The two candidates for Louisiana governor spent much of last night’s one-hour debate on Louisiana Public Broadcasting sparring with each other on being tied to their party leadership, and battling over their records.
Republican Senator David Vitter accused Democratic state Representative John Bel Edwards of being in lock-step with President Barack Obama. He denied it. Edwards accused Vitter of supporting policies of outgoing Governor Bobby Jindal. He denied it.
A story is developing on whether Vitter supporters hired private investigators and trackers to follow Edwards supporters. Vitter says Edwards is acting "holier than thou," and putting out negative, misleading ads. One says Vitter skipped a vote on a key veterans bill to take a call involving the Washington, DC, Madam prostitution ring.
And after battling position on topics including budget plans, infrastructure, education and workforce development – sparks ignited as they talked about their campaigns. It triggered this exchange, involving the moderator, starting with Vitter:
“You’re not living with the honor code John Bel. You’re living by the lawyers’ code, trying to parse words and create technicalities that don’t exist.”
“No sir. The fact of the matter is my campaign has not paid for a tracker or a private investigator. I haven’t seen any footage of you anywhere from a tracker. Not part of my campaign. It just absolutely isn’t. With respect to the negative ad, if it’s a low blow it’s only because that’s where you live senator.
….it’s 100 percent truthful.”
The two have agreed to face off again in a debate broadcast statewide Monday on WVLA-TV in Baton Rouge. The runoff is Saturday, November 21.
