[StBernard] Shreveport debate becomes heated Jindal/Boasso exchange

[Westley Annis]

Shreveport debate becomes heated Jindal/Boasso exchange 
By MELINDA DESLATTE 
Associated Press Writer

SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) -- What began as a traditional candidate forum between
the four top candidates for governor soon grew into a heated war of words
between Democrat Walter Boasso and Republican Bobby Jindal over health care
votes and corruption allegations.

At one point, Thursday's night debate in northeast Louisiana ran so off
script that the debate moderators intervened, asking the candidates to stick
to answering questions rather than back-and-forth attacks.

Boasso, a state senator from St. Bernard Parish, started the dispute, on a
health care question. He challenged Jindal to return to Washington to drum
up support from Louisiana's congressional delegation for a bill to expand
and reauthorize the Children's Health Insurance Program, which serves
109,000 Louisiana children.

Boasso said Jindal voted against children's health care.

The usually calm Jindal, a congressman from Kenner, appeared shaken by the
attack and struck back by accusing Boasso of misrepresenting facts and
twisting his record. Jindal said he voted against one version of the bill
because it would have cut health programs for the elderly. "Are you against
wheelchairs for the elderly?" he asked Boasso.

Jindal said he supported a subsequent version of the bill - though he wasn't
in Washington to vote for it - but that bill was vetoed by President Bush, a
veto Jindal said he'll vote to override.

"Walter, if you want to run on your record, run on your record, but don't
make up things about my record," Jindal told Boasso, at the second
face-to-face debate with all four major candidates.

Boasso responded by saying that Jindal inaccurately accused him of being
corrupt, in Jindal campaign ads that said Boasso was part of a corrupt
Louisiana crowd that didn't want to reform or improve the state.

"If you think I'm corrupt, either get to the attorney general's office and
prove it, or Bobby, drop it," Boasso said.

Then he added, "What you're practicing in Washington and what you're
preaching in Louisiana are not the same thing."

At that point, Democrat Foster Campbell - who has been targeted in one of
Jindal's attack ads and portrayed as a clown - also jabbed Jindal about his
platform of ethics reform.

"When you accuse people of something they didn't do, I think that's
unethical. That's sort of bordering on a lie," said Campbell, a public
service commissioner.

However, Campbell and independent John Georges, a New Orleans area
businessman, largely stayed out of the fray between Boasso and Jindal.

The primary election is Oct. 20.

When pressed on issues, the candidates were uniform in their support of
revamping work force training, pouring hundreds of millions of new dollars
into road repairs and construction, completing construction of Interstate 49
north to Arkansas, backing ethics reform issues and continuing the state's
film tax incentives program.

They opposed lowering the homestead exemption for homeowners.

 

Campbell touted his plan to get rid of the state's individual and corporate
income tax and replace them with a new tax on oil and gas processed in
Louisiana that could raise more money for road repairs, education and
coastal restoration efforts.

Georges touted his experience as a businessman, saying he's managed dozens
of successful companies and would be the best leader for the state. "Just
like Lee Iacocca fixed Chrysler, I'm offering my leadership to fix the state
of Louisiana," he said.

Boasso said he wanted to "pull apart" the government and reassemble it to be
more efficient and more visionary.

 Jindal pushed a plan that included a special session on ethics reform,
increased discipline in school classrooms, more money in the state budget
dedicated for road and bridge construction and decreased reliance on
emergency rooms for health care services.

While Boasso, Campbell and Georges have appeared together in numerous
campaign forums, Jindal has skipped most of those events, instead making
scripted campaign stops around the state. Thursday night's forum was the
second Jindal has attended.

 The one-hour KTBS-TV forum, sponsored by the local chambers of commerce,
was shown only in north Louisiana. Though a dozen people are running for
governor, only the four major candidates were invited to participate