Is Retired Lt. General Russel Honoré running for governor?
9th February 2015 · 0 Comments
By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer
Right now Jay Dardenne and John Young fight the whisper game. They both battle those unnamed “experts” who mutter with supposed wisdom that each is sure to drop his bid for advancement to higher statewide office, and instead run for re-election to his current position.
It is a whisper game to which both the sitting Lieutenant Governor and Jefferson Parish President uniformly respond “Hell no!”
Their heartfelt declarations of steadfast candidacy aside, the problem remains that the whispers have become so loud that more and more contributors and volunteers – the lifeblood of politics – grow nervous about getting involved in their respective bids.
These backers have begun to believe the critics who contend that the pathway to a November runoff has closed for both men, no matter how unbeatable each might be if they made a second primary. The cacophony of whispers say that each contender must drop out of his respective race due to the political realities. The fact that Dardenne and Young have all but pledged-in-blood to remain in the races for governor and lieutenant governor are completely disregarded.
However, the whisper game may finally be coming to an end. The announcement by retired Army Lt. General Russel Honoré that the Katrina hero might stand for the governorship in 2015 strangely increases the possibility that Jay Dardenne might make a gubernatorial runoff with David Vitter. And as a consequence, sans incumbent, John Young would have a clearer path to a runoff with Democratic Baton Rouge Mayor-President Kip Holden for Lieutenant Governor.
In interviews with The Louisiana Weekly, Dardenne unequivocally declares “governor or bust,” and Young wants nothing more than to be Dardenne’s replacement, bidding farewell to the Jefferson Parish presidency without regret. Neither has the slightest intention of standing again for his current job, which happen to be on the ballot at the same time.
“What do John and Jay have to do? Pledge their firstborn sons as collateral to guarantee that they are running? The thousands of dollars that both of them have spent running for governor and lieutenant governor is not enough to tell you they’re serious,” said one highly ranked political insider involved in the campaigns of both contenders to The Louisiana Weekly.
That hasn’t stopped pundits from waxing eloquent that while a moderate conservative like Jay Dardenne might be the strongest gubernatorial runoff candidate either against David Vitter on the right or John Bel Edwards on the left, the very nature of the four way race in which the current lieutenant governor participates makes the pathway to get to that runoff problematic.
The math, the Wisemen conclude, is not on Dardenne’s side. The GOP Lieutenant Governor’s political profile and policy positions best position him to draw Democratic votes in a runoff while still maintaining a strong core of his own Republican vote, should he face the prohibitive GOP frontrunner, the current senior U.S. senator.
Likewise, given Louisiana’s increasing Republicans tilt, The “R” behind Dardenne’s name would likely be enough to carry him to victory in a gubernatorial runoff against State House Democratic John Bel Edwards, regardless of the current lieutenant governor’s qualifications or personal qualities.
The political attractiveness of those ‘middle-of-the-road’ attributes would also make him a formidable rival to PSC Commissioner Scott Angelle. Piyush Jindal’s handpicked candidate has the disadvantage of being a Democrat – turned – Republican. While the former St. Martin Parish President enjoys undeniable strength in Acadiana, Dardenne need only emphasize his lifelong Republican bona fides with the Right to solidify the state’s conservative base. Since his opponent is a newly minted Republican, the Lieutenant Governor’s Democratic support in the Baton Rouge metro area would likely stick with him – carrying Dardenne to a runoff victory.
He just needs to emerge as one of the two contenders out of an October 2015 primary. Because African Americans and core Democratic voters were likely to solidify behind John Bel Edwards, the Lieutenant Governor’s difficulty in getting into a gubernatorial runoff launched the whisper campaign. Critics muttered that at the last minute Dardenne would opt to qualify to run again for his current job.
The resulting down ticket chain reaction would shut out the strongest Lieut. Gubernatorial frontrunner Jefferson Parish Republican President John Young from a pathway to a runoff with EBR Mayor Kip Holden, since Jay Dardenne would be assured of re-election. Since Young was not term-limited in his current post, the wisemen likewise whispered, “John will drop out and run for re-election for Parish President.”
(Equally, the whispers have actually frozen out any potential parish presidential candidates for next October, locking out Jeff Councilman Chris Roberts and Kenner Mayor Mike Yenni from even organizing a bid.)
Everything changed last week, though, when retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, who coordinated military relief efforts following Hurricane Katrina, admitted to the Press Club of Baton Rouge’s weekly meeting at the Belle of Baton Rouge Casino that he might run for governor in 2015.
“I spent 37 years serving our country as a public servant. I like this space I’m operating in, but I’m still thinking,” Honoré said on February 2, 2015. “Last time I checked, we’ve got several months left, and I’m thinking. But I’m going to have to do some hard convincing where I live and sleep. So I’m thinking.”
Honoré, who now campaigns for a coalition of Louisiana environmental advocacy groups entitled the “Green Army,” admitted that chasing the state’s highest office has crossed his mind. None of the other candidates for governor have broached the subject of the state’s environmental issues to his satisfaction, he emphasized.
Sounding very much like a candidate, Honoré declared that oil and gas companies should “clean up after themselves” for any environmental damage they might cause. Citing the Bayou Corne debacle in Assumption Parish, where a colossal sinkhole that formed more than two years ago in August 2012 has yet to be repaired, Honoré maintained, “I don’t begrudge the energy industry for making money. We’ve just got to get them to clean up after themselves and make sure they fix what they break and operate in a responsible way.”
“I’m not hearing any of these [gubernatorial] candidates talk about that.”
The retired Lt. General has called for a state clean air act, improved monitoring of local aquifers, and the cleaning up abandoned oil wells. A registered Independent, Honoré has a chance of drawing quite a few white Democratic votes away from John Bel Edwards, and at the same time affecting Vitter’s Caucasian conservative base in the New Orleans metro area, who still remember his management of the Katrina aftermath with biracial affection.
It is with Black voters where Honoré would be strongest, drawing enough of the strongest Democratic core vote from Edwards to at least provide a pathway for Dardenne – and his ubiquity of support in the capital area metro – to emerge into a runoff.
That is not to say that Russel Honoré himself could not make the second primary with David Vitter. He would likely be the strongest non-Republican that the sitting US Senator could potentially face. The General’s presence merely silences the whisper game. Jay Dardenne’s pathway to the runoff goes from the impossible to the possible.
And with the lieutenant governor’s race transformed into the surety of an open contest, John Young can finally silence the whisper campaign as well.
This article originally published in the February 9, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
