Landry touts job creation, anti-Obama stance

“Jobs,” said Jeff Landry after he delivered a message to his supporters. “Look, it’s jobs. Jobs is our concern. The economy is our concern. We have to get people in the 3rd Congressional District back to work and at the same time, get everyone else in this country back to work.”

Landry, joined by Tennessee Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn and Louisiana District 6 Congressman Bill Cassidy, addressed a room full of his supporters Saturday at the Crown Plaza in Baton Rouge.

The Republican politicians spoke while people dined on brunch, a serving of ham, eggs benedict, cheese grits, scrambled eggs and more.

They delivered the same message as other Republican candidates across the country: let’s take back power from the Democrats, repeal the health care bill and remove Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi from her position.

Blackburn poked fun at President Barack Obama admitting he was wrong to travel around the nation unveiling ‘shovel-ready’ projects because there is no such thing as a shovel-ready project.

“I know what a shovel-ready project is,” Blackburn said to the audience. “A shovel-ready project is firing Nancy Pelosi.”

As unemployment soars to all-time highs and people voice their displeasure with the new health care bill, the Republican Party can sit back and basically say, “We’re not Democrats,” a mirror-image of what took place four years ago when the nation was vocally upset with President George Bush and a Republican majority in the House of Representatives.

“My strategy over the next nine days is the same strategy that I’ve had over the last nine months – it’s going to be hitting the road, visiting people, putting out the message that we need to take the gavel out of Nancy Pelosi’s hands, something that if we send Ravi Sangisetty to Congress will not happen,” Landry said after the brunch. “This is an opportunity for us to take control of Congress that is already out of control.”

The national deficit is $13.7 trillion, according to brillig.com. Out-of-control spending is another hot topic along the Republican campaign trail, and Landry asserted that government unions were funding the Democrats in the federal elections.

“If you don’t think it’s serious, do you know who the largest independent expenditure in federal races is going to be?” Landry asked the audience. “It’s going to be your tax money. It’s coming from government unions. Your tax money is working against you. So believe you-me, when you hear that [National Republican Congressional Committee] and some of the other organizations need money, it is to fight that, and that is the kind of thing we need to go up to Washington and stop.”

Landry also spoke of concern about the Democratic Party “raiding” the Social Security trust fund and bringing it closer to bankruptcy.

“[Sangisetty] doesn’t want to face the fact that since Democrats have been in control, they’ve actually got us seven years closer to bankruptcy of that system,” Landry said. “He doesn’t want to talk about the fact that they’ve abused that system and allowed the government to raid our trust fund that endangers seniors and endangers those people who are nearing retirement age.”

After the payments are made to eligible citizens, the surplus funds are bonded by the U.S. Treasury Department, and the government can use the money to spend on anything while the bonds sit in a filing cabinet with no significant value. The interest payments are also bonded, but this isn’t a new system. It’s just more money is being spent.

Sangisetty, referencing a three-person debate for the Republican primary held on WDSU Channel 6, said Landry’s “Yes” response to a question asking the candidates if they were open to raising minimum age required to attain Social Security benefits is just too extreme.

“I’m certainly not for raising the retirement age immediately or for anyone else nearing retirement,” Landry said. “It would be the last thing I want to do. The last thing I want to do is raise the retirement age. But we have to look at it. We have to look at putting that program on solid footing, and there are some ways we can do it without having to raise the age, and I’m open to those issues.

“He’s just using a one-time question, a yes or no question that was posed to me, yet he doesn’t talk about how he’ll fix it. You know how he wants to fix it? He wants to raise our taxes. That’s what he wants to do. He doesn’t care about those seniors. He hasn’t created a job in his life. And that’s my stance. I will make sure that our seniors get the benefits they were promised.”

Jeff Landry grew up in the sugar cane industry, born and raised in St. Martinville. At 17, he joined the National Guard and served at Fort Hood in Texas with the 256th Infantry Brigade. Although he never served overseas, he was activated during Operation Desert Storm and is a veteran of the conflict.

After he finished his military service, he attended the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now University of Louisiana at Lafayette), where he majored in political science. While in school, he worked for the St. Martin Parish sheriff’s department and started a business.

He sold his business in 2000 and “decided to reinvest in myself.” He went to Loyola University and graduated with a law degree.

Landry lost a narrow race to Troy Hebert for State Senate in 2007. Three years later, Landry said he learned to “stick to the issues” in wake of the election.

Whether or not that is what he has done during his campaign for Congress depends on whom you ask. Since the beginning of the Republican primaries, candidates for the District 3 seat have brought attacks via television advertising.

Landry, in particular, has garnered a reputation for being a negative campaigner. Sangisetty said that someone who calls retired Maj. Gen. Hunt Downer “a disgrace to his uniform” doesn’t share the values of the 3rd District. Landry said he is confused as to why someone would call him a negative campaigner.

“I say that I’m a bit confused,” Landry said. “There’s a such thing as negative or informative. First of all, all I did in the primary, that primary is over. We started a brand new election on Oct. 3, and I can tell you the first person out there talking about somebody’s character was my opponent.

“I have stuck to the issues, I have stuck to jobs, this economy, this coast, this now de facto moratorium. People are tired of people talking about – they want to know what we are going to do in Washington, something my opponent fails to tell everyone.”

The Republican candidate said District 3 faces economic, health care and coastal issues along with the fallout of the BP oil spill. He said most important issue stemming from the spill is restoring the fishing industry, both commercial and recreational.

“I think today, all of the waters in Louisiana are now opened up for recreational fishing,” Landry said. “We need to make sure that our commercial fishing industry is put back to the place it was prior to the spill, but at the same time, we can’t kill our [oil] industry.”

Tuesday’s election will decide which political party will have the majority in Washington, D.C. The results hold importance in that the future of the health care bill, Pelosi’s position and the general direction of the country will be decided at a worrisome time.

Because of its importance, Congresswoman Blackburn flew in from Tennessee to stress to Cassidy and Landry’s supporters that they spread the word and vote Republican.

“Jeff is a great candidate,” Blackburn said. “He’s running a great race. It’s so important we get everybody out to vote so that he finishes strong. I’m here to encourage people to get out to vote and vote for Jeff Landry.”

When asked what opinions he shared with Landry, Congressman Cassidy said they are both pro-life and pro-worker.

“Jobs, jobs, jobs and jobs,” Cassidy said was the single biggest issue facing the nation. “We’ve got to get the economy working. Not government jobs, which frankly can only last as long as you can borrow enough money to support them. We want private-sector jobs – jobs that allow folks to buy houses and buy cars, and send their kids to the schools of their choice.

“In fact, when I say that we in Louisiana have answers for the unemployment problem across the nation, we know that if they’re drilling a well in Louisiana, they’re buying the steel from Indiana and the engines to power the drills from Illinois, and the workers may be flying in from Nebraska,” Cassidy said. “It’s an employment program that ripples across the United States.”