Louisiana Voice blogger Tom Aswell, in a recent critique of former DNR Secretary Scott Angelle, questions whether the Public Service Commission District 2 candidate is actually just jockeying to run for governor in 2015.
Angelle stepped down earlier this year from his top post at the Department of Natural Resources, and within days announced he would run for the open seat on the PSC. That decision, Tom Aswell of Louisiana Voice notes, came right as the sinkhole crisis in Assumption Parish began to unfold.
Aswell writes:
He recently resigned that position in the midst of the still-ongoing Bayou Corne sinkhole disaster in northern Assumption Parish to seek the District 2 Public Service Commission seat, leaving it to others to grapple with a potentially disastrous situation that has produced the sinkhole that is now more than five acres in size and which has caused the evacuation of scores of residents.
What's worse, writes Aswell, is that neither Angelle nor Gov. Bobby Jindal have taken it upon themselves to visit the site of the sinkhole. Evaluating the PSC race, which for Angelle has resulted in big donations from political action committees and utility companies, Aswell says:
[W]hat this race boils down to - or at least what it should boil down to is these two questions:
If Scott Angelle would walk into a congressional hearing totally unprepared to discuss something as important as proposed safety regulations for offshore drilling - an issue that was certain to impact the Louisiana economy and hundreds of jobs for Louisiana workers - what makes voters think he would adequately prepare himself for such matters as utility rate increases and regulations for, say, the trucking industry in Louisiana as a member of the Louisiana Public Service Commission?
Is Scott Angelle simply being opportunistic in trying to set himself up for a run at the governor's office in 2015?
Click here and here for more on the race for PSC.