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Note: For the most part, Democrats, liberals, and left-leaners of all stripes have been sitting on the sidelines of the state senate race for district 16, vacated by Bill Cassidy so that Lane Grisgby, and Michael Jackson could give the GOP another pickup. But, anyways, the race, which features three Republicans still proves for interesting drama.
Act I - (circa 1999)
Rolfe McCollister is the publisher of the Baton Rouge Business Report. He's got a decent size circulation and his paper is experiencing steady growth. Due to the nature of the Business Report, McCollister has access to quite a bit of people with much more political and economic clout than himself. One such person is former Louisiana governor, Buddy Roemer, who approaches McCollister with the prospect of opening up a commercial bank - The Business Bank of Baton Rouge - with 290 other investors. McCollister would sit on the bank's board and steadily build contacts and influence throughout Greater Baton Rouge.
Act II - (circa 2000)
McCollister, trying to figure out his 'next gig', takes on the traditional role as the 'white collar South Baton Rougean' in Baton Rouge's mayoral race. As always, there is a three-way split in the race, between a white politico from Baker or Zachary (usually a mayor), an African-American politician from North Baton Rouge, and a white collar South Baton Rougean. As someone put it to me, crudely, it's a race between 'the redneck, the black guy, and the suit'. As always, the top two slots went to Bobby Simpson (the Baker mayor), and Kip Holden (the North Baton Rouge politico), and McCollister's 19.5% of the vote goes to Simpson.
Act III - (circa 2004)
The initial batch of investors (none of whom ponied up more than $250k), are rewarded handsomely for their $50-70 million initial investment when their bank is acquired by BancorpSouth for $11 billion. McCollister, realizing that A) he didn't have much of a direct career in politics and B) that he was now ten to twenty times richer (he goes from being upper-middle-class to being a multimillionaire in 5 years time), he decides to assume a 'kingmaker' role, and starts trying to forge a role as a powerbroker in Baton Rouge politics.
Act IV - (now)
McCollister, fresh off having his golden boy Jindal elected, is starting to feel as if he could be the Joseph Cannizaro of Baton Rouge, and starts backing other sorts of candidates, including a relative unknown named Winston 'Lee' Domingue.
So, why did McCollister grab ahold of Domingue? Coming soon... |
