Utility Execs and Lobbyists Contributed Thousands to Holloway in 2009

BATON ROUGE — After the Louisiana Democratic Party called out 5th Congressional District candidate Clyde Holloway for taking donations from the companies he regulates as a Public Service Commissioner and claiming he would not “take a dime,” Holloway’s denials are falling flat.

“Clyde Holloway can make excuses and try to explain his way out of this one, but the fact is he got caught red-handed,” said Louisiana Democratic Party Executive Director Stephen Handwerk. “He’s been taking thousands of dollars in contributions from utility executives and lobbyists since 2009, and the campaign finance reports are there in black and white for everyone to see.

“The voters of the 5th Congressional District should know that when Clyde Holloway says he ‘won’t take a dime’ from the utility companies, what he means is he only takes checks — and big ones, at that.”

On Wednesday Holloway responded that he had refused to take utility company contributions during his 2009 campaign for the Public Service Commission, but had made no such promise for his congressional campaign. However, a quick review of Holloway’s 2009 campaign finance report reveals many of the exact same utility donors that appear on his 2013 report, including executives from Entergy and CLECO and attorneys with PSC-connected law firms.

This week Louisiana Democratic Party released a video, “Clyde’s Dimes,” which recalls the candidate’s 2009 promise to turn down utility company contributions and catalogues the long list of his current donors that transact business before the PSC.

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