Louisiana Republican Party chairman Louis Gurvich says he’s making it clear that there will be no negative campaigning against other Republicans in this year’s governor’s race. Political Analyst Bernie Pinsonat says four years ago the race was thrown by Republicans after they let their primary candidates shred front-runner David Vitter like pulled pork.
“It should be common sense that attacking each other did not work out well, and Republicans literally elected a Democratic governor in a Republican state, so the party is reminding them.”
Vitter came under heavy fire from his fellow Republicans, largely over his part in a Washington D.C. escort scandal.
This reminder was in response to an Advocate article that said some “sniping” had begun between Baton Rouge businessman Eddie Rispone and Congressman Ralph Abraham. Pinsonat says since both have strong followings, the party really can’t risk alienating either by playing favorites.
“There’s certainly room for two candidates because you had a bunch of Republicans running last time. You have two candidates, neither are going to back down, both are going to be well financed, so you have to accept that.”
So now that it’s clear that neither Abraham nor Rispone will be allowed to throw any punches at each other, how do they differentiate themselves from the other and make it to the November run-off? Pinsonat says their best bet is just running a good, clean campaign, and turning their negative attacks to Governor Edwards.
“Both of them can’t make it, so their campaigns really have to be on message, they have to be reaching a lot of voters, they have to do well in debates, and they have to sound like they can run the state.”
