Louisiana — 6th District

This is hardly an original observation, but I’ll go ahead and make it anyway: Politics these days can be stupid. Truly, depressingly stupid.

The latest reminder of this truism comes via a new ad campaign running in Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District, for the open seat soon to be vacated by Democrat Cleo Fields, now that the U.S. Supreme Court has had its way with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

With permission from on high to redraw districts for political advantage, the state Legislature took Louisiana’s second majority Black, largely Democratic district and converted it into a fifth majority White stronghold. That practically guaranteed that the district’s voters would send a Republican to Washington.

It didn’t determine which Republican, though, and here’s where the stupidity comes in.

A Washington, D.C.-based group called Club for Growth, which is supporting Republican state Sen. Blake Miguez in the Nov. 3 open primary, is running a million-dollar ad buy targeting the other major Republican in the field, state Sen. Rick Edmonds.

“Rick Edmonds promised not to raise taxes. He lied and we paid,” an alarmed-sounding narrator warns. The ad also accuses Edmonds of promoting secret sweethe

art tax breaks for “woke” big tech companies, and of committing “lies,” “secrecy” and “betrayal.” The visuals include pictures of stacks of cash and crossed fingers.

Yet when my colleague Tyler Bridges looked at the claims, he found something interesting: Edmonds’ record is basically the same as Miguez’s record.

On two of the three bills the ad cites, they voted in lockstep to back the agenda of Republican Gov. Jeff Landry. On the third, Edmonds voted yes and Miguez skipped the vote.

Among the bills at issue is a vote that increased the state sales tax. But it was paired with a cut in the income tax, and thus moved the state more towards the preferred mix of the taxes among conservatives.

The ad also dings Edmonds for supporting tax breaks and secrecy for “woke” big tech terms. Yet here too, Edmonds and Miguez were basically aligned with one another, and with Landry, who has championed attracting data centers and other tech projects.

That tracks with their broader records. Both have high rankings from conservative groups such as Louisiana Right to Life, the National Federation of Independent Business and the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry. Both are endorsed by the state Republican Party, for what that’s worth.

So are the people who filmed the ad stupid? Or do they think the voters are? I’m going with the latter.

It’s not like the issues they raise aren’t ripe for honest debate. On the state level, it would be nice to hear what the candidates really think the proper balance between sales taxes and income taxes should be, particularly since sales taxes tend to fall harder on lower-income people. And I’d love to hear a discussion about how much revenue, transparency and oversight the state should give up in the name of chasing big outside investments.

Even better would be a conversation about issues that Congress faces, from the war in Iran to regulation of artificial intelligence, from the Epstein files to whether Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth should be impeached.

In theory, that’s what campaigns should be about. In practice, they almost never are.

And that’s the result of another sad truism: Congress these days runs entirely along party lines. If voters elect a Republican, they pretty much know how that person will vote. Same for a Democrat. The goal, therefore, is to elect the most players from one’s own team.

But because of how most districts are drawn — and definitely how the 6th was hastily redrawn after the Supreme Court’s Callais decision this past spring — individual voters rarely get a meaningful choice.

So, given this bleak state of affairs, here’s my advice for the voters of the 6th District: Vote for the candidate you like most, or dislike least. Maybe it’s the one you think has the stronger ties to the district, or is smarter or has better people skills or more partisan bluster, whatever your preference.