It’s no secret that I am an independent voter blogging in the reddest of this Union’s Red States, a phenomenon we have in common a hop, skip and jump away over the state line in St. TammanyHall, St Bernard and Jefferson Parishes. Its election season and there are some conservatives that are upset with some of the political leaders and consultants pushing RINO candidates. The power brokers must think the Jefferson Parish Republican voters are particularly dimwitted and they can honestly point to luminaries like John Alario as proof.
It is also no secret that large parts of the libertarian viewpoint on display here resonates with the local TEA Parties both in Jefferson and Hancock Parishes. Yesterday I spoke with concerned Citizens with TEA Party leanings who are also highly placed in Jefferson Parish governmental circles. They are concerned that no less than three people who are running for office in November have switched parties to Republican in the weeks before election qualifying in August.
Since Jefferson Parish largely votes Republican, I can’t imagine that the powers/machines directing these party switchers would be bold enough to try this without benefit of incumbancy but we’ve covered enough JP elections to know these affairs are bare knuckled, wild and wacky (though #MSSEN compares very favorably that way). The candidates certain believe that the political machines that are supporting some of them can carry them to victory despite the RINO label. With the Republican party endorsement meetings set for tonight the dirt and muck is flying as the conservative JP wing of the Slabbed Nation has been checking Registrar of Voters records along with other public record websites digging dirt since qualifying closed. Here is a sampler.
In the race for the Public Service Commission, a candidate named Forest Bradley Wright is running against two other Republicans. Wright is puzzling. I read a post by fellow blogger Scott McKay during the week of qualifying outlining the fact that Wright, who lives in another Public Service District in New Orleans previously ran for the Louisiana PSC a few years ago as a Democrat. The guy must be a devotee of St. Jude (The patron of lost causes) as this is the second time he’s run for this commission and ostensibly the second time he won’t be able to even cast a vote for himself. Continue reading “RINOS run amuk these days in Jefferson Parish (Updated)”