Former state sen., congressional candidate, state Dem. head is sentenced to 22-month prison term; can you say karma?
Former state sen., congressional candidate, state Dem. head is sentenced to 22-month prison term; can you say karma?
January 11, 2023 by tomaswell
She was an influential state senator, chair of the Louisiana Democratic Party, the daughter of a powerful New Orleans politician, and an unsuccessful candidate to fill the 2nd Congressional District seat vacated by Cedric Richmond when he joined the Biden administration.
She also was addicted to gambling and that compulsion apparently took precedence over all the other traits and now KAREN CARTER PETERSON is headed to federal prison for 22 months. She was sentenced on Wednesday after pleading guilty to a single count of wire fraud for diverting more than $140,000 from the state Democratic Party’s treasury and from her own campaign funds to feed her gambling passion.
For one person in particular, it must have been a sense of karma. If Buddy Leach were still alive, there might well have been two experiencing that feeling of what goes around comes around.
Leach, a former congressman in his own right, and a wealthy oil and gas man from southwest Louisiana, was chairman of the state Democratic Party until unseated by Peterson who promptly set about using that position for her and family members’ personal benefit.
Some observers feel she single-handedly did more damage to the Democratic Party in Louisiana than any Republican strategy ever could have.
The other person is former chairman of the State Gaming Control Board Ronnie Jones.
Jones, who was residing in Peterson’s New Orleans senatorial district, was renominated by Gov. John Bel Edwards to the gaming post. But a quirk in the rules allows the senator in whose district any gubernatorial nominee resides to protest the appointment. That one protest is all it takes to kill the governor’s choice and that’s precisely what Peterson did to Jones.
It could have been some degree of sour grapes or misplaced revenge motive. Peterson, who had voluntarily placed herself on a “self-exclusion” list for Louisiana casinos, nevertheless managed to get into a Baton Rouge casino in 2019 for a little action and was CAUGHT. Perhaps she blamed Jones for her being outed and issued a misdemeanor summons.
“It is a disease,” she subsequently wrote in a statement on social media. “From time to time, I have relapsed.” At the same time, she also criticized whoever leaked her involvement in the state program to media, describing it as intentional.
Jones agreed that gambling addiction is a disease but he stopped short of giving her a pass on her behavior on that basis.
“Gambling addiction is real,” he said. “It’s crushed families from coast to coast and I don’t think there’s any doubt that Peterson gambled away stolen money. But we don’t know what we don’t know. Was all the $140,000 gambled? Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps there was some wining and dining along the way courtesy of other people’s money. But she has successfully weaponized gambling addiction as the bogeyman for all her ills. In this case it’s the political equivalent of the dog ate my homework excuse. Cast yourself as the victim and hope for the best outcome.”