John Bel Edwards re-election team says radio ads that attack the governor are blatantly false. Victory 2019 spokesperson Eric Holl says the ads claim the governor’s budgets did not contain a dime for early childhood education. Holl says every budget the governor signed had millions for Pre-K education
“You know the governor has said since really this campaign started and even before that his opponents were going to use outright lies if they felt like they had to as a way to drag down his record.”
Holl says the ads were so blatantly false, they legally had to be pulled down. A group called Truth in Politics produced the spot and spokesperson Jay Connaughton says the ads are still running and they stand by their message…
“The governor doesn’t like the fact that we are calling him out for where he has let the people down and he responded by turning to Hillary Clinton’s attorneys to attack us and try to intimidate us.”
Connaughton says the Edwards re-election campaign hired Hillary Clinton’s lawyers and threatened legal action if the spot wasn’t removed from the airwaves. He says they made a slight change to the ad, but the context remains the same…
“Well, I think we talk about the fact in this ad that the governor is not invested in early education in the way that education experts have begged him to. He has turned his back on the very constituents that need him the most.”
Holl says Edwards took office with a massive budget deficit and now that the state finances are in better shape, the goal is to give teachers a pay raise this year and if re-elected, increase funding for early childhood education…
“Early childhood education funding would be one of his top priorities if not his top priority. So it is really bizarre to attack him on this given his record and his stated priorities for a second term.”
