Signaling her large appetite for political ambition,
Stokes declared
earlier this month for the office left open when its former elected
occupant Tom Schedler resigned amidst charges of sexual harassment. At this
time last year, she was out campaigning for the treasurer’s job that became available
with GOP Sen. John
Kennedy’s election.
But an unfortunate cancer scare led to her withdrawal
just days before qualifying. Happily, she beat back that foe and returned to
her legislative duties. Now she hopes to vanquish political opponents for the
statewide job.
Not only does this second try at a state executive post show Stokes’ hunger for an expanding political future, but also indicative of that is this job suits her less well than treasurer. As a Certified Public Accountant who has worked in that field for years, she could claim some competence in overseeing state banking and investing. Obviously, the secretary of state post has little to do with that, which runs elections and document filing for governments, regulates notaries, and maintains business filings.
Throughout her revamped electioneering website, Stokes
repeatedly calls herself “conservative,” which is not entirely unjustified.
According to the American Conservative Union’s legislative scorecard, she has a
2015-16
score of 61; for the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry’s which concentrates
on fiscal and regulatory issues her cumulative 2016-17 score is 81; and
for 2017
for the Louisiana Family Forum’s which concentrates on social issues she achieved
a 73. Her lifetime Louisiana Legislature Log
rating, which looks at a range of issues while also measuring degree of
reformism, is just under 80. (Higher scores indicate more conservative voting
in all cases.)
But after Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards
took office in 2016, she seems to have veered more towards the center, if not actually
to the left on taxing and spending issues. Whether representing strategic
calculation to build a record of achievement or simply having natural inclination
unblocked with a liberal replacing a conservative as governor, she has seemed
more amenable than most Republicans to raising taxes and less likely to shrink
government.
That tendency, for example, had earned her the
enmity of the Americans for Prosperity interest group, who recently placed her
on its “Taker’s Dozen” list, or legislators
it sees “voting to take money out of the pockets of Louisianans.” And, many
observers considered her the Democrats’ preferred treasurer candidate when it became
clear no quality contender from that party would contest that race.
In her term, she also has added social justice warrior
credentials as a leading antagonist to class clown GOP state Rep. Kenny Havard,
who has a tendency to insert foot in mouth when it comes to perceptions about
women’s roles in society. In separate incidents over two years, Stokes has
raced to reprove remarks from the sophomoric
to defensible
made by Havard. Neither set merited the amount of disdain received from Stokes that
seemed more designed to project a particular image.
Whether that history and her becoming the first to
announce formally a candidacy makes Democrats forgo backing a competitive contestant
of their own remains questionable. That being the office with least political
content and having no history in sending its occupants to higher office still
could make it low-enough stakes for Democrats to take a pass.
If so, Stokes may become the favorite, able to
peel off enough voters from both parties to triumph. That will discomfit true
conservatives who might fear she could use the job despite its past to position
herself for a bigger stage, although they can take comfort in the fact that in this
year’s regular session when legislators considered the rare bill that actually
had ideological content dealing with the duties of the office – whether to
allow felons still under an order of imprisonment to vote five years after
leaving prison – she voted with
conservatives against it.
No comments:
Post a Comment