NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – We don’t get the chance to see U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond outside of Washington too often, but when he is home he loves to wet a line.
Richmond says we have a former Saint to thank for that.
“Oh I started (fishing) heavy probably about 2002 or ’03, once Pat Swilling got elected to the Legislature,” he says. “Then Avon Honey and I started fishing with him a lot, and Pat used to wake up some mornings and say, ‘Aww man, it was a long night. We’re not going today,’ so we got tired of that and I went buy a boat ”
Of course it’s election time across America, and depending on who you talk to, one would think this election is already in the bag because of voter passion.
Not so fast, says Richmond.
“My fear is that I don’t sense it yet in terms of voter turnout. which concerns me,” he says. “Everybody is talking about it, it’s the topic of every dinner table, but I’m not sure that people are engaged or enthusiastic enough to actually go to the polls.”
In Washington, Richmond has been known to work with elected officials from the other side of the aisle. He sees this as an effective way to get things done.
“Well I just think that Louisiana, and especially urban communities and poor communities around the country, they don’t have the luxury to be partisan. And in terms of the wake of the shootings in Baton Rouge, Garrett Graves, a white Republican, we decided to come together and convene a conversation because we need to,” says Richmond.
We came out here to fish, and on this day Richmond’s Deputy Chief of Staff Enix Smith showed both of us up, but there was enough trash talk to go around.