The Louisiana Family Forum has issued its 2008 Louisiana Voter Guide for federal and state races. Grassroots Baton Rouge Democrats, a citizens’ group, has found the LFF Guide to be highly misleading and partisan.

The Guide questions Congressional candidates about the following set of issues:

• Increased penalties for porn on TV;
• Repeal of the “Marriage Penalty”;
• School Vouchers;
• Legalization of Prostitution;
• Abstinence Education;
• Human Cloning;
• Repeal of the “Death Tax”;
• U.N. Review of U.S. elections;
• Federal “Hate Crimes” Legislation;
• Reinstatement of the “Fairness Doctrine.”

“It’s not clear what many of these issues have to do with ‘building families,’ which the Forum says is its main mission,” said John Daigle, a Grassroots Baton Rouge Dems committee member. “They are all obsessions of rightwing interests, but the links between the ‘Fairness Doctrine’ and building families is pretty tenuous, unless you think it is a family value to only have access to the hate mongering of conservative talk radio 24/7 and no access to the other side of the issues.”

The methodology used by the LFF is highly questionable as well. They say that they submitted questionnaires to candidates and for those who did not respond, took responses from their federal party platform. This assumes that the candidates are in total agreement with their party platforms, but it also suggests that party platforms have positions on issues like legalizing prostitution.

Because Congressman Don Cazayoux did not respond to the LFF questionnaire, they list his answer to the prostitution legalization question as “unknown.” “This is extremely misleading,” said Daigle. “Does anyone seriously think Don Cazayoux favors legalizing prostitution? Is any candidate promoting that position? It’s particularly unfair in the case of Don Cazayoux, a family man and prosecutor with a strong pro-family record.

“He is also ‘pro-life,’ yet the Guide never mentions this FACT – one would think this is an issue that the Forum has an interest in. But Congressman Cazayoux is a Democrat, and the Forum’s questions – and their self-selected answers – are slanted to favor Republicans.” (The Guide also manages to give the wrong website for Congressman Cazayoux, including “.com” instead of “.org.”)

State Senator Michael Jackson’s comments are all listed as “no response,” presumably because as an Independent he has no party platform positions. But Jackson was a Democrat until a few months ago, and has supported Democratic Party positions on many issues.

Strangely, this “Family Forum” Voter Guide has no mention of the main challenge facing American families – health care. Medical problems were a leading cause of bankruptcies in America before the mortgage meltdown. A key concern of Congressman Cazayoux, meeting our obligations to America’s veterans, is also absent from the Guide, yet the strains put on families of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts should be a concern for all Americans.

“The narrow set of rightwing issues that the Family Forum has highlighted is of little value to most American families,” said Daigle, “and their underhanded methodology and misleading presentation of the candidates’ positions sets a very bad example for Louisiana’s youth.”