Nungesser touts business background during campaign stop at VP Chamber

By: RAYMOND PARTSCH III
Managing Editor

Billy Nungesser touted his entrepreneurial background as a valuable asset to the office of lieutenant governor.
“I built a business with a $7,500 loan from my mother and an old storage container,” Nungesser said. “I took that and built my business.”
That business would become General Marine Leasing Company, which provided portable living quarters for offshore workers. That company eventual grew to have two hundred employees and reached $20 million in sales.
“I don’t have to have this job,” Nungesser said. “I just have a passion for people.”
Nungesser was talking about his business background, as well as his eight-year tenure as Plaquemines Parish President, during a campaign stop Friday at the Ville Platte Chamber of Commerce.
Nungesser is running against former Jefferson Parish president John Young, state senator Elbert Guillory and Baton Rouge mayor Melvin ‘Kip’ Holden. Holden is the lone Democrat of the group.
Nungesser lost the lieutenant governor’s race to incumbent Jay Dardenne in the 2011 election.
During his tenure as Plaquemines Parish President, Nungesser had to deal with devastation and massive rebuilding efforts in his parish from multiple hurricanes, including Hurricane Katrina, and then later the BP Oil Spill.
“I was successful in Plaquemines Parish not because of me but because I listen to the people,” said Nungesser, whose father William Aicklen Nungesser served as chief of staff for Gov. David Treen.
Nungesser also stressed during Friday’s stop of being able to have our industries in the state utilize other state businesses. He cited about how he was able to convince Conoco-Phillips to start using in-state vendors instead of using vendors from Texas.
“I believe we can fill all of these empty warehouses in small towns across the state,” Nungesser said. “Every time we promote a Louisiana product then we help ourselves.”
Nungesser also stressed that the state doesn’t have to exploit itself to have businesses come to Louisiana. He cited about how certain businesses in the past decade have pledged to commit to stay in the state for five years but after earning tax breaks from the state end up staying for only a few years.
“We don’t have to give away our grand kids’ education to get businesses to come here,” Nungesser said. “If we require every group to have an audit report done every year by a CPA firm that way we will know if they are spending the money the way they are supposed to. That way we can cut out those types of businesses out.”
Ville Platte City Councilman Mike Perron, Evangeline Parish Police Juror Bryan Vidrine, Evangeline Parish Clerk of Court Randy Deshotel and Ville Platte Mayor Jennifer Vidrine were among the local officials in attendance for Nungesser’s campaign stop. Vidrine even presented Nungesser with a gift basket of local seasonings and sauces, like Slap Ya Mama, Kary’s Roux and Jack Miller’s BBQ.
Even though he accepted the gift, Nungesser claimed that he would not take the big donations from special interest groups that are sometimes attached to getting legislation passed. He prided himself on Friday for not being one of those politicians.
“I couldn’t come here today and ask for your vote if I was going to sell my soul,” Nungesser said.