GOP rejects bid to censure Dardenne

BATON ROUGE –– The Louisiana Republican Party’s governing committee overwhelmingly rejected an attempt Saturday to censure Republicans Jay Dardenne and Scott Angelle because they did not endorse U.S. Sen. David Vitter in his run for governor against Democrat John Bel Edwards last fall.
By a near unanimous vote, the state GOP Central Committee voted down a call for a public reprimand of the two.
The resolution’s author, Christian Gil, of Berwick, did not speak on behalf of his resolution ahead of the morning vote.
Dardenne and Angelle also ran for governor last year but didn’t make it into the runoff race.
Dardenne endorsed Edwards in the runoff, while Angelle endorsed no one.
“As leaders in the Republican Party of Louisiana, we are obligated to fully support our party, platform, and its candidates. Only in times of great crisis or betrayal is it necessary to publicly censure our leaders. Today we are faced with both,” the proposal read.
Edwards beat Vitter 56 to 44 percent in the election, and tensions have continued to simmer among some Republicans since Edwards became the only Democratic governor in the Deep South and the only Democrat to hold statewide office in Louisiana.
Under state law, there is no way to formally kick someone out of a political party. The resolution would have merely been a ceremonial show of disapproval.