In politics, especially Louisiana politics, there is always a back-story. Always. And with the current administrations in Washington and Baton Rouge, one can also figure that Jeff Landry fits somewhere in the equation, a story line we’re reveal a little further down. But first:
As recently as last November, it was announced with no little fanfare that physician/veterinarian/pharmaceutical salesman/former congressman/former gubernatorial candidate/former Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph Abraham was being appointed PRINCIPAL DEPUTY DIRECTOR at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He actually assumed the post on Jan. 5.
Just what a principal deputy director’s responsibilities are was not clearly stated but in a federal government that loves long, strung-out, meaningless titles, I would assume the title carried the full weight of something akin to the Assistant Under Deputy to the Chief of Staff of the Supervisor of Broom Closets for the Subcommittee on Secondary Studies for Staff Inquiries of Chemtrail Reports.
Abraham cavalierly said the MEASLES OUTBREAK SPIKE was the “cost of doing the business” because of the “porous” borders allowing “global and international travel,” despite the fact that only about 10 percent of measles cases detected since Jan. 20, 2025—the date Dementia Don took the oath of office a second time—were from other countries. He somehow didn’t seem to be concerned that many of the outbreaks occurred in pockets of low-vaccination rates.
Regardless, barely two months down the road from taking over his prestigious appointment, he announced his departure from CDC, saying he leaving to “address unforeseen family obligations.”
CDC was effusive in its praise of Abraham as he headed for the exit, saying in a formal statement that he led “with clarity and discipline, advancing the CDC’s mission to protect the health and safety of the American people.”
How could CDC possibly quantify such hogwash after only two months on the job?
And about those “unforeseen family obligations…” Well, I don’t know if U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow is immediately family, but it turns out he is stepping down to lead her embattled campaign in challenging another physician, Bill Cassidy, for the U.S. Senate state Cassidy has held for 11 years and is seeking an unlikely nother six.
But Letlow’s late husband Luke, was once Abraham’s chief of staff and close advisor, so there’s that. Luke, of course ran and was elected to succeed Abraham when he stepped down as 5th District Representative to run for governor—and he won that race but died of COVID-19 before he could take office.
It is of no little irony, given his former chief of staff’s death from COVID, that Abraham has consistently been a critic of COVID-era vaccination mandates and of the requirement that citizens wear masks in public. No matter, after Luke’s death, Julia, an earlier unsuccessful candidate for the presidency of the University of Louisiana-Monroe, stepped up to run for the vacant office and, with Abraham’s assistance.
Now, about that back-story mentioned in the opening paragraph. But first, a warning: The current three-way race for the Repugnantcan nomination for Senate is conjuring up memories of a 1950 Democratic campaign down in Florida when incumbent U.S. Rep. GEORGE SMATHERS won a close race by famously saying of his opponent, Claude Pepper, that Pepper was a “known extrovert” who practiced “celibacy” before marriage and who “matriculated” in college, who practiced “nepotism” with his sister-in-law, who had a sister who was a “thespian,” and a brother who was a “practicing homo sapien.”
But rather than telling the story myself, I’ll let State Treasurer John Fleming, himself a former U.S. Rep. and now Louisiana State Treasurer and (for now) a bitter opponent of Gov. Jeff Landry, yet another former member of Congress (boy, this is already getting confusing):
Wait. What? Is Fleming saying that Abraham offered him a federal post in exchange for dropping out of the Senate race? People actually do that?
Well, in his 2015 campaign for attorney general against incumbent Buddy Caldwell, there was, something like Fleming, also a third candidate, Geraldine “Geri” Broussard Baloney. She was eliminated in the first open primary and it was at that point that things started to get a little murky as they often tend to do in Louisiana.
Baloney, after meeting with Lendry, endorsed him. But was some kind of deal cut in exchange for her endorsement? Well, he subsequently hired Baloney’s daughter, QUENDI BALONEY, in the AG’s fraud section despite her having previously been charged with 11 felony counts of credit card fraud and theft. She eventually pleaded guilty to three counts, according to court records from Henrico County, Virginia. She was sentenced to six years in prison, all of it suspended.
So, bottom line: an individual who pleaded guilty to fraud is placed in the fraud section of the attorney general’s office after her mother endorsed Landry in the runoff. Weird? Hell no, not in Louisiana; it’s business as usual.
But there’s an added twist to the plot in this ongoing backroom saga.
The rumor mill has it that Letlow still wants to head up a Louisiana university (though Landry’s starting to run out of schools now that he’s already placed five political allies as university presidents).
Anyway, the plan, according to reports, is for Letlow to win (the odds of which are seeming to dwindle as the fight between her and Cassidy intensifies), immediately resign so that Landry can appoint her to head some college—and appoint himself to Cassidy’s seat.
When you see the handwriting on the wall that says you’re in competition with Rhonda Santis and Greg Abbott for the title of WORST GOVERNOR IN AMERICA, dooming you to a single term as governor, that scenario suddenly doesn’t seem so far-fetched.
Louisiana Voice 