Free Republic

Following his defeat to Democrat John Bel Edwards in Saturday's Louisiana gubernatorial election, GOP Sen. David Vitter announced that he will retire from the Senate next year, ensuring another busy year of campaigning in a state with no shortage of ambitious politicians. Vitter's exit will set up an open-seat race in 2016, and the Republican side of the field is chock-full of potential candidates: GOP Reps. Charles Boustany and John Fleming, state Treasurer John Kennedy, retired Air Force Col. Rob Maness and Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle could all make bids. The Democratic picture is less clear: New Orleans Mayor...

Even though it’s been lifted, the White House’s non-scientific drilling moratorium is continuing to negatively impact its public standing. The latest manifestation of this is in the news that Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Scott Angelle is changing parties to become a Republican: He said the scientific studies and investigations into deepwater exploration have indicated the moratorium should have been lifted weeks before it was. Instead, thousand of workers have been left jobless because of the Obama administration’s actions.

BATON ROUGE -- Lt. Gov. Scott Angelle said Tuesday that he has changed his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican because of his dissatisfaction with President Barack Obama and the administration's recent actions on oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Angelle, who has served as Gov. Bobby Jindal's Department of Natural Resources secretary and chief liaison to the Legislature, said he grew disenchanted with the Democratic Party's philosophy of dealing with energy matters, especially the moratorium on drilling that followed the Deepwater Horizon explosion that claimed 11 lives and spilled millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf and...