Final push for votes in Dist. 3 runoff

DeHart to face Ohlmeyer for Dist. 7 seat
September 29, 2010
"There’s One In Every Family" (Houma)
October 1, 2010
DeHart to face Ohlmeyer for Dist. 7 seat
September 29, 2010
"There’s One In Every Family" (Houma)
October 1, 2010

Louisiana Congressional District 3 Republican nominees Hunt Downer and Jeff Landry have targeted each other often in the past few months, but with only three days before the nomination is determined, they’re talking about issues.

The Oct. 2 election will take place after New Iberia attorney Jeff Landry fell approximately 200 votes short of winning the bid outright Aug. 28, when he collected 49.6 percent of the vote.


“I certainly would like to think that if you add up my votes, and you add up the votes of the opponent who came in third, and you recognize neither one of us are career politicians,” Landry said.


Downer, who is based in Houma, wants to put the focus on the moratorium and deficit spending.

“Number one, I call it the presidentially-imposed disaster of the moratorium, followed by the slow-down and near-elimination of any permitting for shallow-water drilling,” Downer said. “Drilling in the Gulf is virtually at a stand still.”


Landry agreed that the oil and gas industry and deficit spending need attention.


“The economy ties in hand-in-hand with the current oil and gas industry, the deficit out-of-control deficit spending by the federal government, the problems that Louisiana has as far as coastal restoration, the challenges we face in reducing the size of the federal government so it’s not so over-burdensome on our smaller businesses.”

Lessening government interference on south Louisiana issues is another issue the candidates agreed on, with Downer asking the government to let allow the region to operate independently.

“Get out of our way,” he said. “It will help us with hurricane protection, it will help us with coastal erosion and it would have helped us in the cases where it did work and we built it – it kept the oil off of our shores and out of the marshes.”

The candidates are focused now on big government, but just a few months ago Downer and Landry were swinging at each other. Neither will take the blame for starting the dissention.

“That sort of personal destruction is what’s wrong with American politics today, and it’s got to stop,” Downer said. “As we went through this campaign, in South Louisiana, families were hurting, businesses were closing and thousands of citizens were losing their jobs, yet all my opponent did was attack me on what may or may not have happened 20 or 30 years ago.”

Landry feels the issues he brought up were warranted.

“It’s amazing in my opinion how my opponent has tried to make me as someone who has attacked him,” he said. “I only brought up the issues that I thought were important.”

Final push for votes in Dist. 3 runoff