Political Columnist John Maginnis recently wrote about the battle between fellow Republican candidates for Lt. Governor, Jay Dardenne and Billy Nungesser, and their efforts to court black voters for their support during the recent election. As you all know by now, Mr. Dardenne won the election.
What I found troubling when reading the article, as I have for years, is how this target was placed on the so called black voting block. Without being too emotional, I believe it's time we have some frank and open conversation about race and politics in Louisiana. While this type of activity has taken place for years in Louisiana (and many parts of this country for that matter), this election brought an extra piece of irony to the situation. This year we had three black republicans running in 2 legislative races in Baton Rouge.
To me the obvious question has always been why are white voters never a targeted demographic in an election. We had commercials running on local urban radio stations by these candidates and others "targeting" black voters. Some of them were simply insulting. In our campaign we made a strong effort to treat all voters the same and focus on issues that impacted the entire community.
On election day, we saw these political games play out in atrocious ways. It's time that we stop playing political games with the lives of our citizens. It's time citizens hold elected officials accountable for the promises and claims they make. Different teams have wrestled for the trust of the people and in four years, the circumstances through out this state better have changed for the good or we're all to blame.
Barbara Thomas is a strong advocate for school choice and a renowned pro-life advocate.
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