The two major Republican candidates, who are vying for the new, expanded 3rd CD that resulted from a loss of one of Louisiana's seats in the U.S. House, are likely to end up in runoff, yet there seems to be an increasingly fair chance that voters won't be afforded a side-by-side comparison.
[Note: Congressman Boustany's campaign manager, John Porter, tells IND Monthly that his boss did appear jointly with Landry at a forum in Franklin in August and might join Landry at an event in Crowley in a couple of weeks. So, we'll qualify this blog by wondering if the two will appear together in the largest city in the district, Lafayette?]
U.S. Reps. Charles Boustany and Jeff Landry will not attend a League of Women Voters forum for the 3rd Congressional District scheduled for Oct. 9 at the South Regional Library in Lafayette. The two major Republican candidates, who are vying for the new, expanded 3rd CD that resulted from a loss of one of Louisiana's seats in the U.S. House, are likely to end up in runoff, yet there seems to be an increasingly fair chance that voters won't be afforded a side-by-side comparison. The LWV forum in October will feature three outlier candidates, none of whom has a realistic chance of unseating de facto incumbent Boustany.
Dr. Robert Buckman, a longtime journalism professor at UL Lafayette, reached out to the campaigns in August to schedule an on-campus forum, providing the campaigns with several dates. "Landry was willing and Boustany isn't - not on the dates that I wanted and he wouldn't come up with any alternate dates," Buckman says.
Local ABC affiliate KATC is also trying to arrange a televised forum with the campaigns. New Director Letitia Walker tells IND Monthly via a Monday morning text message the station is hopeful "because all parties say they want to."
We'll be surprised if Boustany, especially, agrees to a forum with Landry. The former is the established candidate. He's running ahead of Landry, by all appearances. He has nothing to gain by "debating" the Tea Party candidate.