Rep. Edwards visits Ville Platte during campaign

By: ELIZABETH WEST
Staff Reporter

Louisiana Representative John Bel Edwards is the only Democrat on the ballot for the 2015 Louisiana governor race.
With voting set to take place on October 24, 2015, Rep. Edwards has hit the road campaigning hard across the state of Louisiana beginning in his hometown of Amite. The campaign trail will come to an end Sunday in Baton Rouge after visiting major Louisiana cities such as: Lafayette, Alexandria, Shreveport, and Monroe and even serving recently as the guest speaker at the Smoked Meat Festival in Ville Platte.
As governor, one of the first things Edwards will do is put “Louisiana people first” and he plans on doing that by addressing the cuts made to higher education in the state under Governor Bobby Jindal.
“No other state has cut higher education more than Louisiana has in the past few years,” Edwards said during a recent visit to Ville Platte.
Along with Edwards’ desire to invest in education, the gubertorial candidate would also like to see personal income tax rates lowered. In a speech Edwards gave in Alexandria on Thursday, Edwards commented on how he would accomplish these lower income tax rates and the economic growth it will bring down the road.
“I think we can lower tax rates and get rid of some exemptions and make our tax rates fairer and flatter,” Edwards told The Town Talk. “And over time produce more revenue as the economy grows.”
Edwards plans to also lower corporate tax rates. Much like the personal income tax, Edwards’ path to accomplishing this would involve eliminating some tax breaks. His desire to see tax breaks eliminated, has been seen in the 2015 Legislative session where Edwards voted yes to have a bill passed that will reduce the refund for corporate inventory tax credits from 100 percent to 75 percent.
In the most recent Legislative session Edwards also co-sponsored a bill that would reduce penalties for marijuana possession, which also passed.
Edwards claims to be a conservative Democrat, that more conservative side is seen through some of his voting in the House. During the 2014 legislative session, Edwards voted yes to authorize the conceal carry of weapons in restaurants that serve alcohol. Edwards also voted yes to require abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the providers location to insure that the patient can properly be taken care of if something went wrong within the process of terminating a pregnancy.
The West Point Military Academy graduate currently finds himself in a tight race with Republican candidate David Vitter. According to The Times-Picayune, a poll that was conducted by Triumph Campaigns based in Jackson, Mississippi, has Edwards taking 30% of the vote and David Vitter capturing 31%.
It appears that a runoff will most likely take place in November between these two candidates, but at this time it is hard to tell who would stand the better chance of winning in a runoff for Louisiana governor.