Jindal, Boasso exchange jabs in governor debate

SHREVEPORT – In the most heated exchange between the candidates running for governor, Democrat Walter Boasso and Republican Bobby Jindal sparred Thursday night over health care votes and corruption allegations, with voices rising and accusations flying.
Boasso attacked Jindal for voting against a children’s health insurance bill in Washington, and the usually calm Jindal appeared shaken by the attack and struck back by accusing Boasso of misrepresenting facts and twisting his record.
The exchanges between the two grew so direct and so loud that the debate moderators intervened, asking the candidates to stick to answering questions rather than back-and-forth attacks. But that was only after a few more criticisms from each.
Boasso, a state senator from St. Bernard Parish, struck first, on a health care question, challenging 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.
Jindal, a congressman from Kenner, 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.