Events have recently cascaded in the Acadiana locale, where politically charged texts with dubious origins have been circulating for some time. Local law enforcement agencies, somewhat belatedly, have taken the decision to act. The alleged foul player at the heart of this swirl of controversy is Eddie Lau, notable for his involvement with various political campaigns in the region. Today, he found himself under arrest, charged with disseminating false political material, an activity suspected to be linked to the questionable text messages reported since November of 2024.
Two political campaigns in the Acadiana expanse of Louisiana appear to be the victims of these misinformation tactics. Specifically, the competition for the Chief of Police in Youngsville and a race for the Iberia Parish Assessor’s Office are the focal points of these deceptive practices. These election endeavors found themselves in the awkward situation of being targeted by potentially misleading text messages throughout the past year.
Within the contentious race for the Youngsville Chief of Police, an intriguing text caught our attention. It circulated in late October 2024, alleging that candidate Cody Louviere, initially without political affiliation, switched to the Republican party in 2023. The message included images of Louviere’s voter registration and change records. However, the message was supposedly ‘Paid for by Louisiana Republican Citizens Group’, a seemingly fallacious assertion as no such org is logged in the Louisiana records.
Public records requests are often demanding, requiring officials to release information under pressure and scrutiny. In this particular race, during this particular time, it was discerned that only one petition sought the records of interim Chief of Police Cody Louviere. Reportedly, the list of people seeking these records included J.P. Broussard, a rival candidate for the Youngsville Chief of Police position, and also his spouse and other known supporters of Broussard.
Mid-November witnessed another anomalous political message, this time involving Ashlie Spiker, a hopeful for the Iberia Parish Assessor’s Office. This message featured Spiker and another person named Sadi Summerlin, calling for unity, inclusivity, and justice. While ostensibly uplifting, the message was allegedly ‘Paid for by the Democrat State Committee of LA’, an entity that doesn’t exist on the registered list in Louisiana.
Intriguingly, just a day prior to the Spiker incident, another curious message originated, focused around a man named Brach Myers. This message, dubbed the ‘Bingo message’, encouraged an appreciation for democracy and the game of Bingo. It explicitly included an invite to join Rep. Brach Myers for a Voter Appreciation Bingo event. Though it purports to have been ‘Paid for by Acadiana Progressive Community Outreach’, there is no organization fitting that name registered in Louisiana.
Following these events, a Senatorial race between Brach Myers and candidate Jesse Regan occurred. This competition was unfortunately marred by an influx of dubious messages, fraught with misinformation and potentially fraudulent claims. Despite the grave allegations, Regan refrained from publicly discrediting these messages. Nevertheless, late into his campaign, Regan would clarify that he had no involvement in the propagation of such content.
An interesting overlap emerges when examining the different election races. The three positions at stake – Chief of Police in Youngsville, Iberia Parish Assessor’s Office, and Senate District 23 – saw a recurrent theme. In all cases, candidates not implicated by the dubious messages were observed using the same text message vendor, Pendragon Consulting, based in Mercesburg, Pennsylvania.
Three political hopefuls, namely David Groner aspiring for Iberia Parish Assessor, J.P. Broussard running for Youngsville Chief of Police, and Jesse Regan contending for Senate District 23, are recorded to have employed Pendragon Consulting. Moreover, two campaigns, those of Groner and Regan, also made payments to the same political consulting entity, Parish Strategies Group.
Other common elements in the campaigns involved a politically engaged company known as Fujino Capital, LLC. This, along with Packet Red, LLC, is associated with Chun Ping “Eddie” Lau and contributed in-kind to the Regan campaign. As additional threads were unraveled, more allegations of misconduct against Lau came to the surface, eventually driving us to report him to the local law enforcement bodies.
This text message ordeal apparently never deterred, leading us to file a police report on February 6, 2025, with the Youngsville Police Department. Initially greeted with confusion and reluctance, the police department hesitatingly accepted our document and a commitment towards investigating the serious charges that we were laying out.
Subsequent proceedings were less than satisfactory as […] supported by dismissive remarks regarding their comprehension of the accusations. Upon recently requesting information pertaining to the case, we found that the case is still ‘ACTIVE pending further review from the District Attorney’s Office’. As we delved deeper into the alleged misconduct, we were faced with an unsettling lack of progress and a seemingly dismissive attitude towards these serious allegations.
Also caught up in this political quagmire was Brach Myers. He took it upon himself to lodge a separate complaint with the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office. After a thorough investigation, the Sheriff’s Office took decisive action, leading to the arrest of Chun Ping “Eddie” Lau.
On March 13, 2025, Lau was eventually apprehended. The charges pressed against him were concerning the dissemination of illicit political material. The severity of the interests at stake, coupled with the nature of the accusations, determined his subsequent booking into the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center.
In a time when trust in the democratic process and political integrity seem increasingly important, these events in Acadiana repeatedly undermined voter confidence. Accusations of disinformation runs, misuse of public records and suspect associations painted a bleak view of the campaigns run in the region.
Despite progressive action from law enforcement, the damage to public trust might be harder to repair. The clouds of uncertainty, legal ambiguity and outright untruth hover threateningly over the political landscape, shedding a somber light on the election campaigns of Acadiana.