Posted on 10/12/2004 6:47:17 AM PDT by Theodore R.
Holden adds business endorsements
By SCOTT DYER sdyer@theadvocate.com Advocate staff writer
Beneath a banner proclaiming that "Kip Means Business," a group of about 80 mostly Democratic business leaders and officials turned out Monday to endorse state Sen. Kip Holden, D-Baton Rouge, in his bid to unseat Republican incumbent Mayor-President Bobby Simpson. The only high-profile Republican to publicly speak in support of Holden at Monday's press conference was former Gov. Buddy Roemer, who now serves as president of the Business Bank of Baton Rouge.
"I do not know a man who can bring us together faster, cutting across party lines, racial lines and universal lines, than Kip Holden," Roemer said.
Other high-profile Democrats supporting Holden on Monday included former Attorney General Richard Ieyoub, state Rep. Sharon Weston Broome, D-Baton Rouge, former state Rep. Sean Reilly, D-Baton Rouge, and The Shaw Group President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Bernhard.
Holden said the diverse crowd of supporters shows that he is a multidimensional candidate that can attract a wide base of support.
"I think it's significant because it shows I can work with business leaders and labor leaders, and that I can work with people across color lines," said Holden, who is trying to become East Baton Rouge's first African-American mayor-president.
But in an interview later Monday, Simpson said Holden's show of support was mostly one-dimensional.
"There's really nothing in this list of supporters that came out today that should surprise anyone. It's mostly the Democratic Party and their leadership that is getting behind a very liberal candidate," Simpson said.
Simpson said Holden is trying to portray himself as a moderate, but Holden's legislative voting record shows his liberal leanings.
"Basically, you are talking about a state senator who has the lowest LABI voting record in the Senate," Simpson said, referring to the state's biggest business lobbying group.
In a recent report, Louisiana Association of Business and Industry officials gave Holden a score of 27 out of a possible 100 on key business votes this year.
The votes included phasing out some business taxes, protecting limits on lawsuits, regulating river pilots and keeping term limits that will prevent many legislators from running for re-election in 2008.
Simpson also said he wasn't surprised that some of his most outspoken Republican critics, Baton Rouge Business Report publisher Rolfe McCollister and BRNEXT Chairman Lane Grigsby, did not publicly endorse Holden Monday.
"When they look at the business record of Sen. Holden, they've now painted themselves into a corner. They've said they're for 'anybody but Bobby,' but the other candidate is the lowest ranking senator in the Senate from a business standpoint," Simpson said.
Simpson said he wasn't surprised to see Roemer endorse Holden, noting that Roemer's daughter serves as executive director of BRNext that has run several television ads criticizing Simpson's record.
Didn't he go to jail?
Unfortunately for Baton Rouge, Holden is probably going to win. Between Governor Kathleen "Dim" Blanco and Mayor Kip "Dim" Holden, Baton Rouge is toast.
I know I am going to get ridiculed for saying this, but I absolutely cannot stand Bobby Simpson. I think I will abstain from voting in November. He is the single most arrogant politician I have ever met, and that is saying a lot.
No, you are thinking of Roemer's predecessor and successor, popular former Governor Edwin Washington Edwards, who is in a Fort Worth federal penitentiary for fraud. Ironically, Roemer's father was once chief of staff to EWE.
Roemer was wooed to the Republican Party by John Sununu in 1991, shortly before Sununu fell from grace in the Bush White House. Supposedly, one George W. Bush was the one who got Sununu out, little good it did the senior Bush. Roemer's career was essentially ended by the unpopular former KKK leader David Duke.
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