Finding statistics to prove a point has never been difficult, and the two candidates for Louisiana governor have had no problem coming up with their own numbers to bolster what they have been saying about the state’s economy.
Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards has repeatedly talked about the state having the lowest unemployment rate in 11 years. He said the annual growth rate for Louisiana’s economy in the first quarter of 2019 was the 10th highest in the country and personal income for the same period was the highest ever.
Eddie Rispone, the Republican candidate in Saturday’s runoff election, has also said numerous times that the state’s economy ranks 50th among the states. A May U.S. News & World Report ranked the 50 states, and The Advocate said that is the main source for “Rispone’s grim image” of Louisiana being ranked 50th.
However, the newspaper said the magazine said the ranking uses data in part from 2014 and 2015 when Bobby Jindal was governor. Edwards said Rispone is entitled to his own opinions, “but he’s not entitled to his own facts.”
President Trump criticized the state’s economy at two state appearances on behalf of Rispone and in a TV commercial, but Edwards bolstered his argument with a tweet from the White House talking about “The Trump Economy in Louisiana.” The tweet noted that over 21,000 jobs have been added in Louisiana since Trump took office and that Louisiana’s unemployment rate is down from 6 percent to 4.3 percent.
Rispone has hammered Edwards on having close ties to trial lawyers, saying it has hurt the oil and gas industry that has been sued by parish governments along the coast.
“We have great oil and gas potential here but we’re killing thousands and thousands of jobs in the oil and gas industry because of lawsuit abuse, because of the trial lawyers that he’s close to,” Rispone said.
Louisiana’s economy has grown slowly over the past year, which isn’t unusual for the state, according to The Advocate. It contacted LSU economics professor Jim Richardson and Greg Albrecht, the Legislature’s chief economist, for an explanation.
The two economists blame the slow growth on the price of oil, the Trump administration’s trade war and a decline in industrial construction projects in south Louisiana, which is expected to pick up heavily in 2020 and 2021. Oil prices went from $100 per barrel to about $54 per barrel in 2015 before Edwards took office.
Both economists said a governor has little control over the state’s economy in the short term, so perhaps it’s not such a major campaign issue after all.
