Just weeks after The Advocate revealed that Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Tea Party Republican and former one-term congressman elected to the AG post last fall, hired the ex-con daughter of one of his Democratic rivals in the fall 2015 election — a rival who unexpectedly and inexplicably endorsed Landry in his runoff victory over incumbent Buddy Caldwell — the pot is calling the kettle black.
The Advocate’s Will Sentel reported late Thursday afternoon that Landry has taken umbrage at the hiring of Larry Bankston as legal counsel for the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors. Bankston served nearly three and half years in prison following a 1997 conviction related to a video-poker bribery scheme. Sentel reports that Landry sent a letter to the board’s executive director, evidently without irony, expressing his concern about Bankston’s “appointment to this position of trust.”
Landry’s high-minded concern still has that new-car smell, however: Landry’s office earlier this year approved contracts for Bankston to provide services for two state boards, The Advocate reports, including the contractor board currently at the center of the AG’s letter of concern.
Read it here.