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.