Election Central: Woody Jenkins Goes Negative for Shelton; Attacks on Shelton’s Opponent Disguised as News

    Woody Jenkins, a career politician, is well known among news correspondents for his journalistic tactics of political attacks made through innuendos and misleading partial truths.  These days, he is portraying these attacks as news articles in his own Central City News tabloid in an attempt to get Junior Shelton elected as Central’s mayor.
    Jenkins' latest target is Dave Freneaux, the political newcomer with a strong business background and track record of community involvement.  Freneaux is also the founder of Central Speaks newspaper that competes with Jenkins for advertising revenue in Central.  Jenkins has falsely accused Freneaux of rigging a mayoral debate and of violating laws in his status as a CPA Inactive, although neither is true. In fact, Jenkins was informed of Freneaux's compliace with CPA regulations before he published his last edition.
    In these final days of the mayoral race in Central, Jenkins has apparently turned his monthly "Central" newspaper into a political tabloid, using misleading statements and negative campaigning on behalf of Shelton, the candidate he has endorsed.  The multi-page, multi-article attacks on Freneaux are an apparent attempt to divert attention away from Shelton’s $2 million bankruptcy, which Shelton had effectively concealed from the voters during the last election.
Louisiana Political News Service first reported that Shelton’s bankruptcy was exposed in the mayoral debate that Jenkins is now trying to discredit.  Shelton admitted at that same debate he had only worked three months of the last year, opting to campaign for the city’s $55,000 taxpayer-funded mayor’s position during the rest of the year.  Jenkins’ newspaper has printed no statement on Shelton’s bankruptcy, although The Advocate and Louisiana Political News have both accurately reported the truth.
    The Jenkins-Shelton connection began long before the current election.  Shelton serves on a parish-level political committee which is under Jenkins’ control, and which endorsed Shelton as the "Republican choice." At the same time, Shelton, who has paid more than $7,500 to Jenkins’ company during his election campaigns, was also named to the executive committee of the Chamber of Commerce of EBR which was founded by Jenkins and competes with the City of Central Chamber.  Jenkins is now devoting his tabloid  to attempts to discredit Freneaux. The result of these attacks are that his endorsed candidate  Shelton is in the privileged position of letting his de facto campaign manager do his negative campaigning on his behalf.
    Jenkins has used these tactics before to sway voters. However, in this election Central voters are speaking out against Shelton’s $2 million bankruptcy and his attempts to hide it.  They are questioning Jenkins' motives in once again getting involved in Central politics and trying to distort the facts.  One resident stated, “Jenkins doesn’t even live or work in Central, so why is he getting so involved?" Voters are now asking what Jenkins stands to gain by getting his political allies like Junior Shelton elected in Central.