.jpg)
BATON ROUGE — A New Orleans attorney will vie for treasurers office on the Democrat ticket in a runoff election scheduled for Nov. 18.
Republican John Schroder is Edward's opponent.
As the election heads into its final weeks, Edwards has been endorsed by Louisiana’s Democratic Party, who voted at the end of October to back the candidate as the election draws to a close.
Edwards has centered his campaign on his educational background and on being more open with taxpayers as part of what he calls “accountability and transparency.”
"As the most-qualified candidate, I have a profound understanding of the state treasurer's office,” Edwards told the Louisiana Record.
“I am the only candidate with a bachelor's and master’s degree in accounting from Tulane University and law degree from Loyola University School of Law,” Edwards said. “However, my opponent, John Schroder, has a bachelor's degree in criminal justice with no accounting or legal education and is running as a candidate to manage and oversee Louisiana’s $29 billion budget.”
Edwards cited John F. Kennedy’s well-known phrase used as Massachusetts state treasurer: "We don't have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem." Edwards said that Kennedy never mentioned where or how tax dollars were being spent.
“I will do this through accountability and transparency of the state treasurer's office,” Edwards said. “I am the only candidate that is qualified to run the state treasurer's office and my platform is accountability and transparency, so that the people of this great state know exactly how their tax dollars are being spent.”
Edwards said he will be transparent by providing a quarterly report with a breakdown of how taxes are being spent.
“This has never been done before, but the taxpayers deserve to know where their hard-earned tax dollars are going,” Edwards said.
“I will work closely with Interim State Treasurer, Ron Henson, to upgrade our bond rating from an AA- to AA,” Edwards said. “I also plan to bring the Unclaimed Property Department into the 21st century using innovation and technology, so that the people of Louisiana receive any and all unclaimed property that belongs to them.”
While Edwards took the lead in the primary, Schroder is favored to win due to Republicans who split 67 percent of the primary vote, according to The Advocate in Baton Rouge.