Analysis: As he runs for governor, Rispone gives few details

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Republican businessman Eddie Rispone is asking Louisiana voters to choose him in the November runoff election without telling them much about what he wants to do if he wins the job.

Founder of a Baton Rouge industrial contracting company, Rispone is running mainly as a conservative supporter of President Donald Trump. He thinks Democratic incumbent John Bel Edwards has done a poor job. And he suggests his experience as a "job creator" would make him a good leader of Louisiana.

Ask what he wants to accomplish, and Rispone gets vague.

He's criticized Edwards for championing a bipartisan criminal sentencing law rewrite in 2017. But Rispone hasn't said what he would change, just that he'd "look at it again" with district attorneys and sheriffs, many of whom were involved in crafting what passed.

Rispone says taxes are too high and road conditions too poor. He's said he wants to slash tax hikes enacted during Edwards' tenure, while covering the growing cost of the TOPS college tuition program and increasing spending on early childhood education. He opposes raising Louisiana's gas tax, but says he'll boost road and bridge work.

Rispone doesn't explain how the math works, to both cut taxes and increase spending. Instead, he says he'll hire capable Cabinet leaders, eliminate waste and prioritize spending.

"We're going to go out and recruit good, talented people over these agencies. We're going to run these agencies like they should be run, like we do in business," Rispone said at one forum. "We're going to respect our citizens' tax dollars, and we're going to be efficient and effective."

That doesn't really tell much to people who depend on the state for services. And that might just be the point. Stake out a specific position and a candidate could...