BATON ROUGE – As their respective campaigns for still-higher office limp along, both Gov. Bobby Jindal and Sen. David Vitter continue to abuse the privileges of their elected positions, sucking taxpayer funds and resources to prop up their fading political prospects. Jindal, who remains hopelessly mired in the bottom rungs of the GOP field, has spent the overwhelming bulk of his tenure as Louisiana governor ignoring the needs of his constituents and slavishly courting the favor of out-of-state interests— all to no avail. Little wonder that his campaign relies on subsidies from state taxpayers to cover everything from travel abroad to attacking fellow Republicans in the press.
Like Jindal, Vitter has been largely missing in action when it comes to doing the people’s business for Louisiana families, skipping nearly a quarter of the Senate’s roll call votes this spring to spend his time campaigning. Meanwhile he’s abusing taxpayer resources to hold thinly veiled campaign events under the guise of Senate “field hearings.” His abuse of Senate “franking” privileges to avoid paying mail costs is so well known as to nearly escape mention in the press. But the voters of Louisiana are paying attention, and with every new poll Vitter’s fortunes are falling.
“Jindal and Vitter are both running doomed campaigns,” said Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, Chairwoman of the Louisiana Democratic Party. “But given the economic damage their failed policies have done to Louisiana, it adds insult to injury that they are relying on what amounts to ‘campaign welfare’ and forcing Louisiana families to pick up the tab for their vanity.”
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