Jim Bernhard, CEO of Shaw Group, May Run for Louisiana Governor

The Ouachita Citizen is reporting that the race for Louisiana governor is likely to become even more crowded, as at least two Democrats have recently made indications that they’re considering challenging Governor Blanco.

Foster Campbell, a Democrat from Elm Grove and the Louisiana State Public Service Commissioner, has hired political consultant George Kennedy, a sign that Campbell is “dead serious about taking on the governor and Jindal.”

It is also being reported that Jim Bernhard, CEO of the Shaw Group and former head of the state Democratic Party, is also considering a run, which, according to the article, could pose significant fundraising problems for Governor Blanco.

A Bernhard candidacy spells big trouble for Blanco. It spells trouble for the governor on the fund-raising front and among white voters who supported the lady from Lafayette four years ago because they couldn’t bring themselves to vote for a man of color. That being Jindal.
For months many of Blanco’s key financial backers in the governor’s race four years ago acknowledged privately that they didn’t think the governor could beat Jindal under any circumstances. Those heavy hitters have been holding out hope that another white Democrat (besides Campbell) would get into the race and force Blanco to the sidelines, thus freeing them up to place their bets on a horse they feel they can do business with down the road.
Bernhard would fill that void.

Bernhard, states the article, may also pose problems for Representative Jindal. But don’t count Campbell out either:

While a Bernhard candidacy will garner headlines for awhile and most likely will overshadow Jindal’s pending announcement, don’t underestimate Campbell. The former state senator, outspoken to say the least, made a name for himself years ago by repeatedly calling for a processing tax on foreign oil, a tax that never stood a chance of being approved by the Legislature in the face of stiff opposition from the oil and gas industry. The gentlemen in alligator shoes, as Campbell tagged lobbyists for the oil industry, beat him at every turn.

Responses

larry the lifeguard

January 16, 2007

Jindal Rules

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Ron Roberts

January 16, 2007

I see prominent Democrats lining up to take a shot at the Governor’s mansion, and a few thoughts come to mind…

Where the HELL has this party been when their current governor needed their support? Fervent Republicans stand by their man in D.C. (until they’re up for re-election at least and then distance themselves from him) when he’s under fire for many years, and yet I can’t recall many, if ANY, prominent state or national Democrats standing up to support Blanco when she’s been under fire. History’s shown that governmental lapses in the response to Louisiana’s hurricanes in 2005 fell largely on the laps of FEDERAL officials, and yet Blanco suffers?

Seriously, where WERE the Democrats to stand up for this woman when people wanted to blame her, despite an evacuation that saw about 1.2 million of metro New Orleans’ 1.3 million citizens evacuate in under 38 hours? Where were her defenders?

Why has she suffered from all of the negativity, state-side, when it comes to Katrina and Rita? Is she to blame for FEMA not providing bus transport out of New Orleans for those left behind? Even when she was told for nearly four days that FEMA WAS bringing the buses? Do we not remember that she got tired of that line of bull and called down her own state’s school buses?

Is she to blame for not having enough National Guard resources at the ready, when much of her state’s units were deployed overseas at the time? is she to blame for other state’s Guard units not being there fast enoguh, when all she can do is REQUEST assistance from neighboring governors, and then must wait for units to be activated, assembled, transported and at the ready? This takes days, not hours, folks.

Is she to blame for months and months of D.C. politicking over reimbursement moneys owed citizens? Hell, she showed up every time a Congressional committee called on her to testify, and she stood her ground each and every time a Republican wanted to politicize her state’s dire circumstances.

Is she to blame for not handing over La. National Guard control to the President? Wait, we’re talking about allowing the man who HAND-PICKED “Brownie” to head FEMA after the goofball had worked on his 2004 re-election campaign, right? We’re trusting THAT kind of “leadership” with efforts on the ground in New Orleans? Would you, as Governor, hand over control of your units to the guy who took his sweet time even showing up to “fly over” the damage to take his photo op after a week of fundraising in California and Arizona?

Is she to blame for asking for 24 hours to even THINK about it? Please. She paid RESPECT to the office of President by not just laughing her ass off in his face, frankly.

Sorry, folks, I tend to side with Democrats, myself being a moderate, but the Democrats of Louisiana will probably get what they deserve, and that’s Pyush Bobby Jindal in the mansion after the next election cycle. They deserve such a fate after they stood by silently and watched their governor treated like a pinata at a fiesta by Karl Rove’s operatives and a media all too willing to allow him to pull their strings.

All this woman has done, while in office, is work to bring jobs to this state. She brought Union Tank Car to Cenla when they’d made up their mind to stay in Texas before she worked her magic; she’s on the cusp of luring a huge steel mill, she’s traveled the globe marketing this state to international investors looking to bring jobs to the U.S. She’s withstood all this narrow-minded negativity when lesser people would’ve resigned and said “go screw yourself.”

Sorry Democrats, but you’ve earned this next defeat in Louisiana. While the rest of America realizes that Bush’s cronies at FEMA and Homeland Security botched Katrina’s response, we here in Louisiana somehow manage to see it another way. It’s embarrassing.

So at this point, I don’t care what other Democrat is running for Governor, none of ’em earned a shot, far as I’m concerned. They showed no spine when their state’s leader needed backing, and as far as I’m concerned, they don’t deserve my backing, now, either.

Reply
wesawthat…

January 17, 2007

ron — while we certainly do not support a piyush the deceiver candidacy and yes governor blanco was correct in not signing over the national guard to shrub, however, if for no other reason (besides, oh say hb685/act313 mandatory ethanol, hb658/act832 jackass joe salters hodges gardens bailout scam, hb1129/act357 rep. francis thompsons reservoir scam funding, hb250/act341 allows non americans to be an officer or serve on the board of directors of insurance companies) governor blanco’s handling of the road home / icf fiasco is reason enough to turn her out of office.

Reply
wesawthat…

January 17, 2007

oh and we left out the governors appointing good ol boy and career public trougher bryant hammett to head louisiana department of wildlife and fisheries instead of a qualified wild life biologist.
governor blanco ran as a reformer but shes not a reformer shes a liar just like the rest of our politicians.

Reply
Ron Roberts

January 17, 2007

Rather than just listing the bills in question, give us all some details! Not all (or most) of us are state legislature junkies with “common” knowledge of the legislation you call to question. Curious to see what you’re referencing…

Reply
bird

January 19, 2007

Ron –

First, Union Tank began negotiations with Foster. Second if you believe that phone call is what brought the company from Texas to Louisiana, well I’ve got some ocean front property to sell you right in the middle of the US. Her highness has been on the re-elect Kathleen campaign trail these past few months and is laying claim to whatever has fallen from the sky in terms of jobs hitting this state despite the lack of effort from her office and her staff to assist with new companies coming in or our existing industries expanding.

Bernhard saw Blanco for what she was in the days post-Katrina. A school teacher who couldn’t control today’s classroom. He point blank dropped her ass then. She showed absolutely no signs of leadership during a crisis and to be honest had shown no sign of true leadership up until that point. She provided lip service, much like her republican predecessor Foster.

We have had such a lack of leadership in this state we have come to accept anything and anyone at the helm lately. As I stood and heard her speech in Winnfield during the announcement of Jen-Weld and the comments from people in the audience afterwards, I was having flashbacks to the days of Huey P. I had just watched a documentary on the grand Kingfish and words flowing from the residentes of Winn Parish that day were quite similar to comments made about how great Huey was. I began to cringe and think if only these poor souls knew the truth.

The reason the Road Home is a complete failure is quite simple – leading the program are top people from the former Blanco and Foster staff. What better way to insure a complete governmental program failure than to put your “top” staff in charge – yes, there’s Andy Kopplin, the Harvard MBA grad who served as Chief of Staff under Foster and Blanco, Adam Knapp, a policy grad from McNeese, who also served under Foster and Blanco and she even managed to pull Alicia Wilkinson from DOL, along with many others who had served under both governors. No wonder this is a bureaucratic nightmare. All these people know how to do is complicate things with paperwork and bullshit. They have no clue as to how to get things done in a timely manner.

You say the demos should have stuck behind their “man” well I don’t believe any party would have stuck behind a non-leader in this case. Republican, Green Party, etc., they all would have been looking for a replacement as soon as possible.

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Larry the Lifeguard

January 21, 2007

Hey “wesawthat” love your photo on your blog site. why don’t you go f— yourself you liberal scum piece of sh–!!!!

Reply
wesawthat…

January 21, 2007

why thank you larry. your comment reminds us of an old joke:

Q. what does larry the lifeguard and sperm have in common?
A. they both have a one in a million chance of becoming a human being.

🙂

Reply
Larry the Lifeguard

January 23, 2007

The World Health Organization guidelines state that the minimum semen parameters for defining a normospermic male are greater than 20 million sperm per ml. Normal ejaculate volume is between 2 and 6 ml. Thus your statistics seem to be a little off. The actual chance of fertilization is between 1 in 40 million and 1 in 120 million. Lifeguards and spermwhales have much in common. Much of the bulk of a sperm whale’s enormous head is taken up by a barrel-shaped organ called the case. Inside the case is a clear, liquid oil that when cooled, hardens to resemble white paraffin.

Because whalers thought this stuff looked like whale sperm, they called it spermaceti and named the animal a sperm whale. You can learn more about sperm by reading
.The Sperm Cell: Production, Maturation, Fertilization, Regeneration

Reply
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