July 12, 2015
Rtd. Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré Says He's Not Running for La. Governor
By Christopher Tidmore
Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Louisiana Weekly
(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Retired Lt. General Russel Honoré rumored to have been contemplating making a run for governor of Louisiana, ended such speculation on July 1, stating, “After nearly four decades as a loyal and proud soldier serving our country, after much thought and reflection over the past several weeks, I’ve concluded that I can best continue to serve the state I love by, not by becoming a politician and running for governor, but by working with the good people of Louisiana to reorder our political priorities…”
For many pundits throughout the state, Honore’s decision virtually assures Sen. Vitter’s election to the state’s highest political office. Though, a June survey from MarblePort polling, seems to suggest that there was little Honoré could have done to avoid a Vitter Victory.
The survey also suggested that so far, GumboPac’s “Anyone but Vitter” billboards have done little to push Democrats to cross party lines with a tactical vote for either GOP Lt. Governor Jay Dardenne or GOP PSC Commissioner Scott Angelle. The poll argued that in a runoff, neither Republican has much chance to block Vitter’s path. Nor has Rep. John Bel Edwards managed to become “cool” enough to convince a sizable portion of the Pelican State’s GOP electorate to cross the aisle for him.
The Democratic State Representative certainly has tried. He convinced Rock-and-Roll matriarch Lynne Spears to send out a fundraising email promising that a lucky contributor to the Edwards’ campaign would win a ticket to attend her daughter Britney’s concert in Las Vegas, all expenses paid. A winner will be announced on September 8, 2015.
The appeal had much the feeling of a proverbial “Hail Mary” pass, trying to convince ‘Red State’ rural Caucasian voters that it was alright to vote for a Democrat statewide. What better way that to employ the star-power of the songbird from Kentwood?
The problem is that the appeal is having little sway in the polls. According to the MarblePort polling, a head-to-head runoff, Edwards still loses to Vitter, 38 percent to 50 percent.
Commissioned by the conservative website The Hayride, the poll postulated that all potential contenders, even Independent Russell Honoré, would lose to Vitter significantly.
While observers have supposed that the GOP candidates have greater potential for runoff growth than Edwards, since their vote would be less partisanly polarized, the actual numbers suggest similar margins of defeat, regardless of registration.
Vitter’s 50-38 margin over Edwards is not that different from his 52-32 vs. Dardenne, 49-31 vs. Angelle, and 54-29 vs. Honoré.
Moreover, it had been widely assumed, prior to this poll, that Gen. Honoré’s presence in the October primary would draw votes from both Vitter and Edwards. As the only candidate who could have a simultaneous appeal to conservative whites and working-class African Americans, pundits supposed that Honoré would either be strong enough to make a runoff himself, or would level the playing field to allow either Dardenne or Angelle to slip through.
The fact that neither possibility looked likely may be a reason that the General opted not to run. Honoré received eight percent support, up only one point from May despite all of the hype. Angelle and Dardenne each ranked only slightly higher at 10 percent. The PSC Commissioner was up by four points from May, while the Lt. Governor fell by three points. (Each of those percentiles were within the margin of error, however.)
The 2015 Governor’s race was the not the first time that the retired Lt. General flirted with running for political office, or running against David Vitter. Honoré actively told friends that he considered a bid for the U.S. Senate in 2010, only to demur at the last moment.
Or perhaps his choice to stay out acknowledged that Louisianians displayed insufficient outrage to demand new options at the ballot box. In his email to supporters last Wednesday, Honore’ listed many of the changes the state needed, from redirecting tax breaks for chemical extraction and refining to schools and health care, as well as expansion of living-wage laws and the TOPS program to graduate students who promise to stay in the state for five years.
The missive was almost written like a campaign announcement speech, rather than a withdrawal/non-candidacy update. But, in the middle of his remarks, the General broke from his litany of reforms to utter this impassioned plea, “Do a gut check: Are we happy with the government we have? With who represents us? Think: Who has a record of working for us, and who promised to but actually went to work for their biggest donors? We must reshape our politics and reorder our priorities. We must get comfortable with speaking about the unspeakable, about how is it that we can be the nation’s third-largest energy producer and second-poorest state.”
Perhaps, Honoré’s “gut check” told him that voters were, at least, not unhappy enough to reject David Vitter for him—or even any of the other GOP candidates.