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Advocate: Cortez taking "extraordinary" steps to help Robideaux

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Posted at 10:07 AM, Jun 08, 2021
and last updated 2021-06-08 11:07:32-04

Twice during the current legislative session, Senate President Page Cortez has taken extraordinary steps to help certain gambling companies that are represented by a former colleague who is close to Cortez - and is also the former mayor of Lafayette - our media partners at The Advocate report.

The friend, Joel Robideaux, became a lobbyist this past year after a 15-year run as a public official, a career that ended after he didn’t seek re-election as mayor of the city and parish of Lafayette in 2019. Before that, he spent 11 years in the state House, the story states.

Robideaux’s wins as a novice lobbyist owe largely to actions by Cortez, who is probably the most powerful state legislator. Robideaux’s three primary clients -- who pay him somewhere between $200,000 and $450,000 altogether, according to state filings -- have all notched major wins during the session, which ends Thursday, the Advocate reports.

To read The Advocate's whole story, click here.