The death of former Louisiana Attorney General Richard Ieyoub on April 10 and the decision of Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin a day later not to seek reelection put into stark relief the importance of two often-overlooked statewide offices — and the stakes of this fall’s elections.
Both Ieyoub and Ardoin served admirably during difficult circumstances.
Since Ieyoub left office in 2004, the AG’s office has become increasingly politicized and the AGs themselves increasingly unspectacular, to put it mildly.
Ieyoub served as AG for 12 years and will be remembered for courageously taking on Big Tobacco and earning the state a $4.6 billion settlement. Trust funds established with that money still help pay for education, health care and smoking cessation programs.
Ieyoub also helped create a host of Black-majority judicial districts, defended the independence of the Southern University System and fought for consumer protection, school safety and prevention of substance abuse.
Current AG Jeff Landry demagogically took on librarians and LGBTQ persons, earning himself some cheap headlines and a devoted political base among right-wingers and election deniers. He hopes they, and his early endorsement by the Louisiana GOP, will get him elected governor in the fall.
Comparing the records of Ieyoub and Landry is like comparing lions to hyenas.
Ardoin has served as the state’s chief elections officer since 2018, and as first assistant secretary of state for eight years before that. As secretary of state, he oversaw glitch-free elections amid COVID pandemic lockdowns, devastating hurricanes, and unfounded “concerns” about “the potential for election fraud” when he proposed increased early voting in 2020. He also tried by modernize Louisiana’s voting systems but was torpedoed by reckless GOP legislators and right-wing conspiracy theorists.
Most of all, Ardoin stood tall against fellow Republicans who spread what he called “pervasive lies that have eroded trust in our elections by using conspiracies so far-fetched that they belong in a work of fiction.” Truth is Louisiana has some of the most reliable election returns in the country, as attested to by independent auditors.
In contrast to the steady decline in the quality of our attorneys general after Ieyoub’s impactful tenure, the Louisiana secretary of state’s office has consistently been the best-run state agency for more than half a century.
During that span of time, each successive secretary of state has wisely kept in place a corps of highly qualified and dedicated employees who provide exceptional service to the state’s legal, business and journalism communities as well as to the general public. Each secretary also had the wisdom to continue hiring top-notch employees.
But all that could change next year, depending on who succeeds Ardoin. Likewise, the next AG could follow in Ieyoub’s footsteps — or Landry’s.
The governor’s race inevitably grabs virtually all the attention at election time, but Ieyoub and Ardoin have shown that the contests for attorney general and secretary of state are every bit as important, particularly in perilous times such as these.
Clancy DuBos is the political editor and columnist for Gambit in New Orleans. Email him at clancy@gambitweekly.com
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