LaPolitics by Maginnis: Presidential debates, Louisiana style

Published Oct 19, 2012 at 9:00 am (Updated Oct 19, 2012)

For those who have not heard enough after the third presidential debate on Monday, four Louisiana politicians will go at it the following evening. The LSU Law School is sponsoring "A Conversation About the Issues in the Presidential Elections," at which Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain and Sen. Dan Claitor of Baton Rouge will represent the Republicans, while state party chairman Sen. Karen Carter Peterson and House caucus leader Rep. John Bel Edwards will speak for the Democrats. The public is invited to attend the event, taking place 5 to 6 p.m. Tuesday at the law school's McKernan Auditorium. It will be moderated by LSU professors Bob Mann and Jim Garand.

—Like Mitt Romney's suggested defunding of public television, which President Barack Obama's campaign has mocked as open season on Big Bird, Rep. Tony Ligi, R-Metairie, is questioning state funding for Louisiana Public Broadcasting. "Do we want to spend $9 million on public TV when that money can go to health care and education?" he asks. Ligi's real complaint about the amount budgeted for the state network is that it does not include funds for WYES-TV in New Orleans. The city's PBS flagship station predates the Louisiana Educational Television Authority and operates as a nonprofit without state support. LPB's operations are state funded, but the programming is paid for through its nonprofit Friends of LPB.

They said it: "I drove from Benton, La., and Lewis and Clark had an easier time." —Sen. Robert Adley, comparing notes with fellow legislators on traveling to the State Capitol, in The Advocate.

(John Maginnis publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com.)