Governor Edwards is rolling out a new line of attack in the governor’s race, prodding Eddie Rispone for declining to attend nearly any candidate forums or other public events with the line “Where’s Eddie?”
Rispone has only agreed to meet face to face for one event in the run-off, the October 30th LPB debate. Edwards slammed the Republican at Monday’s Press Club candidate forum for dodging questions.
“Why does he run from the media every time you try to ask him about his vision for our state? What are his plans to move us forward? What are the specific things he wants to do?” said Edwards
Since Friday the Rispone campaign has not returned requests for comments from LRN, but when questioned at the airport Monday said he’s “been all over this state.”
Edwards says the reason Rispone is dodging the press and refusing to answer questions at public events is that his answers would be unpopular.
“It’s partly because he really doesn’t have comprehensive plans or knowledge about how state government works for that matter,” said Edwards. “The other part of it is that the plans he does have are really, really bad for our state.”
The Governor singled out his opponent’s support for repealing the Medicaid expansion, and Rispone’s past support for the state’s voucher program that’s been panned by the Department of Education.
Edwards also doubled down on Rispone’s connection to a controversial GOP mega-donor, saying Rispone takes his cues from his mentor, the “corrupt puppet master Lane Grigsby”.
“He certainly isn’t my mentor, and I don’t look to him sitting on any throne to give me a directive as to how I am supposed to govern the great state of Louisiana,” said Edwards.
Grigsby was recently embroiled in a quid-pro-quo scandal involving a Baton Rouge Senate race and was sued in September by the Department of Justice over nearly 800,000 dollars of alleged improperly claimed tax deductions.
