Q) What do you and your spouse do? Do you have any children?
Well, with a 3-½ year old and 15 month old, what my wife, Sara, and I do is raise, chase and love two beautiful and energetic kids: Matthew-Paul and Ava MargaretAnn Lapleau. We are also the proud parents of Wrigley, our 97lb. Rhodesian Ridgeback. Sara is a Speech Pathologist with a distinction in head injuries. Sara works on an as-needed basis teaching a continuing education course for HEALTHSOUTH Corporation and does patient care for Amedysis. I am in Business Development for a Louisiana based family company, Mele Printing.
Q) Why did you become a Republican?
“Did I have any choice?” When I was born my father walked into the hospital room and read the birth certificate and shouted, “what is this, Randy?” His name is not Randy, it is Barry! Barry Goldwater. I was born in 65’. Lucky for me the name matches well with my views.
Q) Beyond television, newspaper and Internet, how do you stay current with political affairs?
Yes, everyday I have my consistent news sources that I look at to see what issues are “hot” for the day and what issues “the media is telling us we should think are important.” Aside from my regular sources, I am fortunate that our company, Mele Printing, is actively involved in the printed communication of political, campaign and congressional messages on a local, state and national level. “I thoroughly enjoy being active in this aspect of our business. It has allowed me to develop some professional as well as personal relationships with a good crowd of people.”
Q) What do you look forward to in Louisiana and the Republican Party in 2010?
This is a great question. 2010 will be a fun, busy and exciting year for Louisiana Republicans and myself.
The Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans on April 8th, 9th and 10th will prime us all for a big year in Louisiana Republican politics. Charlie Davis and his executive team at the SRLC have put together an impressive lineup of Republican Party leaders to speak at the conference (Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Haley Barbour, Bobby Jindal, Tim Pawlenty, Mike Pence and Rick Santorum just to name a few) and a large audience from all over the country. This will be a great event to finish off the first quarter of 2010 and jump-start us into the senatorial and congressional races.
Will the state congressional delegation hold onto its existing seats? Will the state GOP add the Louisiana 3rd district to the delegation? What will become of the redistricting? This will be exciting and our company is grateful to be a part of the process. And of course, let’s not forget about Senator Vitter.
I look forward to his campaign and watching Senator Vitter and his staff run a strong race against Congressman Melancon and maintain his seat in the Senate.
Q) What issues are you most passionate about? Why?
Healthcare, taxes, debt. Socialized healthcare concerns me. Being someone who has experienced a traumatic brain injury, I am confident that I would not have received the care that I did in a socialized system. High taxes concern me as they have historically slowed down our economy and increase the possibility of unemployment. Debt that we incur as a result of a recession can be over come as we pull out of a recession if we are in a pro-business environment. Unfortunately, the kind of debt we are currently creating appears to be going beyond that in which a healthy economic upturn will resolve. My concern is that the only way we will be able to address the debt will be through significant tax increases.
Q) What changes do you like that the party has made?
Believing that the future of the party rests with its connection to the younger generation, I like how the party has been proactive in communicating with the younger generation, and older generation, through sites like lagop.com, lagop.net and social network sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Q) Who is you favorite Republican Elected official and why? (Current or past is OK)
I will go with my namesake, Barry Goldwater. Another reason that I choose Barry Goldwater is a family one. A few years ago Sara and I were going through some of her old family photos. We came across several large photos of her late father (William Paul Green), Barry Goldwater and a few others riding in a convertible. When we asked about the photos we learned that back in the early 60’s my father in-law and Noble Chambers were the President of the Crowley Republican Party. Now you have to remember that at that time there were only 12 registered republicans in all of Acadia Parish, so per Mr. Chambers, they had to be president because there were so few of them.
The two most memorable things that they worked on was organizing a Republican base in Crowley for Charlton Lyons’ 1964 race for governor against John McKeithen and Barry Goldwater’s visit to Crowley in the 60’s.