Despite a hard left agenda masked
by moderate platitudes here and there, Edwards took
advantage of fluky conditions to become the first state statewide-elected
official to win as a Democrat since 2007. This glimmer of hope for a battered
party will stay a one-off event unless Democrats act to capitalize by forsaking
a hyper-liberal agenda in a center-right state and governing, as Edwards
alleges he will, in the center.
And thus comes a big test for
Edwards to practice what he preached. Recently candidate qualification occurred
for each major party’s state central committee (and parish executive committee)
seats. For Democrats, registered Democrats during the presidential preference
primary election in March may select a male and female candidate in each state
House district, although many will not have that chance as the majority of these
spots were uncontested.
Perhaps most essentially, the state
central committee selects the state party head, currently state Sen. Karen Peterson. Even as she has presided
over an auspicious decline of party fortunes – during her term losing further
in the Legislature and majorities on the Public Service Commission and Supreme
Court, losing the only U.S. Senate seat the party had, experiencing increasing
encroachment by Republicans in aggregate local offices held – she wishes to
retain that position.
Theoretically, the decision lies in
the hand of the DSCC. However, historically governors have had a large input
into it, with both Democrat former Govs. Prisoner #03128-095
and Kathleen
Blanco seeing allies serve. With that tradition less well inculcated among
Republicans because of the rarity of their election as governor until the last
two decades, such an occasion prompted perhaps the most heavy-handed insertion
of gubernatorial preference into his party’s leadership when Republican former Gov.
Mike
Foster actively campaigned successfully for his preferences that included the
running and supporting of a slate of candidates for the Republican State
Central Committee.
Clearly, Edwards has customary
resources behind a move to dump Carter on his part. Further, Carter allegedly
showed little enthusiasm for Edwards’ candidacy initially, even apparently
asking him to withdraw in order to get the most moderate Republican possible
elected, so he owes her no fealty for his surprise win.
Most relevant to any decision
whether Edwards ought to exert influence and how, Carter represents the far
left of Democrats, even more liberal than Edwards. While Edwards has a lifetime
score of around 30 on the Louisiana
Legislature Log’s computation of legislator voting (0 denoting the
maximally liberal/populist score), Carter earns all of a 23 over the same
period. Her backers also present a portrait of the Who’s-Who’s of Louisiana’s
political left.
If Edwards truly wants to govern in
the middle and, more farsightedly, wants to win reelection and make Democrats
able to win enough state offices so as to have frequent significant policy
input opportunities, putting his stamp on the party leadership by ousting
Carter would constitute a good first step. Having the poster child for the
lunatic left in Louisiana having the major influence in party campaign decisions
and issuing policy statements far out of the mainstream in no way can rebuild
the Democrat brand in the state, as much as it may please national party
overlords and liberal ideological purists.
Edwards should aim along the lines
of somebody who has shown she can construct winning statewide campaigns, backed
him early and unwaveringly, and seems to have plenty of time on her hands –
Blanco, or someone approximating her. While by no means is she a moderate, she’s
not the intemperate and raving Peterson either, and the ascension of a person like
her would demonstrate that Edwards may not try to govern as a liberal wolf in
conservative sheep’s clothing. Best of all for the minority party, this kind of
chairwoman has the possibility of
steering candidates and policy away from the extreme left, the proximate causes
of the party’s failures during Peterson’s reign.
But Peterson’s status as party
chairwoman also exposes the critical fault line within Louisiana Democrats at
present: the party now has black majorities among its registered voters and in
state elected officials. With 89 DSCC seats already assured to blacks after
qualification, likely the DSCC will have a black majority after the election
(and dozens of seats had no one qualify, so already among the districts with
qualified candidates a black majority exists). This creates great impetus for
Peterson’s, a black woman’s, retention and what black moderate Democrat out
there possibly could topple her?
So Edwards, instead of trying to
buck these odds, could defer on any contemplated insertion into the process.
Meaning that, should Peterson reemerge as chairwoman, any of the following
could be possible: (1) Edwards tried but could not put his own more moderate
person in charge, (2) he did not try thinking he could not succeed that also shows
impotence in moving the party to the center, or (3) he does not want to make
the party more moderate and agrees with Peterson’s agenda for full-throated
liberalism from Louisiana Democrats.
Regardless of the scenario, it all
ends up with a party unable to reinvigorate itself by its hamstringing of itself
to ideology. If Edwards has any serious intent to shape Democrats into a
consistently viable force in state politics for the intermediate future, he has
to fight and defeat Peterson on this. Otherwise, either he doesn’t really want
that or he faces very long odds in resurrecting the party into a meaningful
force anytime soon for any extended period of time.
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