LA-Gov: This week, wealthy businessman Eddie Rispone fired off his first negative TV spot against Rep. Ralph Abraham, who is the other notable Republican competing in the Oct. 12 all-party primary. Rispone’s commercial begins by going after Abraham for accepting his congressional salary after promising to donate it to charity instead, something that the DGA-backed Gumbo PAC has also attacked Abraham over.
Rispone’s ad goes on to declare, “Abraham personally called on President Trump to step down but joined Nancy Pelosi to oppose a border wall and voted with her over 300 times.” The Monroe News Star writes that Abraham encouraged Trump to step aside as the GOP presidential nominee in October of 2016 so Mike Pence could lead the party ticket after the “Access Hollywood” video was released where Trump bragged about sexually assaulting women.
Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards and his allies very much hope that the battle between Rispone and Abraham escalates over the next month. Edwards needs to take a majority of the vote to avoid a November runoff against one of the Republicans, and a nasty intra-GOP fight would almost certainly make his job easier. However, Republicans are also doing whatever they can to hit Edwards and drive down his numbers. The RGA has been airing negative ads for months, and Rispone also has unveiled a racist new spot against the governor.
Rispone’s commercial begins by showing the mug shots of several men, who are mostly people of color, as the narrator declares that Edwards put criminals “back on our streets, where they robbed, attacked, [and] murdered.” The narrator goes on to claim that the state crime rate has increased under Edwards and that New Orleans has become a “sanctuary city Mecca.” She then insists that Rispone will “ban sanctuary cities and leave the forgiveness to God, not government.”
Edwards’ team was ready for this attack, and they quickly went up with a response ad staring several current and former sheriffs and district attorneys. The assembled group declares, “Criminal justice reform is making Louisiana safer,” and is “strongly supported by Republicans and Democrats, law enforcement professionals, and business leaders.” They also note that Edwards is a military veteran and grew up in a law enforcement household (his father was the sheriff of Tangipahoa Parish, and his brother now occupies that office).
Edwards’ campaign also has a fact-check of Rispone’s ad, where they point out that, while the Republican makes it sound like the governor’s criminal justice reforms led to a spike in crime, there aren’t actually complete FBI statistics since the policies went into effect in late 2017. They also note that the reforms only applied to non-violent and non-sex offenders. The Advocate’s Stephanie Grace also writes that even former Sen. David Vitter, the Republican that Edwards defeated in 2015, lobbied for the criminal justice reforms that Rispone is trying to bludgeon Edwards with.
On Wednesday, Edwards also picked up an endorsement from the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association, which also supported him during his successful 2015 campaign. In Louisiana, sheriffs tend to be very influential figures: When he turned down a gubernatorial bid, the late Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee famously asked, "Why would I want to be governor when I can be king?" However, the group also backed Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu ahead of her 56-44 loss in 2014, so their influence has its limits.
Abraham also earned an endorsement that day from Rep. Clay Higgins, who is the first member of the state’s GOP congressional delegation to take sides in this contest.