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Griffon is sometimes called "The Louisiana Limbaugh".[1]
Blain Michael "Moon" Griffon (pronounced gre-FONN, born May 16, 1961) is an American conservativeradio talk show host who broadcasts statewide through station KPEL 96.5 FM in Lafayette in southwestern Louisiana. He was formerly based at KMLB 540 AM in Monroe in Ouachita Parish in the northeastern part of the state.
Griffon is sometimes likened to the national radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh[2] but his program reflects his distinct Louisiana accent and his own brand of politics. The Moon Griffon Show debuted on August 23, 1993,[3] five years after the beginning of The Rush Limbaugh Show.
Biography
Griffon was born and reared in Plaquemine, the seat of government of Iberville Parish south of Baton Rouge. His paternal grandfather, Charles A. Griffon, Jr., was a sheriff of Iberville Parish for sixteen years until he was unseated in 1964 by then 31-year-old Jessel Ourso.[4] His maternal grandfather, Matherine J. "Matt" Berthelot (1904–1985), originally from Morganza in Pointe Coupee Parish, owned and operated a Shell Oil service station in Plaquemine.[5] Griffon's father, Charles Thomas "Tommy" Griffon (born November 1, 1935) of Plaquemine, served an unexpired term as an Iberville Parish police juror. Griffon's mother, the former Dorothy Ann "Dot" Berthelot (born January 9, 1936), is one of four children of Matt Berthelot and the former Nethla Morales.[5] His brother-in-law, attorney Brian Steele Lestage (born December 1961), a Republican,[6] has been since July 2008 the clerk of court in DeRidder in Beauregard Parish.[7][8]
Griffon received his nickname "Moon" because as a small boy he particularly enjoyed the song "Moon River".[9] He graduated in 1979 from Roman Catholic-affiliated Redemptorist High School in Baton Rouge, since closed.[10] He was then recruited by coach and later athletic director Benny Hollis (1939–2011) to the University of Louisiana at Monroe to play basketball.[11][12] Griffon subsequently graduated in 1983 from ULM, then known as Northeast Louisiana University. On his radio program on May 13, 2009, Griffon revealed that he had kept a pistol for protection in his ULM dormitory room.[13] In 2013, Griffon said on his program that he owns weapons but has never been compelled to use one for either personal or family protection.[14]
Griffon is divorced from the former Connie Rene Moseley (born March 1962). She remarried and is now known as Connie M. Pace. Griffon has two sons from his first marriage, Daniel Blain Griffon (born 1987), like his father a graduate of the University of Louisiana at Monroe, and Derek Charles Griffon (born 1989), a graduate of Northwestern State University in Natchitoches.[15] In December 2012, Daniel Griffon wed the former Elizabeth Morgan Ernst; both are from Monroe.[16]
His second wife is the former Tonia Lou Digirolamo (born April 1963), a nurse at a specialty hospital. She is the daughter of Joseph John Digirolamo of Greenwell Springs in East Baton Rouge Parish, and the late Lucille "Mama Lou" Digirolamo. She had worked as a secretary for the Greenwell Springs Baptist Church, and died in 2011 at the age of eighty-five.[17] From the second marriage, Griffon has two children, including a son, Andrew Walker Griffon (born 2001), and daughter, Mattie, born in 1996, whom Griffon frequently mentions on his program in terms of her special needs. He attributes his move to Lafayette in large part to meet Mattie's special needs.[18]
He is an avid fisherman and frequently makes light on the radio program of his fishing success. Griffon was a caterer for nine years before he began his radio career.[19] Griffon also addresses dinners and private gatherings as an entertainer and a motivational speaker.[19]
He has been affiliated with the North Monroe Baptist Church.[20]
An occasional substitute host for Griffon has been the Monroe attorney Paul Loy Hurd, Sr. (born March 1954), the author of Louisiana's Governmental Cesspool: The Constitutional Solution, an exposé of government waste and inefficiency.[22]
Another substitute host, John William Sutherlin, a native of El Dorado, Arkansas, who holds a Ph.D. from the University of New Orleans, is an associate professor of political science at Griffon's alma mater, the University of Louisiana at Monroe. He is the co-director of the Social Science Research Laboratory at ULM.[23][24]
Griffon's former co-host, Ruth Ulrich of Monroe, is a former member of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee and the Republican National Committee. The co-host role was exercised daily from 2010 to 2014 by Gregory Francis "Greg" Gulyas (born December 1950), a Democrat,[25] a native of Flint, Michigan, and the news director of KMLB in Monroe, which carries Griffon's program. Gulyas is also a play-by-play sports reporter. He did not follow Griffon to Lafayette,[26] and Brandon Comeaux, who covers news and sports for KPEL, became the co-host of the program.[27]
A frequent guest is Dallas Long Hixson (born March 1970), an Alexandria automobile dealer and an advocate of limited government.[28]
Political commentary
At times, Griffon has irritated the GOP leadership. In 2006, he invited the Shreveport catfish restaurateur Chester T. Kelley for a full segment on the program. At the time the conservative Kelley was unsuccessfully opposing the reelection of the Moderate Republican, Jim McCrery of Shreveport in Louisiana's 4th congressional district.[29] In 2008, Kelley emerged as an independent candidate for the U.S. House against Republican John C. Fleming, who barely managed to hold the seat that McCrery vacated after twenty-one years. Fleming, who has since joined the Donald Trump administration, has been an occasional guest on the Griffon program.
Griffon repeatedly holds Republican former GovernorBobby Jindal, whom he humorously refers to as "Campaign Bobby", accountable for a lack of reform in state government though a surplus of political rhetoric. Griffon claims that Jindal, who frequently appeared on the radio program prior to his election as governor in 2007, has failed to tackle the state's financial woes, uses one-time funds in the state budget, and spends too much time campaigning out-of-state to raise funds for himself and other Republican candidates.[1] Because of his opposition to U.S. PresidentBarack H. Obama, Griffon supported Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election. He also criticized Jindal, who had campaigned in other states for Romney, for then having made critical remarks about Romney just a few days after the Republican nominee lost the general election to Obama.[30]
On December 10, 2007, Griffon announced his opposition to Jindal's expected support for incoming State RepresentativeNoble Ellington as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. Ellington, who was term-limited in the state senate and hence ran for the Louisiana House of Representatives, was closely tied to the Democratic former administrations of Edwin Washington Edwards and Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and was a strong supporter of numerous tax increases. Ultimately, Jindal, acting on the advice of then incoming SpeakerJim Tucker, did not recommend Ellington for the chairmanship.[31] Griffon further voiced strong opposition to Republicans for accepting Ellington into the party when the lawmaker defected in December 2010 in what was mistakenly believed to have been a prelude to a run for House Speaker in 2012. Griffon questioned the defection of State SenatorJohn Alario to the Republican Party in preparation for a 2012 run as State Senate President. Griffon considers Ellington and Alario "big government" advocates, not conservatives.[32] On October 25, 2011, Jindal endorsed the election of Alario as State Senate President; the selection was confirmed with a single dissenting vote, that of freshman Senator Barrow Peacock of Shreveport.[33] In 2017, Griffon was still critical of Alario, whom he said because of patronage issues controls the votes of nearly all of the state senators with a couple or three exceptions. Griffon predicted that Alario will guide additional tax increases through the legislature in 2017 advocated by Jindal's Democratic successor, John Bel Edwards.[34]
In 2008, Griffon endorsed the Republican U.S. senatorial candidate John Neely Kennedy, the state treasurer, in Kennedy's unsuccessful challenge to incumbent Democratic U.S. SenatorMary Landrieu. Kennedy occasionally appears on Griffon's program. Griffon criticized several state Republican leaders for having endorsed Landrieu over Kennedy.[35] Landrieu thereafter defeated Kennedy with 52 percent of the vote in the general election. Kennedy was elected to the Senate to succeed Republican David Vitter in 2016, with Griffon's support.
In November 2008, Griffon left the Republican Party and re-registered as a "No-Party" voter. He cited Jindal's political moves during the first year in office as a reason for leaving the party. "My frustration with Bobby Jindal is that he is not being a conservative. Conservatives are mad as hell and they’re not taking it any more," Griffon said in an interview. Griffon has also criticized the late Republican Governor David C. Treen because Treen supported Senator Landrieu and Treen sought without success to obtain a pardon or commutation of sentence for Treen's former Democratic rival, former Governor Edwin W. Edwards. On several days in late November 2008, Griffon humorously suggested that listeners mail change-of-voter registration cards to Treen and urge the former governor to re-join the Democratic Party, from which he defected in 1960.[36]
In October 2010, former State Senator Mike Smith, a Democrat (subsequently an Independent) from Winnfield, using his first name, "Kenneth," called the program to allege that Griffon is controlled by two unnamed wealthy Republicans. Griffon denies the allegation and claims that he alone owns his company and urged Smith to call again for further discussion on the air.[37]
Griffon has opposed Senator Mary Landrieu throughout her career. He believes she case the critical sixtieth vote in 2010 to implement the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, legislation which Griffon contends has been a particularly "unaffordable" law from his family perspective. Griffon questioned why Jindal did not endorse until after the 2014 primary election the Republican who unseated Landrieu, U.S. Representative Bill Cassidy of Baton Rouge. The Cassidy campaign fired Jindal operative Timmy Teepell in 2013, and Jindal, who campaigns nationally for various Republican candidates, had reportedly been lukewarm toward Cassidy. Griffon also criticized a wealthy cadre of Republican businesspeople for having crossed party lines to back Landrieu in 2008.[38]
Early in 2017, Griffon called for the resignation of Mike Edmonson as the superintendent of the Louisiana State Police[39] after disclosure that Edmonson in October 2016 had taken seventeen of his high-ranking personnel, with one guest allowed for each employee, to San Diego, California, to attend a conference and to observe Edmonson's receiving a lifetime achievement award from the International Association of Chiefs of Police. The trip cost state taxpayers $70,000. It included a stay for four troopers traveling by car to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas, Nevada. U.S. Senator John Neely Kennedy, who defeated the Democrat Foster Campbell in the 2016 election, agreed that Edmonson should leave his position but said he doubted if the official would be disciplined because of the "good ole' boys club."[40] Within a few weeks after the controversy surfaced, however, Edmonson took early retirement from the state police.[41]
David Conner Treen Sr., was an American attorney and politician from Mandeville, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. In 1979 he was elected as the first Republican Governor of the U.S. state of Louisiana since Reconstruction. It was a sign of changing party affiliations among white conservatives in the state, who have comprised a majority of the population since at least 1900. In 1972 Treen was the first Republican elected in modern times from this state to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Louis Elwood Jenkins, Jr., known as Woody Jenkins, is a newspaper editor in Baton Rouge and Central City, Louisiana, who served as a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1972 to 2000 and waged three unsuccessful races for the United States Senate in 1978, 1980, and 1996.
Paul Jude Hardy is an American attorney from Baton Rouge, in the U.S. state of Louisiana, who was the first Republican to have been elected lieutenant governor of the U.S. state of Louisiana since Reconstruction. He served in the second-ranking post under Governor Buddy Roemer from 1988 to 1992.
William Henson Moore III is a retired American attorney and businessman who is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, having represented Louisiana's 6th congressional district, based about Baton Rouge, from 1975 to 1987. He was only the second Republican to have represented Louisiana in the House since Reconstruction, the first having been David C. Treen, then of Jefferson Parish.
Clyde Cecil Holloway was an American politician, small business owner, and member of the Republican Party who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and served as one of five members of the Louisiana Public Service Commission. After seven years in office he did not seek reelection to the PSC in 2016.
Foster Lonnie Campbell Jr., is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party from the U.S. state of Louisiana. Since 2003, he has been a member of the Louisiana Public Service Commission. He served in the Louisiana State Senate from 1976 to 2002.
The Republican Party of Louisiana is the U.S. state of Louisiana's organization of the national Republican Party. The state chairman is Louis Gurvich, a businessman from New Orleans, who was elected on February 24, 2018. Since the late 20th century, conservatives in the states have mostly shifted to the Republican Party from the Democratic Party. Since 2016, every statewide elected official in Louisiana, with the exception of the governor, has been a Republican.
Hartwell Neil Riser Jr., known as Neil Riser, is a funeral home owner in Columbia in Caldwell Parish in northeastern Louisiana, who is a Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for the 20th district, serving since 2020.
Joel Thomas Chaisson, II is an American Democratic politician who is currently the District Attorney in St. Charles Parish in suburban New Orleans, Louisiana.
John James Maginnis was a writer of columns and commentaries on current political events in his native Louisiana. Maginnis' column, always the most current analysis of a political event in Louisiana, appeared in newspapers and other sources statewide. His website is read by political analysts nationwide as a barometer of governmental trends and events in Louisiana.
Jeffrey Dennis Sadow is an associate professor of political science at Louisiana State University in Shreveport known for his Internet writings on behalf of political conservatism and the Republican Party in Louisiana.
Patricia Phillips Brister, known as Pat Brister, a businesswoman and Republican politician from Mandeville, Louisiana, who was the form president of the government in St. Tammany Parish in the New Orleans suburbs.
John Cameron Henry, Jr. is an American state legislator and business analyst from Metairie, Louisiana, who has served in the Louisiana State Senate for the 9th district since 2020. A Republican, Henry previously served as member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for District 82 from 2008 until 2020.
Edward Joseph "Ed" Steimel Sr. was the founding executive director of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, an interest group based in the city of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The 2015 Louisiana gubernatorial election was held on November 21, 2015, to elect the governor of Louisiana. Incumbent Republican Governor Bobby Jindal was not eligible to run for re-election to a third term because of term limits established by the Louisiana Constitution.
Russell Barrow Peacock is the current Republican state senator for District 37 in northwestern Louisiana. He began his second term on January 11, 2016.
Robert Ermon Shadoin, known principally as Rob Shadoin, is a Republican former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for District 12, which includes Lincoln and Union parishes in North Louisiana. An attorney in Ruston, Louisiana, Shadoin resigned his legislative seat in 2018 to join the administration of Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards as the deputy counsel in the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries under agency secretary Jack Montoucet.
Elliott Bond Stonecipher is a demographer, pollster, political analyst, civic activist, and public speaker based in his native Shreveport, Louisiana.
Charles Elson Roemer, IV, known as Chas Roemer, is the Republican former president of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, the 11-member state body which sets and monitors education policy. A resident of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Roemer led the majority faction of the board which seeks to implement reforms and innovations pushed by then Governor Bobby Jindal and continuing state Education Superintendent John C. White.
Michael David Edmonson is the former superintendent of the Louisiana State Police, with service from January 2008 until March 24, 2017. Thus far, he is the longest serving of the Louisiana state police superintendents. Edmonson was appointed by Republican Governor Bobby Jindal. Jindal's successor, Democrat John Bel Edwards, accepted Edmonson's letter of resignation after a dispute about troopers mishandling their expense accounts while at a conference in San Diego, California.
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