Over-the-top ads show panic over Fleming strength

As reality finally begins to intrude upon the political and chattering classes, the inevitability of realizing Republican state Treas. John Fleming is a serious candidate to win the senatorial seat up for grabs this fall finally has prompted what in retrospect may turn out to be a too-little-too-late series of go-for-broke attacks on his candidacy, validating his growing strength.

To date, the campaigns of his GOP nomination opponents incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy and Rep. Julia Letlow, but more instructively political action committees pledged to support either, almost exclusively had trained their fire on each other. This is done in good cop/bad cop fashion, where the campaigns extoll the virtues of their candidates and the PACs lambaste the opponents. Candidates and their allies follow this strategy because the PACs keep the candidate they prefer from looking demeaning through attacking that tries to detach voters from the opponent while the campaign presents a pristine candidate and positive reasons to vote for the candidate.

However, they now have put Fleming in the crosshairs, although in a spectacularly clumsy and manufactured way with a couple of negative television advertisements recently aired. One claimed Fleming supported carbon capture and sequestration, despite Fleming being the candidate most assertively and visibly arguing against the use of tax dollars to subsidize the activity, by its saying he voted for budget bills that allow the subsidization. It attempts guilt by association by trying to tie Fleming to leftists who also oppose CCS (but for reasons with which Fleming disagrees), a connection that becomes even more ludicrous when considering that meant, according to voting on last year’s budget reconciliation bill, just about every Republican in the House of Representatives and Senate also were in league with leftist bogeymen – including both Cassidy and Letlow.

Error like Cassidy's may sink Letlow campaign

What has brought Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy close to extinction in his quest for reelection now threatens the chances of GOP Rep. Julia Letlow for promotion to that office.

Last week, news escaped concerning Letlow’s endorsement of diversity, equity, and inclusion practices during her time as a University of Louisiana Monroe administrator prior to her election to Congress. Recordings of her interview process to helm the university in 2020 as well as internal documents revealed her expressing support for the divisive measures, which posit that American societal differences among races comes from irredeemable racism practiced, whether consciously, by majority whites that may be compensated for only through reverse discrimination.

Actually, it was only the publicity of her past statements that was anything new. Media had reported on the documents and the video has been publicly online for years, but the presence of these recently picked up amplification by additional media reporting.

Easter Sunday, 2026

This column publishes five days weekly after noon U.S. Central Time (maybe even after sundown on busy days, or maybe before noon if things work out, or even sometimes on the weekend if there's big news) except whenever a significant national holiday falls on the Monday through Friday associated with the otherwise-usual publication on the previous day (unless it is Thanksgiving Day, Independence Day, Christmas, or New Year's Day when it is the day on which the holiday is observed by the U.S. government). In my opinion, in addition to these are also Easter Sunday, Memorial Day and Veterans' Day.

With Sunday, Apr. 5 being Easter, I invite you to explore this link.

Make patriotic election integrity measure law

Not only does it make good sense but also is vital and patriotic to put into law procedures that obviate the cheapening of democracy.

HB 691 by Republican state Rep. Beau Beaullieu would strengthen voting integrity by requiring Louisiana, if there is no charge to the state or it appropriates money for the purpose, to use the federal government’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database 180 days prior to a regularly scheduled federal general election (every two years). This allows vetting of registered voters for citizenship, and already is being performed as a matter of policy since the federal government dropped access charges.

Even though noncitizens can’t vote legally, GOP Sec. of State Nancy Landry has found that layer of security breached. She reports over 400 such registrations and over 100 actual votes cast by such individuals during this decade, citing the need for this bill.

Democrats flooding GOP primary not happening

If there’s some strategy afoot to have Democrats raid the May 16 Republican primary to have a preferred candidate win that nomination since their field is so crippling weak, rank-and-file voters of that party aren’t cooperating.

Speculation has risen about the impact of party registration, or raiding, with the reinstalment of closed primaries for congressional contests in Louisiana. With the new rules such as they are, there’s not much incentive for unaffiliated voters to pick a major party label as they can choose which party primary (carrying through with the choice if a runoff emerges) in which to participate.

But with incumbent Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy under duress for nomination, some observers have wondered whether he would make explicit appeals to non-Republicans to vote for him. He apparently already has done that in one media appearance.

Bills unlikely to faze Caddo-Bossier port panel

The Octopus of the Red River has drawn attention from a pair of lawmakers who see a need to bring greater accountability to, if not clip the wings of, it on behalf of Caddo and Bossier Parish citizens.

Since a law a few years ago gave the Port of Caddo-Bossier expanded economic development powers, its nine commissioners have flexed their muscles to exert power over parish residents, such as in bringing deals, that could remain confidential until the bottom lines were signed, within the entire two-parish area that allowed override of local government taxing authority. Citizens have no direct accountability over the Commission, as its members are selected by all of Shreveport (4), Bossier City (2), Caddo Parish (2), and Bossier Parish (1) governing authorities for staggered six-year terms (except for one Shreveport appointee who serves concurrently with the mayor) with the city appointees needing their respective city council confirmations.

Republican state Rep. Danny McCormick wants to change that. His HB 667 would make the commissioner posts elective for four-year terms concurrently with state legislative offices, running in nonpartisan, at-large fashion combined between the parishes.

Changes to bring needed Medicaid savings to LA

The good news is federal government legal changes to discourage able-bodied adults without dependents who don’t want to use Medicaid as a bridge to reduced government dependency will allow the overwhelming majority of Louisianans to continue in the program. The bad news is for that reason taxpayers won’t see much savings.

The federal budget passed last year by Republican Pres. Donald Trump and the Republican majorities in Congress introduced many changes coming to Medicaid, among which were community engagement requirements (working, studying, or volunteering for 80 hours a month) for ABAWD and increased eligibility checks for those Medicaid expansion recipients in states like Louisiana. The former removes Medicaid expansion as a crutch from achieving personal independence while the latter reduces waste, which according to the latest annual data available meant state taxpayers lost over $9 million from the expansion population (known; these were just the ones flagged), for which overall state taxpayers ponied up $489 million.

The requirement may end up cutting taxpayer costs in another way. Research notes that adding such a requirement doesn’t change short-term health outcomes and may improve them over the long run because of resulting increased upward economic mobility that allows escape from low-performing Medicaid service provision to better privately-insured care.

LA judicial election sections may go to dustbin

Overlooked in all the hubbub about the likely-momentous U.S. Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais is how that will impact judicial elections in Louisiana.

The Callais case appears poised to restrict heavily how the racial composition of an electorate can play in drawing districts. While a great deal of attention of its probable outcome has gone to how that impacts Congress, and a small amount to state legislatures, it also could alter the way in which some Louisiana judicial elections occur.

Technically, in states where there are judicial elections, the racial composition of the electorate shouldn’t matter as judges are not parts of policy-making majoritarian branches of government. However, not long after the jurisprudence now challenged in Callais was codified, the Louisiana case Clark v. Edwards was jackknifed (along with its successors) into that. This case basically held that at-large selection violated the Voting Rights Act in nine judicial districts plus East Baton Rouge Family Court and the second district of the First Circuit Court of Appeals. In the following consent decree, two more district courts and the Second Circuit’s first and third districts were offered up.

New degree puts LA universities on slippery slope

For its senior institutions, Louisiana higher education launched their intents and purposes down a slippery scope by allowing a hollowing of select bachelors degrees.

This week, the Louisiana Board of Regents approved a request by the Louisiana State University System to offer “accelerated” such degrees. LSU Alexandria will offer two and another the flagship campus in Baton Rouge will house, which take only 90 hours to complete rather than the typical 120. The system points to nascent programs scattered across the country, local business demand, and average salaries ranging from $68,000 to $145,000 for graduates with these three majors as justifications for their introduction into the degree inventory.

All are related to artificial intelligence, with the LSU one more directly so. The one at LSU is designed to train those in the fields of machine learning engineering/data science, artificial intelligence research (computer and information research scientists), and artificial intelligence software development (including quality assurance and testers). The ones at LSUA will crank out computer information and systems managers and information security analysts, and data scientists, database administrators, and software developers. Somewhat similar programs for the LSUA pair are in computer science, cybersecurity, and biology, while the LSU one claims it is entirely dissimilar to any other in the state although it facilitates entry into a masters degree in computer science.

Monroe should shore up finances, not splurge

Last meeting, the Monroe City Council heard some potential good news that could portend the disappearance of bad news it will have to deal with starting at its meeting this week – but maybe discover a whole new set of problems for which it will require foresight and discipline to manage.

At that last session, independent Mayor Friday Ellis revealed the city could be receiving a major economic development project. He asked for, which the Council granted, permission to sell the old Ouachita Candy Company riverfront property which the city bought a few years ago to a developer that would create a mixed-use complex.

The project builds upon the win down the road in Richland Parish snagging Meta’s Hyperion Project, a data center that is forecast to pump in $27 billion to the region for startup and continue with hundreds of higher-paying jobs. Anecdotal reports are that the activity has pumped up lodging, entertainment, real estate, and general retail sales, and triggered interest in the historic property, which Ellis said those elements making it historic will be retained because of the tax credits involved and the complex built around it.

The boost in downtown development reflective of the Meta activity promises to line additionally city coffers, with that bonus already starting to be detected in year-over-year numbers. That provides a ray of sunshine to offset disappointing budget news.

According to the budget Ellis sent to the Council, which was covered in budget meetings a week earlier, it sees a nearly million-dollar deficit, which will drive the general fund balance to its lowest level since the start of Ellis’ first term in office. Even as revenues advanced three percent, expenses went up four percent.

Ellis noted increased costs came primarily from higher insurance premiums, fire department compensation hikes, and pouring more into repairs and maintenance of community centers, a priority of the majority Democrats on the Council. He declared that streamlining through reductions in force – 69 percent of the budget is in personnel expenses – would be pursued to balance in the future.

Yet the good economic news could change all of this. The budget anticipates only a one percent jump in property tax revenues, which comprise about 11 percent of all, and just three percent in sales taxes, which make up 63 percent. Putting more property on the rolls and with more sales at prices above assessments from two years ago, and with sales tax revenues up 10 percent year-over-year, that could add as much as $5 million in revenue from these rather than a projected $1.4 million, padding the general fund nicely.

What’s more, the budget has Monroe Regional Airport losing $4.2 million. Yet because of Hyperion, MLU already has seen flights added and passenger volumes going higher, so the passenger facility fee revenue could take a bite out of that deficit.

The larger question that remains is if the bounty transpires whether later in the year the Council will want to spread it around. The Democrat majority has made no secret that it would like to spend more on city government and particularly with capital projects in their districts, calling neglected the areas of the city they represent. At the same time, Ellis has an ambitious capital program, Oneroe, that doesn’t entirely mesh with the majority’s agenda.

Normally, when a government lands some unexpected largesse, its elected officials become a big, happy family with bucks to go around for all. Taxpayers should hope if that this scenario plays out that the city still pursues its efficiency measures and thinks ahead with the bounty; for example, increased activity will mean greater needs for roads, their repairs, and traffic management. Now is not the time to splurge.

Reality intruding on DA Stewart's "progressivism"

Call it the “Alan Seabaugh effect,” if you will, when the Caddo Parish district attorney one time touted as “progressive” decides to shed the most visible aspect of that as a means of keeping his job.

When Democrat First District Attorney James Stewart first ran for the office over a decade ago, his campaign held him out to be in the mold of a “progressive” prosecutor, or one who typically asserts that too much policing occurs that disproportionately negatively impacts “victim” classes, often identified among others as racial minorities. That stance sucked in nearly a million dollars in special interest money to cover a race he won narrowly.

Yet in the next election in 2020, much of that money dried up, in part because his record was mixed on his progressive promises. He did follow the playbook initially in declining to prosecute many cases, some serious, but at least for some of the more serious ones which he eschewed he claimed reasonably extenuating circumstances.

Tiny measures won't fix overbuilt LA higher education

Welcome to the party, Louisiana policy-makers, decades late but maybe, finally, after over two decades of hammering you all over the head, you’ll actually do something productive about one of the great wastes in state government.

That would be our overbuilt higher education system, which this space relentlessly has advocated its pruning. And I do mean relentless: a quick search, which likely misses some instances, brought up over the past 21 years 73 different posts about how too many schools chasing too few students needlessly drives up costs to state taxpayers (here are the latest couple).

And, it now appears, policy-makers may have gotten this concept through their skulls. Some legislation has popped up for the Legislature’s regular session this year dealing with alignment of higher education administration and programs to match actual demand. As previously noted, some of it like paring programs is good, some of it like doing away with the Board of Regents is bad.

Big BC Council rancor erupts over small deal

In the recent past, the Bossier City Council has had tussles over spending hundreds of thousands of dollars frivolously, even millions and tens of millions unwisely, and knockdowns, drag-outs over majorities using every trick to subjugate minority councilor (even if extremely publicly popular) interests.  But now all that over $55,000 to manage a tricky situation?

This week, the Council dropped the guillotine on the Bossier Arts Council. Previously, it cued up BAC eviction from the old city hall that had served as its headquarters – rent and city utilities free – for 45 years for failure to follow state law regarding audits. It was in default three years running, despite a city warning months ago and fulfilling basically the same request for the federal government without controversy.

Presaging the weirdness to come, the 5-2 vote had joining the sole nay vote, of Democrat Councilor Debra Ross, from the first reading the ordinance’s instigator, Republican Councilor Brian Hammons. Then shortly thereafter came Ross’ ordinance to create a new city position, salaried at $55,000 annually, that effectively would oversee the arts, or what the BAC should do.

Polls, debate plea hint at Cassidy desperation

You’d be forgiven for getting a case of whiplash trying to follow the Republican nomination race for the U.S. Senate election this fall, with all of the unexpected twists and turns, the latest of these being polls at great odds with each other and an incumbent begging for a selective debate.

Earlier this month, GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy made demands of Republican Rep. Julia Letlow, who is challenging him, to square off against him, but only him, in a televised debate. To date, her response has been she’s busy with other commitments when he proposes to do it.

This runs against type for two reasons. First, Cassidy made no mention of inviting GOP Treas. John Fleming, another challenger who according to an independent poll last month leads the pack at 34 percent, up almost double-digits on Letlow and 15 points clear of Cassidy. Any debate organizer cannot leave out a major candidate like Fleming, unless he declined an invitation.

Backwards bill misses on higher education costs

A bill in the Louisiana Legislature to abolish the Board of Regents has it exactly backwards.

HB 391 by Republican state Rep. Dixon McMakin would amend the Constitution to do this, transferring current Board functions to other parts of state government, in a move described as cost-saving. McMakin called the Regents “duplicative” and that the agency didn’t “serve a positive impact on our students.”

He got it half-right: duplication is a big problem in the state’s overbuilt higher education system, with too many schools chasing too few students. And that’s reflected in the actual duplicative agencies whose functions need to be transferred to the Regents and themselves abolished: the four governance systems the Louisiana State University System, the University of Louisiana System, the Southern University System, and the Louisiana Community and Technical Colleges System, along with their supervisory boards.

Answer to closed primary problems: more of them

The semi-closed primary is not a problem for, but a prime solution to fix, Louisiana’s lagging policy-making system.

In its session, the Legislature will vet a couple of bills to remove from the closed primary roster Board of Elementary and Secondary Education contests. Currently, all federal offices plus the multiple executives of BESE and the Public Service Commission, plus the Supreme Court, fall under the semi-closed primary system (“semi” because true closed primaries don’t allow unaffiliated voters to choose a party’s primary in which to vote, which gets tricky given the jurisprudence involved). That means all local, state legislative, state single executive, district court, and appellate court races remain under the blanket primary system.

Proponents of this small rollback argue for it by saying BESE elections are the only ones on the year-before-presidential-elections calendar by which all other state non-judicial elections except the PSC occur, which creates an extra set of elections with additional costs and could confuse voters with no other blanket primary races on primary election days (the remainder of the bunch all occur during even-numbered years at the state and federal level where only closed primaries are). But this is a backwards way of considering the issue. It’s not that BESE closed primaries add cost and may confuse, but that the extra cost should absorb all state races as well in replacing the blanket primary system for all contests at every level with a closed primary of some kind.

Legislator wants to make youths dumber still

As the world moves on from myths of the past, one Louisiana legislator keeps trying to move the state backwards, to the detriment of its citizens’ health.

The latest attempt from Democrat state Rep. Candace Newell in HB 373 would create a pilot program that legalizes recreational marijuana. Essentially, it allows the legal dispensaries of medical marijuana to set up separate shops to sell weed for any use. It’s just the latest variation on several tries over the years she has backed to do what almost half of the states have done, legalize pot in some fashion.

Of course, the rules surrounding medical marijuana in Louisiana are so fast and loose that the herb almost already is practically legal for casual consumption, but this approach at least would remove the charade and hassle of getting some kind of medical authorization for its use (not that marijuana has almost no valid use as a medical treatment of some kind). Fortunately, recently legislators have begun to push back, with some help from Congress, but hardly successfully.

Facts, logic doom simplistic CCS argument

A Louisiana legislator recently delivered a spirited defense of lightly-regulated carbon sequestration, but omitted the bigger picture that significantly weakens her argument.

Republican state Rep. Jessica Domangue had a piece in The Hayride that made a subsidized economic argument for carbon storage. Essentially, she asserted that additional regulation on storage – such as having local option on whether to allow it, restricting expropriation of/expanding compensation for land used, placing additional restrictions on pipelines to transport it, or even outright bans on storage or transport, with all of these ideas encapsulated in almost two dozen bills that the Legislature will consider this session – would hamper the ability of transporters and storers of it directly or indirectly to take advantage of tax credits that cover in part the methods of capture and thereafter to take advantage of stringent environmental regulations promulgated in Europe that will provide a market for it. This is done through a credit scheme, where the storer certifies the capture and a carbon producer can buy or register the credit to stay under the limits that then allows sales to Europe.

In other words, she argues that free money is there for the taking, in the form of the tax and carbon credits, offset only by the costs of impounding and storing carbon, typically in what are called “pore” spaces (usually fairly deep) underground. Making it harder to consummate the deal, as these bills would do, impedes this extra economic development.

Generally, Landry speech promises more of same

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry didn’t say much specifically about how he would get Louisiana to go where he wanted, but when he did, he didn’t mince words.

At the start of the 2026 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature, Landry delivered the annual State of the State speech that governors give. Much of it reflected upon past actions of the Legislature in the past year that he had supported which produced desirable results.

He lauded the state’s rapid rise in education rankings, which in part happened through the efforts outside the direct forces of Landry and legislators through the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education efforts and those of Superintendent Cade Brumley. He lightly emphasized that increased of the GATOR educational savings accounts at a higher level, as he has budgeted, would expand choice and accountability to keep the momentum going, but perhaps knowing this was a heavy lift he didn’t get into rebuttals to criticism of the request.

Hot issues make upcoming session less predictable

Remarks by legislative leaders shows this upcoming legislative session likely will develop into the most contentious of this term – and not because of Democrats’ agenda.

When Republican Gov. Jeff Landry and the current crop of GOP legislators kicked off their terms in 2024, they largely were on the same page, such was the consensus around the excesses – both in priorities pursued and blocked – of the Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards Administration and the factions he empowered in the Legislature. That continued almost unabated in 2025, with perhaps a slight fraying.

However, 2026 looks to expose some significant fractures among Republicans, from the Governor’s Mansion on down to backbenchers. A vast gulf exists between the lot of them and Democrats, of course, with the minority party so enfeebled that it’s unlikely anything a majority of that party wants will make it into law. Yet several issues may divide Republicans, along axes of the leadership vs. Landry and a significant number of GOP legislators (particularly in the House) or the leadership and Landry vs. many in the party.

Bossier Council sidelines BAC, ups Boardwalk ante

While this week’s Bossier City Council meeting drew plenty of attention to the fate of the Bossier Arts Council, it undertook a much more far-reaching action.

The Council, after a two-week delay, voted formally to evict the BAC from the its city-owned digs as well as cut off any contracts or grants from the city. Another ordinance disallowed any nongovernmental organization from receiving city grants unless it did not appear on the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s noncompliance list, issued annually in February.

Practically speaking, this means that the BAC will have to vamoose by Mar. 24 and it loses its contract to manage the East Bank Plaza, worth $50,000 annually (unless the Council shockingly reverses itself on second reading), as well as any opportunity to receive grants from the city for now. It already has drawn on in its entirety its $80,000 grant for this year. To be eligible for a future grant, it would have to get into compliance with the LLA, meaning it completes an audit for each of the last three years.

LA 2026 Senate race looking like 2008 CD4 contest

Excuse Republican Treas. John Fleming if he wants to party like it’s 2008, because to date there is considerable congruence between the election that introduced him to Congress the next year and the one that could propel him to the Senate in 2027.

In the most recent poll fewer than three months out from the GOP primary election, Fleming held a lead of nearly ten points on his closest rival Republican Rep. Julia Letlow, who was up a few points on GOP incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy. Letlow’s and Cassidy’s numbers tracked similarly to those of a poll released a few days earlier, while Fleming had expanded his share by several points.

Cassidy’s campaign dynamics are such that he really only can make a runoff by attacking and flipping votes from Letlow, which eventually may not be enough to succeed yet will detach voters from her that don’t want Cassidy, mainly for a series of poor decisions, and therefore will settle on Fleming, who at this juncture with certainty would defeat Cassidy in a runoff and probably win over Letlow if, benefitting from the endorsements of Republican Pres. Donald Trump and GOP Gov. Jeff Landry, she hangs on despite an effective ethics attack deployed by Cassidy surrogates. The reason this is a realistic, if not the most likely, scenario is because Fleming has gone through this before and come out on top.

System should complete welcome LSU change

You win some, you lose some with the Louisiana State University Board of Supervisors, who recently took a belated two steps forward and one step back in admissions policy for the state’s flagship university.

Last week at the Board’s bi-monthly meeting it adjusted LSU’s admission standards. Since 2018, the Board has been out of compliance with Board of Regents standards by granting admission to a greater proportion of students scoring below a 22 on the ACT standardized test (in other words, those in the bottom fourth-sevenths of all takers) than Board rules permit. For the past eight years the Regents spinelessly allowed LSU to flout the rules.

But now, the pendulum has swung back – at least halfway. Starting for next fall, taking the ACT will be required for admission for students with a high school grade point average of below 3.5, and then for all the year after. In the past it was optional, so for those students not taking it (or not choosing to submit a score to LSU) they were evaluated on mostly subjective criteria.

Arceneaux campaign receives good, bad news

Republican Mayor Tom Arceneaux acquired another arrow in his quiver for reelection, even as he picked up his most serious challenger to date for that.

Last week, S&P Global announced a change in outlook for Shreveport’s credit rating. Maintaining its current call of BBB+ – the lowest investment grade category – it did cite a better outlook of “stable” rather than “negative.” The latter means a downgrade was more likely than an upgrade, which would have meant higher borrowing costs in the future, with the former meaning no change either way anticipated.

This declaration in and of itself doesn’t affect anything substantively, but it carries beneficial positive symbolism for Arceneaux’s quest, especially coming from the rationale stating why the rating agency made the change. The city has maintained a commitment to its 8 percent operating reserve target in the general fund, which he fought for in the 2026 budget, against some pressure to dip more into it for increased spending.

Poll shows Cassidy still trapped in death spiral

The death spiral of Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy’s Senate career continues, according to a new poll. Worse for him, there’s little he can do about it.

The firm Quantus Insights released results polling the contest, where he faces major challengers for the GOP nomination in the forms of Treas. John Fleming and Rep. Julia Letlow, from earlier this week. They show Fleming at 34 percent, Letlow at 25 percent, and Cassidy at 20 percent, leaving another 20 percent or so undecided.

It’s hard to shoot the messenger on this one. The firm isn’t affiliated with a campaign – not that this disqualifies such a poll, for as long as the protocol (question orderings and their wordings and answers) is unbiased, the sampling frame reasonable and sufficiently large, and the contact methods of respondents can produce that desired sampling frame, it (barring unhappy randomization, i.e. a bad sample) will produce valid and reliable results for the population of voters – and this appears to be a quality poll (although a bit vague on the specific sampling procedure and claiming it captured “likely” voters, including those unaffiliated that historically have voted for Republicans as both GOP registrants and those registered without affiliation may participate in the primary, without spelling out that procedure). Unless it drew that one-out-of-twenty bad sample, this is reality.

Bills to expand constitutional rights aim true

 

A frequent proponent of individual rights for their defense has cued up a couple of bills to expand these in the upcoming session of the Louisiana Legislature.

 

Republican state Rep. Danny McCormick has prefiled HB 94, which would prohibit “red flag” laws in the state. He also has prefiled HB 99, which would allow carry of firearms, even concealed, by non-law enforcement individuals on a college campus.

A red flag law is one that allows judicial interdiction to prevent someone from possessing or carrying a firearm, whether concealed, on some kind of assessment that judges the person dangerous in some fashion, typically for reasons of presumed mental health. Advocates argue that random shootings by someone not in possession of the faculties could be prevented with these laws on the books.

The problem is, research into such shootings finds little to support that judicial officials have the ability to predict the future on this, which would produce a monstrously-high amount of false positives that end up depriving an enormous number of people of their constitutional rights (which also may be politically-driven), where even mentally-ill people are highly likely not to engage in this dangerous behavior. Moreover, there seems to be little relationship between such laws and observed benefits with the exception that such laws might deter suicides, and even to implement such a law requires the herculean task (and one smacking of the potential for civil liberties violations) of accurate gun registries.

Confirm big development win with water study

It looks like another economic development win for Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, and one that may pass muster with those concerned about resource-hungry industries that might hike prices to Louisianans.

This week, Landry confirmed a long-believed supposition that both Caddo and Bossier parishes were going to pick up some data center action. While the $12 billion in infrastructure Amazon has said it will spend on three such centers in the two parishes, that it estimates will create hundreds of permanent jobs nearing six figures in pay, is well short of the $27 billion Meta is spending on its Hyperion project in Richland Parish, it’s still quite a shot in the arm for a flailing Caddo economy and juicing the upswing in economic activity in Bossier.

Key to this are competitive measures that Landry and the Louisiana Legislature passed into law a couple of years ago, and also a commitment by the Landry Administration to expedite large projects. But as importantly, Louisiana holds resource advantages that many other states can’t match, such as abundant and inexpensive (fossil fuel) energy and ways to transport it.

Time to limit four-day instructional school week

If one Louisiana legislator has her way, school districts which don’t perform highly that contemplate but haven’t made the switch to a four-day a week of instruction will miss the boat – which, given the dynamics of which districts have chosen to pursue it, might be an idea whose time has come.

SB 82 by Republican state Sen. Beth Mizell would prohibit any school system that already doesn’t operate on a four-day a week from doing so unless it scores an ‘A’ in performance, requiring instruction five days a week (with holidays as exceptions). Only 15 have gone in this direction at present (one is planning to do that for academic year 2027). The minimum instruction time of over 63,000 minutes annually doesn’t change, although many districts have students spend more than that time in the classroom regardless of how many days a week incorporate instruction.

Should the bill become law, practically speaking that limits future conversions severely. This is as public schools become subject to a new scoring system stricter (and more realistic) than the one used through this year. Only 10 districts ranked as A as a result in simulation, but only nine would be eligible as Vernon Parish already has gone to the four-day schedule, so unless this changes 45 districts for now would be out of luck.

Bill to save bucks, not injure higher education

Louisiana yanking taxpayer dollars from select universities for select programs isn’t as deleterious to the concept of higher education at it might seem at first glance.

Republican state Rep. John Wyble has prefiled HB 229. The bill would prohibit allocations of state dollars in any form from going to low-earning outcome programs of study at state schools, as well as those from any local government, beginning in the summer of 2027.

A “low-earning outcome program of study” is defined by guidance from the federal government made at the beginning of this year. With the data it had in hand, it calculated the average earnings (over four years from several years ago) of a school’s graduates in various certificate programs, undergraduate majors, or graduate degrees, and declared those whose average fell below the average high school graduate’s salary for certifications and associate and bachelor degree awardees, or below the average college-degreed or certified salary for graduate degrees, would fit this category. In Louisiana, the former mark is around $32,200 and the latter about $51,000 in that time period.

Bossier Jury maintains charade more transparently

Three-quarters illegal is still illegal, a fact the Bossier Parish Police Jury can’t avoid even as it takes a small step towards transparency.

At its meeting this week, the Jury took inched towards addressing its continued unlawful behavior regarding the parish’s Library Board of Control. Statute requires that a parish seat five to seven citizens of the parish for five-year terms staggered each year, appoint officers annually, every year submit a budget request to the Jury, and meet at least once a year.

None of this happened in 2025. The last time the Jury “appointed” members, in direct violation of the law it tried to place all 12 members onto the Board for 2024, which held one meeting that year. In the interim, one term expired at the end of September in 2024, and another again in 2025.

Entry can't beat Arceneaux but could make him lose

It’s really more spite than serious victory chances with Republican Caddo Parish Commissioner John-Paul Young’s announced entry into the Shreveport mayor’s race.

Young declared himself a candidate after months of speculation and a year’s worth of sniping on his part directed towards GOP Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux. Most of his criticism, which included a lawsuit about a year ago concerning the then-language of laws dealing with squatters, has focused on property standards. Whether that made a difference, Arceneaux in short order worked with the City Council to clarify the legal standard for blight enforcement and launched a campaign to crack down on it. He then amped up the effort with his Block by Block initiative that has made significant inroads into cleaning up derelict properties.

This didn’t seem to satisfy Young, who kept complaining while Arceneaux disputed his assertions. Less in dispute is the practical impact of Young’s entrance, where he won’t win but he could help to deprive Arceneaux of a second term.

Dysfunctional arts group needs BC tough love

Belatedly, Bossier City is getting more guarded about its direction of tax dollars toward private entities, and implementing a little tough love to a long-simmering problem area is a good next step.

This week, the Bossier City Council tees up its 2026 five-year capital budget. This one calls for $188 million in spending, a substantial increase from the $130 million called for in last year’s. Most of that increase comes from transportation zooming from $36 million to $84 million, with the lion’s share taken by new projects to improve Viking Drive, improve Hamilton Road, create a cut-through from Barksdale Boulevard to the arena, and to bump up generic street improvements by two-thirds. Much of the rest comes from engineering projects jumping up from $24 million to $41 million with the addition of a Swan Lake Road to Deen Point waterline and Interstate 20 exit improvements.

Unfortunately, like herpes, this budget has resurfacing the “multi-purpose indoor sports venue.” This is shorthand for a city taxpayer gift to the YMCA, which the city would allow the Y to run and derive revenues from in exchange for giving residents the chance to pay dues to the Y to use the facility their tax dollars built. As previously noted, given the wide availability of recreation options available already for residents there’s no reason for this, yet it has appeared in all but one budget beginning in 2021. With a pair of reform-minded councilors in their second terms and four like-minded new ones, there’s no reason this Council should let stick around this $20 million waste, especially as the city tries to crawl out from under a mound of debt and has made this mistake before with the city’s tennis center.

Remove useless requirement to empower families

With a needless requirement teed up for removal, parents in Louisiana will gain greater say in the future of their children’s school that particularly will assist some in Monroe.

HB 83 by Republican state Rep. Mike Echols would excise from statute a stricture mandating double majorities for parents and school staff to request that a school serving their attendance zone be converted into a Type 2 charter school. That designation means administration would occur by a charter association aligned with the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, rather than with the local school district or a Type 3 school, which requires approval by the local school board or, failing that, BESE, then approved by the double majority if the local authority wants that (by administrative code), which the bill effectively also would remove. (A Type 4 conversion, or a local board running a school under a charter with BESE, also has this requirement.)

A double majority is where not only a majority of those voting must approve of something but also a majority of the relevant electorate must vote in the election. These are not uncommon in countries around the world but almost always apply to large jurisdictions and questions, such as amending constitutions or having citizens pass a law. The concept sporadically exists in America, dealing only with forced annexations into different governments.

GOP BESE candidates need to explain positions

Voters in Louisiana’s boot are going to suffer off-year overload with not only hotly-contested U.S. Senate and Fifth Congressional District races but also a slew of state-level elections that may prove as vigorously contested.

 Elections for the Public Service Commission and Supreme Court will end up putting a Republican in office, but will test voters on their abilities to distinguish among candidates more aligned with consistent conservatism and others less so. By contrast, the special election for the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education features a lineup blasting from the past without obvious and clearcut differences.

After a number of years out of the political limelight, when past member Republican Paul Hollis received confirmation as GOP Pres. Donald Trump’s director of the U.S. Mint, Republican Anh “Joseph” Cao was appointed by GOP Gov. Jeff Landry late last year to hold the seat on an interim basis. He signed up to finish the last couple of years of Hollis’ term.

SE LA Republicans must choose wisely in primaries

In the District 1 Public Service Commission race, Republicans would seem to have a surer thing with the qualification of Republican state Rep. Mark Wright into the contest. But they also have to be careful about a Louisiana Supreme Court contest around the same area.

Wright dove into the opportunity of succeeding GOP Public Service Commissioner Eric Skrmetta yesterday, joining fellow Republican state Rep. Stephanie Hilferty. Her announcement raised some eyebrows among conservative voters and especially climate realists because of her record as perhaps the least conservative member of her party in the chamber, according to her average score over the past six years on the Louisiana Legislature Log scorecard, particularly in the last three years, although her recent votes on issues that intersect with the PSC’s authority showed affinity with a climate realism agenda.

Wright’s consistent conservativism according to the scorecard raises no such doubts. Over the past six years, he averaged almost 88 on the scorecard (higher scores denote greater conservative/reform impulses), in line with the GOP chamber average and, unlike Hilferty who scored at just above 50 in the past two sessions, Wright averaged 100 over that span.

Conservatives hope for best with Hilferty PSC run

Heading into qualifying for fall elections, Louisiana conservatives and climate realists might be staring at a low-value trade.

At present, the Public Service Commission has a 3-2 Republican majority, which roughly mirrors the division between realists and climate alarmists on the panel that regulates, among other things, utilities that provide power. Democrat Davante Lewis is nothing more than a windup, around-the-bend alarmist, while Democrat Foster Campbell has shown some sympathy for alarmist views but has stopped short of full-on promulgation of alarmism in his voting behavior.

Campbell is term-limited, and his replacement almost certainly will be Republican Caddo Parish Commissioner John Atkins who expresses realist views, so that would bring a PSC less likely to commit mistakes in the name of alarmism. Unfortunately, one of the premier exponents of realism on the PSC for the past dozen years, Republican Eric Skrmetta, also is term-limited, and the frontrunner to replace him is more uncertain in adhering to realism.

Anxious Democrats spin hold as fortune reversal

Maybe it’s a sign of insecurity or an attempt to feel good after innumerable recent beatdowns, but the hold by Democrats of House District 60 in its recent election is much ado about nothing.

This weekend, Democrat Iberville Parish Councilor Chasity Martinez won comfortably over Republican Brad Daigle, who serves on the Greater Baton Rouge Port Commission. This set off some cries of jubilation on the left, both in and out of state, as GOP Pres. Donald Trump had won the district, about two-thirds in Iberville and the remainder in Assumption Parishes, by double-digits in 2024.

But don’t buy that this has any import regarding partisan political fortunes beyond that district. There’s a reason that the district never has elected a Republican, beginning with it is just about the last bastion in the state outside of New Orleans with significant white voter support for Democrats. By way of example, for the Iberville Parish Council only a single Republican was elected along with Martinez in 2023 where she defeated a long-time Democrat incumbent, in a parish almost evenly divided between black and white voters and where Trump’s ticket gained a bare majority a year later.

Recapturing UNO unlikely to boost enrollment much

The Louisiana State University System, and chiefly the flagship campus in Baton Rouge, is having its revenge on the University of New Orleans, echoing more than a dozen years ago when UNO left and the Shreveport campus might have been snatched away.

Last year, the Louisiana Legislature passed a bill passing UNO back to the LSU System. UNO has had financial difficulties (although some of its own making that was entirely avoidable) since the hurricane disasters of 2005 that caused an enrollment plunge. The switch out came as UNO had chafed under the dominance that LSU has within the system since the 1958 establishment of LSUNO, which didn’t throw off the shackles of being considered a property of LSU (for its first years, it was considered an extension of LSU) until its name change about 15 years later.

Now, it’s back to the future. Starting next academic year, not only are the school’s silver and blue colors for decades the being junked to adopt LSU’s purple and gold, but the name is reverting back to LSUNO. This follows the same strategy as when the system underwent governance changes at the same time UNO left, in response to a move in the Legislature to merge LSUS and Louisiana Tech.

NE LA sees last-minute U.S. House, PSC changes

Although somewhat less wacky than the eruptions rocking Louisiana’s Fifth Congressional District contest, northeast Louisianans also saw some changes wash over the state’s District 5 Public Service Commission race as qualifying occurs this week for both.

For the House of Representatives, Republican state Sen. Blake Miguez’s shuffle out of the U.S. Senate field, essentially leaving a three-way battle among GOP incumbent Bill Cassidy, the current CD 5 Republican Rep. Julia Letlow, and GOP state Treas. John Fleming where any two of these three could make the nomination runoff and the winner therefore winning the office later this fall, shook up a passel of candidates who sprung out of the woodwork after Letlow with little warning entered the Senate race, propelled by an endorsement from Republican Pres. Donald Trump. Then immediately after Miguez said he had switched, Trump endorsed him.

With the millions of dollars already committed to his previous federal contest that he can transfer and the imprimatur of Trump, Miguez becomes the favorite to succeed Letlow, despite the fact that he doesn’t live near the district (no district residency requirement is imposed constitutionally, only state residency). The move doesn’t look accidental, and possibly it was triggered by Trump-aligned backers who didn’t want to see Miguez’s momentum they had helped build go to waste. With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to give the state a fourth district map in five elections, Miguez if elected would be able to have a new map and/or undertake a change in address putting him in the district to defend it in 2028.

Trump CD 5 Miguez endorsement prompts questions

Republican Pres. Donald Trump’s endorsement of GOP state Sen. Blake Miguez to succeed Republican Rep. Julia Letlow in Louisiana’s Fifth Congressional District leaves more questions than the one answered with it.

That one being, Miguez now should be rated the favorite to win. A huge war chest he transferred from his attempted Senate campaign when he shucked that upon the entrance of Letlow into that contest – after her receiving explicit encouragement from Trump – certainly put him up there as a big contender, but questions lingered because Miguez is domiciled (close to New Iberia) nowhere near the district. He had no particular history in the district save attending Louisiana State University and his legislative service of the past several years, so it was uncertain how district voters might receive that, especially those in its northern reaches some 300 miles from where he lives. As well, having abandoned the Senate contest and shifting gears so suddenly might make him look too opportunistic, if not desperate, to secure a seat in Washington, D.C. that may not play well with voters.

Trump’s unexpected endorsement changes those dynamics well into his favor. Given the president’s popularity in the district, which goes from moderately high in its southern portion to extremely high in its north, that does carry a lot of weight and if advertised – and it will be with all the resources Miguez can draw to bear – can override concerns about his alien presence in the district. Opponents can raise that argument, but if Trump says it’s all right regardless, that’s  going to good enough for a lot of Republicans – and that’s all that’s needed, since the winner of the GOP primary will win the general election.

Not so crazy Miguez entry hikes CD 5 craziness

The craziness of Louisiana’s Fifth Congressional District got taken up a notch when Republican state Sen. Blake Miguez bailed on the state’s Senate contest to toss his hat – a considerable distance since his domicile is well out of the district – into the ring of this race, an idea which actually isn’t so crazy.

The base craziness now elevated comes from the district itself being on life support, assuredly dismembered in large part for 2028 elections after the U.S. Supreme Court (in a delayed, Solomonic response to not upset too abruptly maps from many states prior to this year’s tilts) will decide the current state map is unconstitutional. The inevitability opened the floodgates for candidates wanting to get in on the ground floor for a congressional career after its incumbent GOP Rep. Julia Letlow made a surprise bid for the Senate, and apparently, among others, chased Miguez from that race.

Because of the bizarre shape of the district that starts in the Florida parishes, heads west to part of Baton Rouge, then swings north up the Mississippi River to clip Alexandria and concludes by grabbing a piece of Monroe on the way to the Arkansas line, a wide range of candidates have expressed they will and seem poised to run. As Scott McKay observes, some candidates involved have tenuous connections to the district, which constitutionally is not a hindrance in qualifying for the contest, but does create chances for their opponents to highlight their candidacies as more disconnected to the district if not blatantly opportunistic.

Cassidy made desperate after Senate race shakeup

Just like that, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy now is odds-on to miss the party preference primary nomination for his office and may lead him to consider doing the previously unthinkable.

Which isn’t to drop out. Up to this week, Cassidy increasingly had buffeted storms in his quest for reelection later this year as GOP quality challenger after quality challenger entered the contest. Up until the middle of last month, the multiplicity of such challengers had put him in a position with his projected support so eroded that he would have to endure a runoff for the nod which he seemed likely to lose, but regardless was the most likely to survive to it.

Then Republican Rep. Julia Letlow made a surprising entrance into the race after GOP Pres. Donald Trump endorsed her out of the blue. That by itself began to threaten Cassidy’s place in the runoff, as Letlow would take more votes from him that the other more-conservative competitors, all the more particularly since Cassidy had made an enemy of Trump by voting to convict him of half-baked impeachment charges between Trump’s terms.

Costs, benefits calculus warrants CCS skepticism

What those promoting carbon capture and sequestration cannot either understand or admit to is, even if they can make claims about safety and economic development, that the overall cost to society of subsidizing their efforts exceeds benefits conveyed to society, justifying local populations in rejecting their entreaties.

Increasingly, Louisianans express alarm at the idea of sequestering carbon near or under their back yards. The latest flashpoint comes in Ascension Parish, where unusual bedfellows find themselves moving together to oppose a CCS project called River Parish Sequestration. It is a subsidiary of a firm called Blue Sky Infrastructure managed by Blackstone, a private investment firm comprised of hedge funds.

Part of the opposition comes from the usual leftist suspects who decry any industrial expansion as forfeiting “environmental justice.” But this anti-intellectual screed is joined by the growing conservative opposition in many parts of the state objecting to CCS over issues of safety and property rights, both real and pecuniary.

Constitutional convention bill meritorious

An audacious plan to redo Louisiana’s Constitution might just succeed within the next two years.

While widely agreed it should happen, constitutional convention implementation has foundered over recent years on charges it would be too rushed, too narrow or too broad, and too exclusive of citizens. Which is why HB 4 by Republican state Rep. Dixon McMakin should draw serious consideration.

The bill would establish a rolling convention, setting up subcommittees to review each of the overstuffed document’s 14 sections and an executive committee to oversee. Presumably, subcommittees, required to meet at least monthly, would do so over starting in early 2027 for the next nine months or so, followed by a decision on changes by all 93 delegates. The product would be available for voter approval at the 2027 general election. Any parts of the current Constitution not included in the end product would revert to statute.

Reveal what LA GATOR ESA opponents really mean

Understanding the rationale behind Louisiana’s foray into education savings accounts presents a good argument for program expansion, a view at loggerheads with some legislators who actually supported this plan at its inception.

Another battle seems brewing between education freedom advocates in Louisiana, backed at the top by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, and those policy-makers more cautious on the issue, represented by GOP Sen. Pres. Cameron Henry. The throwdown came with Landry boosting in his fiscal year 2027 budget spending on educational savings accounts by double, which would allow for more than only the few hundred families at present able to take advantage of these besides the thousands of low-income families carried over from the state’s previous voucher/scholarship program aimed at allowing children who did attend or who would have attended inferior schools a choice at a better education environment. He had tried something similar last year, but Henry led opposition in thwarting that.

At and after the budget presentation last week, Henry threw cold water on the requested increase of around $44 million. During the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget hearing, he opined that the program had too many other possible family uses attached to it besides moving children away from failing schools to private schools, and accused the Department of Education of bad faith in keeping him informed about these details. Afterwards, in an interview he went further, saying he would reconceptualize the whole program, limiting it to tuition costs needed to move children out of subpar schools.

Higher cost, tougher on crime policy benefits LA

An increase in costs for Louisiana to house inmates, because more are being sentenced to jail and fewer are out on parole? Money well spent.

Far leftist media in the state began hyperventilating after the release of Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s budget. In it, about $82 million more will go to corrections, fairly evenly split between the state system and in reimbursements to local jailers for housing state prisoners. Landry led the charge with legislative Republicans two years ago to overhaul the state’s criminal justice laws, which several years earlier had been relaxed, to sentence more people to jail and fewer to probation, force convicts to serve the vast majority (or if convicted after Aug. 1, 2024, all) of their sentences in jail, and to reduce the possibility of parole. In addition, Landry has appointed to the Board of Pardons and Parole members who more critically vet potential parolees, which has reduced the proportion of the lower proportion receiving a hearing that successfully attain early release.

These media bemoaned these outcomes, ideologically because of the tougher-on-crime agenda producing them, but also instrumentally in that this means fewer dollars to redistribute from state government to or to go to policies aiding their favored constituencies. The goal is to allege that the new policies largely waste money as they produce little or no benefits, defined as the opportunity for if not actual fact of reduced crime.

Monroe must try harder to avoid big rate hikes

Monrovians will have to bite the bullet – and very hard and big – over the water, sewerage, and waste disposal fees coming their way in May, which didn’t have to be this hard or big.

This week, the City Council is expected to ratify an ordinance that will increase these costs by nearly $300 annually (assuming a typical average usage of 4,000 gallons monthly for water and sewerage by a city residence) per ratepayer. Water rates will rise 7 percent, sewerage rates will jump by 45 percent, and garbage pickup costs per month will mushroom 87.5 percent.

Impetus behind the move comes from the city’s debt covenant for water, which requires it to have revenues of 125 percent of the principal and interest, federal and state law regarding funding for sewerage, and market forces with garbage collection. It makes for necessary ratepayer evils, but getting slammed all at once and at this level didn’t have to happen.

Tweak good Landry budget for better future

Strangling Medicaid costs threaten to derail Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s desire to right-size Louisiana’s budget, data behind his latest budget proposal for fiscal year 2027 revealed.

Last week, the Landry Administration submitted its FY 2027 budget to the Joint Legislative Committee of the Budget, in preparation for legislative deliberation in the upcoming 2026 Regular Session. This document must adhere to the state’s Revenue Estimating Conference, which last month disgorged the latest estimates over the next few years, and covered the source that the Legislature can utilize in appropriations bills, the general fund.

The end product was essentially standstill according to the general fund (aided by significant efficiency cuts in the neighborhood of $300 million), but incorporated a noticeable reduction of $3.5 billion overall, split fairly evenly between declines in statutory dedications and federal funds (more of the former than latter). The main factor behind the federal funds decreases is as a result of turning off the debt-fueled/inflation-triggering spigots from the Democrat Pres. Joe Biden era and Republican Pres. Donald Trump Administration programmatic changes plus some disaster-related expenditures, while for dedications that dropped mainly because the Revenue Stabilization Trust Fund was tapped so heavily for projects the previous year.

Electoral politics outs Cassidy's true self

Whether he believes the impression he conveys, now Louisiana voters are receiving confirmation about the real Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, fueled by his seriously endangered reelection chances.

Cassidy had something to say about a tragic shooting in Minneapolis, where far left activists intentionally have invited confrontation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol officials to serve a political agenda unconcerned with the rights of illegal aliens. A man, who has been described as ardently dissatisfied with GOP Pres. Donald Trump, apparently brandishing a pistol was in the process of being disarmed by agents when a gunshot, seemingly from the weapon, went off and an agent shot the suspect to death.

Unfortunately, the man showed poor judgment in deliberately bringing a firearm to a location where he acted to disrupt armed officers performing duties under the color of law and apparently not immediately identifying himself as carrying a concealed and loaded weapon. With the evidence so far gathered, a leading theory is that the weapon discharged accidentally, with the man possibly disoriented after having been sprayed with pepper along with a woman right before the disarming attempt.

Early data signaling even lower LA rates to come

Early hopeful signs concerning vehicle insurance costs for Louisianans might escalate, data from elsewhere portend.

With the end of the roadblock that was the pro-trial lawyer Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards upon his leaving office at the start of 2024, that year and last year the Republican legislative supermajorities and GOP Gov. Jeff Landry got busy with meaningful tort reform. Those supermajorities hardly breached the Edwards firewall protecting a legal system designed to disproportionately shovel money to trial lawyers, but Landry proved far more accommodating in ushering in agenda that has chipped away at this archaic edifice, with the assistance of Republican Insurance Secretary Tim Temple (although the two came to loggerheads sometimes with Temple wanting to push the pace faster than did Landry).

Given a fair amount of lifting over the past couple of years in the books, 2026 will look to be much quieter for insurance changes as a period of digestion seems in order. Yet already it appears fruits of this labor are accruing to consumers. Amid a half-dozen announced insurer average rate reductions since the start of 2025, pushing down the overall statewide average personal vehicle rate a calculated three percent, more dramatic changes could enjoy a pause, as results from similar legislation enacted in Florida show.

Bossier Jury makes excuses rather than follow law

It would be so easy to defuse the controversy if the Bossier Parish Police Jury would just do a few easy, simple things to follow the law.

Jurors apparently were not pleased with a recent post here (remarks reiterating that also were delivered during public comment period at the Jan. 14 Jury meeting) that pointed out deficiencies in it following the law concerning the parish’s Library Board of Control. In at least five ways, the Jury violates the law in the composition and operation — really, non-operation — of the Board.

In response, the Jury dispatched the 26^th Judicial District assistant district attorney seconded to it for its legal affairs Patrick Jackson to defend it in print. The effort fell flat, as the rejoinder didn’t address the Jury’s actions required under law but merely tried to provide justification for the Jury to operate as the Board given past Board actions that jurors alleged were insufficient.

Letlow enters Senate field in pole position

So, here we go. Republican Rep. Julia Letlow has entered the Senate race, and that entrance reverberates throughout Louisiana’s political environment putting her, for the moment, in the catbird seat.

She can be quite competitive. One lingering question has been whether jumping in nearing the qualification deadline over a year after the first serious challenger to incumbent GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy did would affect her ability to raise resources. With a little over $2 million in hand, as substantial as that might be with the Cassidy account at almost eight figures and several million more in political action committee funds, plus with other challengers having at least as much as she (plus a lead of months to build up name recognition statewide), she’ll need likely as much again and within the next four months.

That’s not insurmountable. As she received Republican Pres. Donald Trump’s effusive and explicit endorsement, that should open the taps to national donors in case those in state have fatigue. And it should poke off the sidelines those more comfortable with a Washington insider but who frowned upon Cassidy’s last five years in office.

Everyone and their dog may join LA CD 5 race

If Louisiana’s Fifth Congressional District becomes an open seat, what often is a frenetic process probably goes onto steroids courtesy of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Because Louisiana is just a handful of states that does not have most state and many local elections held during even-numbered years, contests for Congress tend to two directions: either one or two candidates consolidate support very early in the process or, absent that, a number of quality candidates end up offering themselves. As this is due to the fact that most candidates holding a state or local office do not have eschew running for reelection in order to take a shot at Congress, that encourages more candidates than typical to hit the hustings if at least one candidate hasn’t worked the political ecosystem hyper-effectively. It doesn’t matter whether blanket or semi-closed primary, the dynamic remains the same.

Thus, if Republican Rep. Julia Letlow does take a hint from GOP Pres. Donald Trump’s endorsement and jumps into the U.S. Senate race, expect a land rush of names to put their hands up to take her place in a district that basically clips Monroe, clips Alexandria, clips Baton Rouge, and sprawls eastward from all of these points. One report already has dug up five names, all state legislators, who have expressed interest in competing for the seat if Letlow shunts it aside.

Trump endorsement possibly upends LA Senate race

And now, the Louisiana Senate race of this year gets really interesting.

The contest seemed pretty much set in its field at last summer’s end. Five Republicans – incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy, state Rep. Julie Emerson, Treasurer John Fleming, state Sen. Blake Miguez, and Public Service Commissioner Eric Skrmetta – emerged that had the chops to win it all. Most likely, Cassidy would make the semi-closed primary runoff against one of the other four, who then would be favored over Cassidy given the sourness among Republicans over Cassidy’s reversal to vote to convict GOP Pres. Donald Trump on half-baked impeachment charges, as well as concerning his sucking up on various pieces of legislation to the Democrat majorities in the first part of the decade. That challenger then easily would claim the seat in November.

Among those contenders, all vied for Trump’s endorsement, which is thought to convey an almost unimpeachable advantage to whoever receives it. However, concerning incumbents of his party that have displeased him running for reelection, Trump had not endorsed any challengers although, as in the case of Cassidy, he also withheld endorsements of some incumbents. Absent that, Fleming, who once worked for Trump as one of his senior White House aides, was considered in the best position to be viewed as the candidate Trump implicitly backed, although Miguez has played up his association with Trump’s policies as often as he could.