Nungesser seeks upset in Lt. Gov race
17th October 2011 · 0 Comments
By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer
Dr. Verne Kennedy of Market Research Insight, released poll numbers on Thursday that puts the race for Lt. Governor at a virtual tie, with a large part of the public undecided just over a week until the election.
Billy Nungesser
Could Billy Nungesser be poised for the largest statewide upset in recent political memory? He has garnered an impressive number of endorsements for a challenger to a sitting incumbent, including the backing of this newspaper. By all accounts, he has also outraised and outspent Dardenne by large margins.
In an interview with The Louisiana Weekly, Nungesser explained why he sought to stand this year for Lt. Governor. As he explained, “[O]ur state needs a leader who will work to bring people together and fight for common sense solutions to meet our challenges and restore our treasured quality of life. I understand the office of Lt. Governor. He is responsible for restoring the tourism economy of our state and saving the thousands of jobs reliant on this foundation industry for Louisiana. I will aggressively create a strategy to sell Louisiana as one state to the rest of the nation and recreate interest to bring visitors to Louisiana from all over the world.”
What lends this contest extra poignancy is the fact that Bobby Jindal may not finish his second four-year term. Either a cabinet post in Washington or a bid for the U.S. Senate may force his to vacate the governor’s chair. Whoever is lieutenant governor will ascend automatically to the Executive Mansion. He will take over a state likely in budgetary stress and economic pain.
Nungesser believes that his past experience prepares him for the crises that the Pelican State will soon face, as the reconstruction money runs out, and the bills come due.
“I first ran for President of Plaquemines Parish because I was frustrated at the lack of help and response my neighbors got after Katrina and Rita,” he explained. “I rode out the storm and spent weeks taking in people who needed shelter and rescuing animals, fighting to keep from being washed away. I saw people walking miles just to wash clothes and try to bring some decency to their torn lives. I was so outraged that I used personal money, in partnership with the United Way, to buy washer and dryers and place them in trailers around the parish.”
“I never thought one event could change so much, but when the Deep Horizon oil rig exploded off the coast in Plaquemines Parish, the world changed. We lost eleven men that day, and since then, there isn’t a day that I don’t think of them and their loved ones. Our jobs and quality of life were put at risk, and I knew that I could not wait for BP or the federal government to act. I stood up and fought to protect our people from the worst man-made disaster in state history. I took on the Washington bureaucrats and a large company who proved to be a bad actor, and I will not rest until our people are justly compensated, their lives made whole again and our Gulf is restored.”
In fact, Nungesser’s platform is informed by his time in parish office. “As Parish President, I worked with local companies to expand or recruit their suppliers to the area which has resulted in 700 new businesses locally. As Lt. Governor I will bring this same approach to Baton Rouge to help create jobs and put our people back to work.”
“As Lt. Governor,” the candidate continued, “I will continue to stand up and fight for what is right by Louisiana just like I did during the BP oil spill to make sure that our voice is heard and our needs are meet. I will never tire from the fight to restore our coastline and never back down from making sure the Washington bureaucrats listen to us instead of making decisions in Washington that threaten our vital oil industry and cost our workers jobs.”
“My opponent created the ‘Pick Your Passion’ plan on his own and said he ran it by one advertising executive who thought it would work. I don’t have all the answers, but I have a proven record of bringing people together to find the solutions. I will continue to meet and seek advice from the workers and business groups in the tourism industry on how best to improve and grow our tourism industry. One example is to offer our convention facilities for free during the slow summer months like other cities do to generate more hotel and restaurant business.”
When asked if he supported a single board for Higher Education and whether SUNO should have been merged into UNO, Nungesser explained that he was troubled in that debate by the Administration’s lack of interest in involving SUNO’s collegiate administration in the discussion. One cannot create any restructuring in the higher education system, according to Nungesser, without representatives from historically Black colleges. “I support the participation of representatives from each university sitting at a table together to make an informed decision about how to move forward. I do not believe that politicians should be making this important decision. Those who are passionate about the education system should have an active role in deciding what is best for the students and best for the system.”
When the coastal Parish leader was asked the question, do you support a single board for the Port systems of Louisiana as State Senator Conrad Appel has proposed, he replied, simply, “Yes.”
Nungesser, like his opponent, opposed abolishing the post of Lt. Governor, seeing it as a critical economic development role. In fact, he explained, “I support increasing the role of the Lt. Governor to help in business recruitment, job creation and working with companies throughout the state to ensure we are doing business with Louisiana companies whenever and wherever possible.”
Currently, the state Museum system is divided between the Secretary of State’s office and that of the Lt. Governor. Arguments of consolidation center around which statewide office should be in command if the museums are merged. Nungesser argued that integration is a multistep process. “The Museum Board, Secretary of State and Lt. Governor should work together to streamline museum operations, integrate branding and promotion, and identify cost savings.”
Eventually, though, he added that the Lt. Governor should oversee the whole system. “Where full integration into one department is possible, it should be pursued under the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism. The Secretary of State’s office is an elected administrative position vital to our state government that has other responsibilities like elections and business registration to focus its attention. Through cooperation and fiscal discipline, we can create the best operating system while guarding the accreditation of the larger museums.”
On the subject of the state museums, currently, the largest fundraising arm of the Louisiana State Museum remains the volunteer tour guides of the Friends of the Cabildo. However, the city of New Orleans is requiring these volunteers to take biyearly FBI Federal Background Checks and drug tests just to volunteer to give tours of the French Quarter, where all of the revenues—including tips—go to the Museum. This cost amounts to as much as $150.00 every two years.
When asked if he endorses state licensing of tour guides, and a special category for volunteer guides and whether he would create a section of the Dept. of Tourism to license tour guides in New Orleans, if authorized by statute, instead of the parish government, Nungesser stood in favor. “Tour Guides are essentially state ambassadors. I would support licensing anyone who serves as a tour guide in a paid capacity. While I would encourage volunteer tour guides to go through the licensing process, I don’t think government should force anyone to do anything when they are willing to give of their time to help our state.”
Considering how many local government bodies have rolled forward millages after rolling them back thanks to higher revenues from rising assessments, Nungesser gave his full support to a state law that would require a public referendum and voter approval before millages could be rolled forward. He simply said, “I would support voter approval and would support a bill to mandate it.”
He also agreed with efforts by Gov. Jindal to change the law and allowing the executive branch to be able to cut across the board 10 percent of budget in times of deficit. When asked if he would support a constitutional limitation of growth in the budget, similar to Colorado’s TABOR, which limits state governmental growth to the rate of inflation, Nungesser somewhat danced around the question. “I don’t think we should be having government growth anywhere. As Plaquemines Parish President, I restricted spending to return over $15 million to the taxpayers. This is the same mentality I am bringing with me to Baton Rouge.”
When asked what he can you do as Lt. Governor to help main streets across Louisiana, and particularly downtown’s Canal Street, be reborn, Nungesser responded, “There is no doubt that the Main St. projects can and should have a huge effect on tourism in this state. We need to identify cities in every region of our state with similar attributes, work with every source of funding available and restore these areas back to the beauty of a by gone era, mixed with contemporary technology. Then we must combine this with an extensive marketing and promotion push that will bring visitors to every part of the state to see these streets and pump money into the local economies.”
As for education reform, Nungesser backs the extension of the Recovery School District, but only for a limited time. Local control must be restored. “I do support the continuation of RSD for drastically underperforming schools, but at some point, the local school districts must step in with accountability for these schools and remove them from the oversight of the Louisiana Department of Education.”
This article was originally published in the October 17, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper
