Posted on 10/16/2004 10:41:40 AM PDT by Theodore R.
Hopefuls say it's hard to stand out in 1st District race
By JOE GYAN JR. jgyan@theadvocate.com New Orleans bureau
METAIRIE -- Louisiana's 1st Congressional District election is a little more than two weeks away, but the six-man contest has generated about as much excitement as a clerk of court race.
Five first-time political office-seekers are chasing clear front-runner and 2003 gubernatorial bridesmaid Bobby Jindal for the right to represent constituents on both sides of Lake Pontchartrain in Washington, D.C.
"It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do," health-care consultant Mike Rogers said of trying to get his name before the voters. "It's like starting a business with no money."
The field includes Republicans Jindal and Rogers and four Democrats: Roy Armstrong, an officer in former Ku Klux Klan leader and ex-state Rep. David Duke's white-rights European-American Unity and Rights Organization; retired Air Force officer M.V. "Vinny" Mendoza; retired orthopedic surgeon Jerry Watts, the oldest of the six candidates at 70; and computer technician Daniel Zimmerman, the youngest of the candidates at 28.
Armstrong, who will celebrate his 56th birthday Nov. 2, the date of the 1st District election, contends he is not a "surrogate candidate" for Duke but says he welcomes the Duke vote.
Duke, who was released from a Baton Rouge halfway house in May after spending a year in a federal prison in Texas for bilking his supporters and cheating on his taxes, ran for the 1st District seat in 1999 after U.S. Rep. Bob Livingston, R-Metairie, resigned. David Vitter, a Metairie Republican, won the '99 election but is giving up his House seat to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Democrat John Breaux.
Jindal has Vitter's endorsement. The state Republican Party's Executive Committee also endorsed Jindal, two days after state Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, abandoned his candidacy in August and took much of the air out of the 1st District race.
The district includes all of St. Tammany, Tangipahoa and Washington parishes, most of East Jefferson and portions of West Jefferson, Orleans and St. Charles parishes.
Jindal, Mendoza, Rogers and Zimmerman live in Kenner. Armstrong and Watts reside in Mandeville.
The 44-year-old Rogers has been critical of Jindal for moving his family from Baton Rouge to Kenner in the 1st District in January after announcing that he would seek Vitter's seat. Jindal said he moved because his wife grew up in Metairie and both have family in the New Orleans area.
"We need and deserve to be represented by a long-term resident of our district -- someone who committed his life and his future to this district and did not move here to take advantage of us," Rogers said.
The Baton Rouge-born Jindal is the only native Louisianian in the race. Armstrong was born in Seattle; Mendoza in Guatemala City; Rogers in Gulfport, Miss.; Watts in Atlanta; and Zimmerman in Wilmington, Del.
The 33-year-old Jindal, who easily carried the vote in the 1st District while losing the gubernatorial runoff to Kathleen Blanco late last year, said the governor's race is "history" and he is not taking this election lightly. He said he begins each day as if he is 30 points behind.
"We'd certainly like to win on Nov. 2 and avoid a runoff" on Dec. 4, he said.
Jindal claims his Washington experience -- serving as assistant secretary for planning and evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 2001-03 and executive director of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare from 1998-99 -- will allow him to "hit the ground running."
"I believe I understand the issues of the 1st District," he said.
Jindal's philosophy and platform include pledging to win the war on terror and protecting the homeland, making health care more accessible and affordable, and creating jobs and cutting taxes.
Jindal, who served as president of the University of Louisiana System from 1999-01 and was secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals from 1996-98, also says he offers "practical experience" on a statewide level.
Rogers, a graduate of Denham Springs High School and LSU, also has experience in the health-care arena. He is the owner-president of Southern Provider Consultants Inc., a health-care business consulting firm. He was president of Aetna Health Plans of Louisiana from 1994-96 and was director of network management for Aetna Health Plans from 1991-94.
"What we have seen out of Washington in the past 10 years are proposals to either put the government in charge of our health care or to pass on more costs to the consumers, all in the name of improving cost and access to health insurance," he said. "My proposals will attack the cost of administering insurance and health-care delivery and should result in decreases in premiums, as well as decreases in the cost borne by health-care providers for administering the rules of modern health insurers."
Rogers said he would focus first on the needs of U.S. citizens, then on foreign relations; stimulate job creation and protect jobs; dedicate more money for schools; and increase transportation networks and other business infrastructure.
Mendoza, a retired Air Force sergeant who said the poor treatment being given the U.S. military when it comes to benefits drove him into the race, advocates gradually withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The president is using the war as a justification to keep his job," said Mendoza, who was in the Air Force from 1978-98.
The 45-year-old Mendoza said he would fight to preserve Social Security and guarantee health benefits for veterans, extend school hours until 5 p.m. to keep children off the streets and out of trouble, and offer more vocational training.
Watts, who was in the Air Force from 1961-63 and the Air Force Reserves from 1963-67, proposes replacing U.S. soldiers in Iraq with a U.N.-led multinational force, increasing funding for homeland security and intelligence gathering, and giving military reservists the same benefits as active-duty personnel.
Watts, a former GOP member running as a Democrat, calls himself a "recovering Republican" who is disillusioned by GOP policies, primarily the war in Iraq.
"I got into the race because I felt we needed a change," he said. "I couldn't just sit back."
Watts' campaign is void of major fund-raising and heavy on volunteers, but he still thinks he can force a runoff.
"That may sound like David and Goliath to you, and it may well be," he said.
Watts, who was a congressional page in 1950, claims the Medicare prescription drug coverage that Congress passed two years ago is inadequate and should have allowed Medicare to use its size to negotiate lower drug prices from manufacturers. He also supports stem cell research.
Armstrong, who was stationed in Germany with the Army from 1968-70, was a Democrat before switching to the GOP in 1999 -- the same year he moved to Mandeville after living in Germany for 23 years -- but returned to the Democratic Party when he qualified for the 1st District election in August.
He is general secretary of Duke's EURO group and worked on Duke's '99 congressional campaign.
Armstrong advocates withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, ending military aid to Israel, and repealing the Patriot Act of 2001. He also would seek federal aid to create jobs in Louisiana, and create new incentives to lure companies to the state.
Zimmerman, who is working on his master's degree in computer science at the University of New Orleans, sees himself as a "fresh face" who likes to "think outside the box." He supports replacing the federal income tax with a national sales tax that would exempt items such as food, prescription drugs and utilities. Shoppers would keep more of their income, thereby increasing their purchasing power.
"The likelihood of that getting passed in the near future is rare, and I realize that," he said.
Zimmerman also said he would work to reduce Medicaid fraud and make coastal restoration a top priority. The Democrat, who said he is "not really big into partisan politics," supports President Bush's policies on the war on terror but believes the U.S. military needs to be better equipped and better paid.
The article notes that an "aide" to David Duke is a "Democrat," Duke's own original party designation.
Bobby Jindal is a very bright guy who will be a big asset to the national Republican party. He also goes a way to dispelling the 'whites only' image of the party that is always used against them by the Democrats.
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