Is LUS Fiber Doomed To Failure + Edwin Edwards For Congress? – Wingin’ It Wednesday

This week on "Wingin' It Wednesday", panelist Carol Ross, Mike Stagg, and Warren Caudle joined "Nathan and Bernie in the Morning" to discuss LUS Fiber as well as Edwin Edwards candidacy for congress.

Here's what the panel had to say:

1. A recently filed report says LUS Fiber is behind revenue projections and questions whether or not the operation will every be profitable. Your thoughts?

Mike Stagg started us off:

This report is just ideologically driven on attacks having anything to do with the public sector. It’s consistent with the new divide in American politics, corporatism. The idea that power and control needs to reside in places where it’s best controlled by population. We had the same thing with charter schools. It’s structured so that the power resides in Baton Rouge
The fact is LUS FIBER is a winner in Lafayette, it keeps money in Lafayette, it’s world class technology, and it’s already creating jobs here.

Carol Ross posited:

The report wasn’t that bad in terms of quoting numbers provided by the city. It did a pretty good analysis of where fiber is right now.
I supported fiber to the home, I still do. As usual, the projections were a little rosier than reality. Even LUS has admitted they are behind on their projections.
I have two reasons to support LUS Fiber. 1. When LUS Fiber went on they were the competition to an existing monopoly. 2. From a marketing standpoint, Fiber positions Lafayette above the competition.

Warren Caudle added:

In any of these kinda things, the first thing we jump into is getting polarized. Mike mentioned the guy who did this report was paid for therefore the report is all wrong. The report is probably skewed, but I don’t know.
Next year when we have our election, I sure hope we have an open and honest discussion.

1. Louisiana's Democratic Central Committee is endorsing former Gov. Edwin Edwards in the race for the state's 6th Congressional District seat. Your thoughts? 

Warren started us off:

Is there any human being in Louisiana that is schocked by their endorsement? Edwin Edwards is going to be in the runoff, I don’t think there’s any question about it. Can he win? Probably not.
I wish we’d go back to closed primaries.

Carol posited:

It’s kind of a sad commentary on the state of Democratic party in Louisiana that has to resort to a convicted felon. This is really about getting out as many votes as possible for Marry Landieu. It will be funny to see what quips he comes out with. He’s still pretty sharp.

 

Mike concluded:

I saw Edwin Edwards speak in Baton Rouge early this summer. He’s the sharpest candidate in this race still and probably has the best grip of politics. Edwards will make the runoff, can he get elected… maybe? Edwin Edwards was not convicted for anything he did while in public office. I think he’s a formal candidate.

To listen to the full audio from our Wingin' It panelists, click the play button below:

Now it’s your turn to tell us what you think about today’s Wingin’ It Wednesday topics. Who got it right, who got it wrong, and who was way off? Let us know in the comment section.