorney for doing what he took an oath to do prior to being admitted to the Louisiana Bar Association.”
OK. I’ll be sure to tell Swinehart to write it that way and send another piece out on that subject.
The only way for Dolres to counter Jacques “negative” truths about her is to put out lies about him.
It appears that you can blast anyone you want here except Roy and he is immediately defended by the moderator. Which makes it very clear to me that the blog about Bolton was started to blast Sams. It is evident that Lamar doesn’t give a damn about anything except promoting his blog and helping his friends.
It appears that you can blast anyone you want here except Roy and he is immediately defended by the moderator. Which makes it very clear to me that the blog about Bolton was started to blast Sams. It is evident that Lamar doesn’t give a damn about anything except promoting his blog and helping his friends.
Anonymous 4:06PM Whhaaaaa???
I started the thread about Bolton after reading in the newspaper that its enrollment was down to 603. Plain and simple.
I had no idea about its trials and tribulations, the people who had transferred out, and the in-fighting, because I was living in Houston at the time.
I certainly did not create a post on Bolton as a way of bashing Sams, but it’s interesting that you believe that.
Interesting, because I was told this is the opinion held by a current member of the Bolton faculty, and the opinion is so radically conspiratorial (as if I directed Penny Toney, Kelly Self, Dr. Manning, and hundreds more to express their opinion BEFOREHAND) that I believe I know its source.
As far as Jacques Roy is concerned, again, I am not sure what you’re talking about; the reason people defend him, myself included, is because we know him to be an honest and passionate individual. Incidentally, I’ve provided an equal opportunity for all candidates and their supporters to express their opinions.