Democrats need competitive candidate in CD 5

The big story concerning Republican Rep. Ralph Abraham’s retirement isn’t whether a Republican will win, but whether Democrats have the ability to field a competitive candidate.

In Louisiana, congressional districts come open only every few years, which present the best opportunity for a party takeover without an incumbent running. And Abraham’s Fifth District has perhaps the best potential, as currently drawn, for a Democrat other than the majority-minority Second. While it slightly trails the Fourth in proportion of registered black voters, it has a higher proportion of Democrats and lower proportion of Republicans than any other in the state except for the Second.

But a Democrat won’t win, as recent voting history indicates, with GOP candidates at all levels outdistancing Democrats no less than 15 points. Despite that, Democrats desperately need to make the race competitive.

Judge should resign, but for correct reason

If Republican 23^rd Judicial District Judge Jessie Leblanc goes, it shouldn’t happen for the virtue-signaling reason stated by Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards.

Controversy has swirled about Leblanc since she assumed office in 2013, first winning a special election and then gaining a full term in 2014. The daughter of longtime former Ascension Parish Assessor Gerald McCrory, she clashed on several occasions with District Attorney Ricky Babin over a number of issues, perhaps the most visible being a public corruption case involving St. James Parish officials from which she eventually recused herself after Babin accused her of bias.

But things became really interesting when late last year she recused herself from signing a warrant related to a very minor case. Like pulling a loose string, since then it has unraveled in titillating and disappointing ways that could prove costly to taxpayers.

Dardenne denies politics to serve that agenda

Whiny Jay Dardenne still wants us to believe that there should be no politics in administration but that the political opponents of his boss Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards put it there – even as his own assertion demonstrates the opposite.

Louisiana’s Commissioner of Administration got the ball rolling on this theme last month when he moaned about all the other members of the state’s Revenue Estimating Conference not following revenue recommendations from either of the two economists making forecasts. The net effect disallowed increased spending by state government.

Dardenne claimed this meant “politics” interfered with the prediction process, to be avoided in his view only when policy-makers elected and appointed unquestioningly ratified the estimates. This idea, of course, misses the obvious desire by policy-makers and the people to include political judgment in the process; otherwise, they wouldn’t have amended into the Constitution the need for unanimous policy-maker concurrence over the Dardenne doctrine of convenience regarding government by unelected experts.

Skepticism of LA higher education warranted

It’s not so much the ignorance behind the belief as that the belief exists in the first place, and so fervently in so many quarters that discredits higher education, especially in the eyes of the Louisiana citizenry.

Last week, Southern University Baton Rouge political science professor Albert Samuels presented a talk at the school’s version of “free speech alley.” It was entitled “The Moment We Have Feared is Upon Us: Why the 2020 Election May Be Democracy's Last Stand in America.”

A brief story about the upcoming event appeared in the Baton Rouge Advocate, with no follow. Southern’s student newspaper the Southern Digest won’t appear until Feb. 25, regardless of whether it covered it. The flyer promoting it featured pictures of Republican Pres. Donald Trump, Adolf Hitler, and the flag of the Soviet Union.

The Inquisitor column, Feb. 21, 2020

State should promote safer horse racing conditions
https://www.theinquisitor.com/columns-opinions/state-should-promote-safer-horse-racing-conditions

Links:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-horseracing-legislation/drug-reform-in-u-s-horse-racing-faces-obstacles-idUSKBN1X9222
https://www.paulickreport.com/news/ray-s-paddock/commentary-the-performance-enhancing-effects-of-lasix/
https://www.npr.org/2019/06/05/729344390/should-racehorses-be-medicated

https://www.theracingbiz.com/2020/01/28/sides-spar-in-horseracing-integrity-act-hearing/
https://www.paulickreport.com/news/ray-s-paddock/time-for-talk-is-done-congress-hears-debate-over-horseracing-integrity-act/
https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/churchill-downs-executive-addresses-surge-horse-deaths-68587841
https://www.ktbs.com/news/horses-die-at-arklatex-race-tracks/article_a53c7572-51df-11ea-a083-4f9e442de179.html
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7941-95-of-thoroughbreds-linked-to-one-superstud/
https://www.paulickreport.com/news/the-biz/coalition-representing-major-u-s-tracks-announces-lasix-ban-for-2-year-old-races-then-stakes/
http://horseracing.louisiana.gov/documents/LARulesofRacingBookNovember2019Update.pdf

Cassidy reelection to extend GOP dominance

Welcome to the norm in Louisiana U.S. Senate elections as the state transitions fully into Republican majority-party rule.

This week, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy announced his entirely expected reelection bid for this fall. So far, he has but one announced opponent, a Democrat with little name recognition and few resources.

Possibly a bigger name among Democrats could enter, but even among the party’s most prominent politicians none likely could come within 10 points of Cassidy in the general election. Simply and especially because national issues come into play in consideration of this seat, no state Democrat is close enough to the median center-right voter in Louisiana on the entire scope of issues to triumph against a solid conservative like Cassidy (American Conservative Union rating voting score: 83).

No permit good for LA concealed carry

There’s no reason to oppose having Louisiana joining the 16 states at present that allow carrying of concealed handguns without having to go through a permitting process.

HB 72 by Republican state Rep. Danny McCormick would eliminate the need to qualify and pay for costs associated with a permit, making where allowed by law concealed carry legal for any legal state resident with a handgun legally obtained unless they don’t meet a long list of conditions associated with prior criminal behavior, mental instability, certain discharges from the armed forces, or drug use, or who have violated federal guns laws. It would eliminate the education requirement or a display of firearm competency, or an application statement vouching that training has occurred and that the applicant is not ineligible for the permit by virtue of one of the legally disqualifying conditions..

McCormick calls the fees connected with obtaining an existing permit a tax triggered merely by concealing the weapon. If carried openly, no permit or fee is necessary. He argues that the state shouldn’t put unnecessary impediments in the way of exercising a constitutional right.

LA budget contains intriguing storylines

Earlier this month, Louisiana mainstream media covered the release of the state’s faux executive budget by Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards. Lots of surface details emerged, but they all glossed over, if not missed entirely, the deeper and more substantive stories.

Primary among these in the pretend budget – a sham because it contained revenues unrecognized by the state’s panel empowered to do so, the Revenue Estimating Conference – was without its fake revenue Edwards essentially couldn’t make any new spending commitments. The reason: Medicaid expansion expenses are eating the state out of house and home, despite over $300 million in tax increases for the program Edwards falsely alleged would save the state money.

Other consequences followed. You couldn’t swing a dead cat during last year’s gubernatorial campaign without Edwards pledging to raise salaries for educators, but even with the unauthorized money included his spending plan had no room for these. With a half-normal-sized increase in the Minimum Foundation Program Edwards suggested districts individually approve raises with that bounty.

Bad bills address gubernatorial succession

Some pre-filed bills for the 2020 regular session of the Louisiana Legislature take the wrong approach to dealing with the state’s most useless elective office.

Last year, lawmakers rejected a bill to amend the Constitution to tie the election of the lieutenant governor to that of the governor. This year, identical bills HB 42 by Democrat state Rep. Kyle Green and HB 50 by Republican state Rep. Mark Wright seek to do the same.

It’s still a bad idea, at two levels. It obscures accountability for both offices, especially in a blanket primary system that already devalues the important policy stand-in cue of party identification, by promoting personalistic and geographic characteristics for both candidates.

The Inquisitor column, Feb. 14, 2020

Shreveport must avoid Caddo schools ITEP stupidity
https://www.theinquisitor.com/columns-opinions/shreveport-must-avoid-caddo-schools-itep-stupidity

Links:
https://www.opportunitylouisiana.com/docs/default-source/boards-reports/MeetingCategory/louisiana-board-of-commerce-and-industry/itep2-0_factsheet_v3_4-23-18-1a39eca03fb366b7b9769ff03007ca97d.pdf?sfvrsn=99a8a105_0
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/jeff_sadow/article_6993e1bc-0f92-11e9-a0c6-efe854e3ded6.html
https://www.shreveportla.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/21731?fileID=38296
http://hdlegisuite.brgov.com/attachments/2018/Resolution%2053920%20Adopted%20ITEP%20guidelines_DEB588DD.pdf
https://www.boarddocs.com/la/ebrp/Board.nsf/files/B78TLY6F2759/$file/Industrial%20Tax%20Exemption%20Program%20Guidelines-EBR-Draft%20-%20Dec%204%202018.pdf
https://www.caddoschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Policy-Manual-08-16-2019.pdf
https://www.latax.state.la.us/Menu_AnnualReports/UploadedFiles/2019%20Louisiana%20Tax%20Commission%20Annual%20Report%20sign.pdf
https://www.theinquisitor.com/news/suffering-nw-la-holds-key-edwards-re-election