Garret Graves Administration: Father's engineering firm awarded about $132 million in government contracts

6th District race heats up in forum 

http://theadvocate.com/news/10606563-123/gop-candidates-attack-opponent-in 

In the final scheduled forum for the 6th District congressional race Thursday, Republican candidates turned on Garret Graves, who has raised the most money, sharply questioning him about who contributed to his campaign and how his father’s firm won government contracts while he was a member of the Jindal administration.

Paul Dietzel, of Baton Rouge, first brought up support Graves received from an environmental group that has spent nearly $2 million opposing GOP candidates in other states.

State Sen. Dan Claitor, of Baton Rouge, then questioned how an engineering firm run by John Graves, the candidate’s father, procured so many government contracts.

Claitor said he found Evans-Graves Engineering, of Baton Rouge, and New Orleans was awarded about $132 million in government contracts during the five years Graves was Gov. Bobby Jindal’s chief adviser on coastal affairs and chairman of Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. 

It was former Gov. Edwin W. Edwards, the Democrat in the race, who came to Graves’s defense. 

Graves, took a job in his father’s firm when he left the Jindal administration earlier this year... 

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