Montgomery defeat to shake up Bossier political power

It seems that the Bossier side of the Red River doesn’t need any special elections to goose political maneuvering early in the 2007 election campaigns for the state Legislature – the results of which could prove crucial in the power composition in the parish.

First out of the box some months ago in campaigning for the House District 9 seat, to be vacated by incumbent state Rep. Billy Montgomery because of term limits, was Bossier/Webster Parish Truancy Center director Richey Jackson running as a Republican. Today, another candidate will join the fray, new Republican Henry Burns, a local business owner and current Bossier Parish School Board member.

While at first these developments may appear to present an abundance of riches for the local GOP, in fact they pose a quandary. Party activists wonder whether directly or indirectly whether one or both these two would fall prey to the disease local conservatives have been battling for years – RINO Rash

RINO – “Republican in Name Only” – Rash has infected a number of Bossier Parish government positions, such as the free-spending, fee-hungry Bossier City Council and tax-advocating Bossier Parish Police Jury, where elected officials calling themselves Republicans often act much more like liberal Democrats on taxing and spending issues. The carrier of this has been Montgomery who has impeccable good-old-boy, tax-and-spend credential from his earliest days beginning two decades ago in the Legislature.

Some local GOP stalwarts worry that Jackson is something of a political lightweight that might be too easily swayed by the courthouse crowd he has worked alongside who are invested in this ideology, and would abandon conservative principles under this pressure. (It also doesn’t help him that a number of north Bossier residents are mad at the parish for unfavorable zoning decisions at which his son, Parish Attorney Patrick Jackson, was in the center of the conflict. Nor will they be happy that that this election cycle that both Jacksons have given large campaign contributions to Montgomery.) But others worry that Burns, until a few months ago a lifelong Democrat and whose wife works as the legislative aide to Montgomery, also might fall susceptible to RINO Rash.

Of course, one thing that might inoculate Burns from it would be if Montgomery failed in his attempt to circumvent the spirit of term limits by trying to win the Senate District 37 seat now held by the term-limited state Sen. Max Malone. Lifelong Democrat Montgomery himself became a RINO precisely because he felt it would increase his chances to win the seat perhaps by trying to discourage other Republicans from running in what probably is the most conservative district in the Senate.

If that was his idea, it has blown up to the extent that he ought not make any plans beyond 2007. Two quality GOP candidates have entered that contest, local Republican official Jay Murrell and former state Rep. B.L. “Buddy” Shaw. (A third, previous District 6 House candidate Barrow Peacock, also is looking at the race.) With Shaw and Murrell in the contest, Montgomery might not even make the general election runoff.

Murrell already has launched an aggressive campaign highlighting the fiscally and socially conservative views he was known for as a radio talk show host. Already his visage graces billboards and his voice intones radio commercials, indicating that he has substantial financial support. Added to the mix is his emphasis that he represents a fresh start in government, in contrast to his veteran politician competitors both of whom years ago passed the age to qualify for Social Security benefits. (Because of these things, at least one local political scientist and blogger has endorsed him.)

Relative to Montgomery, Shaw has the advantage of showing he walked the walk as an unquestioned conservative in his eight years in the House, elected from a district comprised by this new one (by contrast, Montgomery’s current district overlaps only 9 percent in population terms this one). However, relative to Murrell his age and his status as a past legislator may work against him with an electorate becoming increasingly hostile this election cycle to anybody smacking of incumbency.

Montgomery’s problems may get worse. Rumors persist that a non-Republican also will enter the fray. If so, Democrats who might otherwise have voted for Montgomery as the least of the three offenders to their partisanship may gravitate to this kind of candidate (if credible), while Murrell and Shaw would lose few votes.

While for now election of either Burns or Jackson would be unpredictable relative to existing patterns of political power in Bossier, the old order currently running things there would lose were Shaw to defeat Montgomery, and especially if Murrell did. While Malone has a different idea of government’s purpose than does this crowd, Murrell likely much more actively would try to promote that agenda than has Malone. Thus, look for the old guard and it publicity agents to pull out all the stops to defeat any conservative Republican running in Bossier Parish.