Fields, Guillory do a disservice to Louisiana’s 6th District voters through their debate snub

KALB-TV's Colin Vedros, left, moderates a debate Aug. 22, 2024, between 6th Congressional District candidates Quentin Anthony Alexander and Peter Williams at the Holiday Inn Downtown in Alexandria. The party-endorsed candidates in the race, Democratic state Sen. Cleo Fields of Baton Rouge and Republican Elbert Guillory of Opelousas, opted not to participated. (Greg LaRose/Louisiana Illuminator)

It takes very little to persuade me into taking a road trip somewhere, anywhere, in our beautiful state, so when KALB-TV in Alexandria asked me to be a panelist for its 6th Congressional District candidates’ debate, it was an easy “yes.”

But I was disappointed to learn both of the party-endorsed candidates in the election — state Sen. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, and former state Sen. Elbert Guillory, R-Opelousas — had declined to participate. It’s a peculiar decision from both men when you consider they’re hoping to represent a brand new district and voters they’re reaching out to for the first time.

Another 6th District entrant, Opelousas Democrat Wilken Jones Jr., also passed on the KALB debate, citing a campaign conflict that we’ll assume was more worthwhile than the ample free air time the television station was providing.

We’re definitely seeing a worrisome trend of perceived frontrunners opting out of what’s often the only chance for voters to see them explain or defend their platforms. Then-candidate Jeff Landry’s decision to skip nearly all debate-format events in the governor’s race last year certainly didn’t hurt him. But it’s most incompatible with any claims he makes about being accessible, accountable and transparent.

With three candidates skipping the debate, Quentin Anthony Anderson of Baton Rouge and Peter Williams from Lettsworth each had ample time to field questions from a panel of four journalists. Despite being outnumbered, the participants did a solid job of sharing their stances and explaining why voters should back them.

It was easy to see why Anderson is considered a rising progressive star in the Democratic ranks, having ascended from a volunteer intern in the 2007 Obama presidential campaign to a statewide field organizer. He currently leads a progressive advocacy group and runs a small marketing firm.

A successful tree farm owner and also a Democrat, Williams effectively communicated his points on a variety of topics, including the state’s dearth of mental health care providers and what it will take to keep young people from leaving Louisiana.

The five candidates, all of whom are Black, are running in a revised 6th Congressional District, which takes a meandering path between Shreveport and Baton Rouge to favor a minority candidate in a state where one-third of the population is Black. It’s the state’s second majority-Black seat of Louisiana’s six in the U.S. House, joining the New Orleans-based 2nd District.

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How state lawmakers came up with the new 6th District boundaries is at the heart of an ongoing federal lawsuit. A group of white plaintiffs insist the lines were racially gerrymandered and are therefore illegal. A similar lawsuit ended with the demise of a previous version of Louisiana’s 4th Congressional District, which Fields represented from 1993-97.

Anderson and Williams pointed out that Fields helped draw the lines of the new 6th District, suggesting he was complicit with approving a map that could eventually be thrown out. Fields was following the direction of Gov. Jeff Landry and the Republican majority in the Legislature when he supported the 6th District revisions, Williams said, describing the entrenched GOP officials as “the club.”

Republicans, who hold a supermajority in the Legislature, were required to add a U.S. House seat that favors Democrats, but they weren’t compelled to make sure it passed legal muster.

However, It should be noted that the bill to redraw the 6th District had support from every Black member of the Louisiana Legislature. The “no” votes in each chamber came entirely from Republicans, most of whom were displeased with parishes being split among multiple congressional districts in the final version.

The 6th District’s current representative, Garret Graves, a white Baton Rouge Republican, chose not to seek reelection in the majority-Black district. He has predicted it won’t hold up to a legal challenge. But such a decision wouldn’t erase a court ruling that dictates Louisiana must have a second Congressional district from which a minority representative stands a better chance of being elected.

The absence of Fields and Guillory from the debate certainly isn’t an indication a second majority-Black district isn’t merited, but you could understand if some voters read that meaning into it. If the two party favorites don’t think it’s important enough to take part in the only televised debate of the election, why should they bother to show up on Election Day?

Both men owe more to the 6th District, no matter its longevity.

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