Candidates vying to be Louisiana’s next governor answered a series of rapid-fire questions during Thursday night’s televised debate, the first of the 2023 election season.
Though given specific instructions by WWL-TV anchors Eric Paulsen and Charisse Gibson, who moderated, the candidates didn’t always keep their answers to a simple yes or no.
Stephen Waguespack, one of three Republican candidates on the stage, lightly pushed back on the format.
“These aren’t yes or no questions,” he said.
“I told you you wouldn’t like them,” Paulsen joked.
Republican state treasurer John Schroder and state Sen. Sharon Hewitt, also a Republican, participated in the debate, as did Independent Hunter Lundy and Democrat Shawn Wilson.
Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry, the race’s presumed frontrunner, was invited, but did not attend Thursday night’s debate in New Orleans. His campaign cited concerns with one of the debates' many organizers as his reason for skipping the event. Several candidates who did attend criticized his absence.
The other missing candidate was Richard Nelson — and he really wanted to be there.
Nelson, a Republican, was excluded because of his low polling numbers, though he argues he is statistically tied with Hewitt and Schroder because his poll numbers fall within the margin of error compared to theirs.
But that didn’t stop him from chiming in from home.
All five...
Although on appeal the court distinguished that there was new information in the claim, the court ultimately found the new information was not material, nor was it plead with particularity. The U....