Conversation there about Landry outright win

So, Republican state Rep. Richard Nelson pulled the plug on his gubernatorial candidacy. It changes little that GOP Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry and Democrat former cabinet member Shawn Wilson are heading to runoff, with Landry having a decisive advantage.

Nelson, whose campaign best fits a libertarian mold, never cracked two percent in polling, with the latest survey for Gray Media television stations in Louisiana not even including him in its summary of voter preferences that occurred a few days before he announced his withdrawal. Given the state’s political culture with a history of liberal populism that emphasized social conservatism and liberal economics, reversing the pair doesn’t fit well.

Low on funds, Nelson recognized the obvious and went out endorsing Landry. That seems odd on the surface, for why run against the front runner if you ultimately think he’s better than all other challengers? It may have been for strategic purposes, with Nelson now out of electoral politics and perhaps searching for a way to stay in governance with an appointment and Landry the likely one to do the appointing come next year.

Pressured BC Council graybeards still defy law

As its legal woes mount, once again the Bossier City Council violated the city charter, although on this third occasion one councilor decided it was time to cut his losses.

At its last meeting, once again Republican Mayor Tommy Chandler placed on the agenda an item to put on the Nov. 18 general election runoff ballot a referendum on a three-term lifetime and retroactive limit on elected officials. A petition, following the charter’s stipulations, was certified by the registrar of voters to force the Council to do this if it did not itself resolve into an amendment this change within 30 days of certification.

It has 90 days after that to call the election or piggyback onto another. And it failed to follow the charter for a third time, which had the practical effect of pushing the matter off the Nov. 18 ballot and now placing it on the Mar. 23, 2024 presidential preference primary ballot. Given the presence of the certified petition, legally it must do so by early November, although the same majority bloc of the Council that so far has blocked this muscled through a resolution to go to court to try to declare the petition invalid because it didn’t follow the letter of the law in its format although it had all the information required by law.

Arceneaux wounds self over Carnival changes

Carnival krewes often venture into politics as a subject of their parading. But in Shreveport, politics has ventured into carnival krewes’ parading.

In great contrast to his predecessor, Republican Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux has kept things low key and not tried to induce drama into his governance. Until recently, when he began dictating terms to the area’s two oldest and largest Carnival krewes, sticking his head into a hornet’s nest somewhat voluntarily.

About half a year prior to their next parading, the Krewes of Gemini and Centaur received notification of these changes. For many years now they have marched on the first and second Saturdays of Carnival, typically towards the later afternoon beginning at the southern end of downtown on the Clyde Fant Parkway, then hanging a right at Shreveport Barksdale Highway until going left onto East Kings Highway and ending up at Preston Avenue, typically finishing around 8:30 PM. They used to start in Bossier City and crossed over the Shreveport Barksdale Highway Bridge until city officials on the east bank didn’t like to be inconvenienced and kicked them out.

Better debate, leaves Landry & Wilson in lead

While the second televised candidate forum for Louisiana governor on the was better executed, it only marginally provided greater insight and information into the candidacies.

Nextstar television stations produced this one eight days after the first and featured two additional candidates to the first, which had Republicans state Sen. Sharon Hewitt, Treas. John Schroder, and former gubernatorial official Stephen Waguespack; Democrat former cabinet member Shawn Wilson, and independent trial lawyer Hunter Lundy. Front runner GOP Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry joined this one, along with the candidate that polling shows drags the rear, GOP state Rep. Richard Nelson.

As opposed to the previous one, this forum perhaps even more sparsely viewed focused more narrowly and more in depth on subjects, and the journalists asking questions did a better job of removing themselves from the topics of debate. Still, a minute for answers and rebuttals even shorter don’t provide much, and some decisions on questions were puzzling, such as spending almost a third of the entire program on the issue of abortion, which in a recent survey ranked as only the seventh-most important issue to state residents while the debate ignored third-ranked education.

NW LA Senate campaign reports prove interesting

Collectively, according to recent campaign finance reports perhaps the most competitive Louisiana Senate races are happening in northwest Louisiana, although clarity has begun to emerge in the contests mainly in Caddo Parish.

Those are the three-candidate Senate District 38 and 39 contests. Less certain in outcome are the paired matchups in sprawling Senate District 31, which has a plurality of its voters in Caddo and Bossier Parishes, and District 36, with mainly a Bossier constituency.

The reports filed last week importantly for most of these candidacies reveal for the first time campaign donations and expenditures. These give an idea of the relevant potency of a candidacy and the kinds of supporters it draws, if any.

Judiciary needs to scuttle Edwards power play

Democrat 19^th Judicial District Attorney Hillar Moore III did the right thing in pursuing legal action to clarify powers invested in the Louisiana Pardon Board and Committee on Parole, subject to a power play by Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards reaching from the political grave.

Earlier this year, Edwards admitted to what had been long suspected that he opposed capital punishment. This sent out a dog whistle to others of that ilk in the legal profession, who then helped line up clemency requests from all but one Louisiana inmate sentenced for execution in order to get an unprecedently-quick resolution hopefully in favor of a positive recommendation, which then would allow Edwards to issue the commutation prior to his leaving office earlier this year.

The Board, comprised of Edwards appointees to the coveted positions that are the only in state government where panel appointees draw a salary (up to $50,000 annually, but at least changes in the last decade now mandate that they have experience in areas related to criminal justice), initially shot down the request after perusing an opinion issued by Republican Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry’s office. Analyzing the Louisiana Administrative Code and the policy statements for the Board drawn from it, plus the relevant Administrative Procedure Act procedures that brought these into force, it concluded that the Board could not bypass the requirement that a year at least had to separate clemency appeals to have a hearing. The one exception would be when an execution is imminent.

Bossier Jury transparency belated, inadequate

It’s the electronic equivalent of laying down asphalt on parish roads right before an election: after three years of assurances this was around the corner, Bossier Parish finally is getting around to creating facilities to broadcast professionally its jury meetings – a day late and a dollar short of needed transparency.

For years, to broadcast proceedings the nine-figure annual revenue Bossier Parish has done so by slapping down on a table a device that tries to capture the entire panorama of twelve jurors by video and streaming it by Facebook Live. With little technical improvement, the arrangement continues until this day. Audio often is terrible that requires guesswork as to who speaks and there’s no opportunity to view presentations or vote tabulations.

As a result, at the start of the Jury’s meeting last week local web site operator Wes Merriott of Sobo Live made it an offer. Perhaps more known for his biting remarks during public commentary periods of the Bossier City Council, Merriott at the Jury’s interval for public comments offered his technical services to improve the live stream capacity at no charge.

Attacks on Landry hit new level of desperation

For the increasingly-desperate opponents of Republican Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry to keep him from triumphing in the governor’s race, it’s pinning their hopes on making a thousand cuts – even if the “wounds” aren’t real.

Just over a month prior to the general election, Landry continues to have a commanding lead in the contest, much to the chagrin of other candidates and their backers. Party regulars among Democrats behind Democrat former cabinet member Shawn Wilson and the party’s white populist rump pinning their fading hopes on independent trial lawyer Hunter Lundy see Landry as the most dangerous to their agendas, while other Republicans and their supporters see these candidates’ chances of getting into a runoff with Wilson and therefore an easy win going up the road.

So, to varying degrees, they have formed an unofficial conspiracy to try to stop Landry. Their problem is his agenda is popular and his background, often successfully through the powers of his office providing a conservative foil to Democrats Pres. Joe Biden and Gov. John Bel Edwards, has inspired confidence among many voters that he best can start the process of ejecting liberalism from Louisiana governance.

Gubernatorial debate few viewed reveals little

Missing its most important ingredient, the televised Louisiana gubernatorial debate sponsored by media outlets and interest groups provided few useful glimpses into the contest.

Republican Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry, the inarguable front runner, didn’t participate over concerns the Urban League as a sponsor which has demonstrated outright hostility to some actions he has taken in his job. Five others lined up: Democrat former cabinet member Shawn Wilson who is the only candidate within shouting distance on Landry in the polls, independent lawyer Hunter Lundy, and Republicans state Sen. Sharon Hewitt, Treas. John Schroder, and former gubernatorial assistant Stephen Waguespack.

Without Landry, it’s pointless to compare and contrast candidate issue preferences uttered. Instead, winners and losers in certain aspects will be described.

Critiqued BC Council looks to squelch commentary

Stuck pigs on the Bossier City Council squeal, a recent leaked audio clip reveals, that forecasts as a reactive attempt, its origins likely illegal, to restrict public input and comment on Council matters.

Over the past six weeks a majority faction on the Council has taken a public relations beating. Over a series of votes five of its members – Republicans David Montgomery, Jeff Free, and Vince Maggio, and Democrat Bubba Williams and no party Jeff Darby – have on as many as four occasions voted in a manner to obstruct the placing of term limits into the city charter, with two of those votes violating the charter itself. The amendment would set a three term, lifetime and retroactive limit that would prevent all but Maggio from running again in 2025.

Even if limits don’t make it into the charter in time to apply to that election – that majority bloc at the last Council meeting voted to ask Bossier Parish Registrar Stephanie Agee to step outside the law to decertify the voters’ petition that the charter forces the Council to call for an election on it, and also voted to pursue other legal action trying to derail the petition, both over questions about the petition’s format – extensive political damage detrimental to their continuing their political careers has happened. Probing and sometimes sharp-tongued citizen commentary when the items dealing with the petition and related issue of term limits have come up, illuminating hypocrisy and bad faith in the bloc’s actions that raises unflattering public awareness, not to mention producing visuals that beg to appear in negative campaign advertising down the road.