Landry complaining risks bright political future

Rep. Jeff Landry may not have gotten the memorandum from the GOP, so I’ll reiterate from the outside: when it comes to redistricting, give it your best shot to get a district you can win, but don’t make a spectacle of yourself. That Landry to date hasn’t followed that script might jeopardize a promising political career.

The other five Louisiana Republicans in the House of Representatives have forged a gentlemen’s agreement that the post-2010 Census map of the state, dictating a loss of a district due to slow population growth statewide, should end up as a slight extension of the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth, a slight retrenchment of the First, a major extension of the Second, and the merging of the Third and Seventh. This makes Rep. Charles Boustany of the Seventh the odd man out among reelected members in having to face Landry of the Third.

Landry protests this arrangement that the others will press on the state Legislature that must perform this remapping.

Census numbers reveal natural, anticipated districts

As census information comes trickling in, some Louisiana House members acted way ahead of the curve, a few ponder their next step, and one acted perhaps too hastily.

Of course, reapportionment has brought a certain amount of chaos to the political futures of those representatives especially to parishes that lost almost third or even about half of their residents due to the hurricane disasters of 2005. Every Orleans-based district save two lost at least 29 percent of its residents. One of these, the 102^nd at only 18 percent represented by state Rep. Jeff Arnold who is eligible to run again, looks set as most likely to preserve his seat.

Some saw it coming and planned for a post-legislative future.

Numbers confirm more LA Democrat switches may loom

Oops there goes another dog Democrat (if you can identify the name of the song with which this line closely resembles a lyric from it, as well as the artist and politician with which it is associated, leave a comment and I’ll write a nice comment about your stunning level of knowledge, or at least search engine cleverness). Now it’s state Rep. Bubba Chaney’s turn to switch parties.

Chaney said upon announcing his change that he thought it consistent with his conservative beliefs, which is a half-truth. Indeed, on the Louisiana Legislature Log index of ideology and reform instinct for 2010 he scored a 90, where 100 is the maximum conservative/reformer score. But in 2009 he managed just a 30, and in 2008 a 45, for an average of 55. This makes his more of a moderate than anything, although he did every year exceed the average Democrat House member score. In that respect, unless he suddenly found religion last year, this is more a switch of convenience.

But in concert with the revelation, Republican House Speaker Jim Tucker said more are coming, and he may be right.

LA should change radically tech school system

In the debate over higher education provision in Louisiana, here’s a thought: what if the state scrapped its existing technical schools?

Even as Louisiana is overbuilt in its baccalaureate-and-up institutions, it might be even more when considering it has 49 separate campuses to provide technical training. This is in addition to the 87 accredited non-public entities that provide some kind of major occupational training in a physical location at the tertiary level in the state (and 104 total proprietary schools).

Accreditation is important because as long as other sound practices are followed, this allows a school to have its students qualify for federal assistance, loans and/or grants. This money ends up paying for the bulk of operations at the proprietary schools, but much less for state schools. The latter also typically have much lower tuition and fee costs for students.

One could argue that with the lower costs, perhaps as much as only one-quarter of those of the highest-priced proprietary schools for some programs, that it’s necessary for the state to maintain the system so poorer individuals can get that education. It might also justify the state having so many campuses, most outside of large urban areas making them more accessible to students.

But location isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.

Landrieu needs much luck to win a 4th Senate term

A third of the way into her third term as U.S. Senator, Democrat Mary Landrieu has let the world know she intends to run for a fourth term. While fortune always has favored her in the past, she’ll need it more than ever as circumstances continue to turn against her.

Landrieu epitomizes the notion of a career politician, serving in elective office virtually her entire post-collegiate life, first winning a place in the state Legislature at 23 with only one thing to her name – her name, being the daughter of former New Orleans Mayor (among other things) Moon Landrieu. During her time in various offices, including becoming senator in less than a decade, her accomplishments have been few and thin, nothing memorable or major.

But particularly regarding her continued Senate success, timing has been awfully good for her.

Results show Caddo Plan failure, big changes needed

The initial year of the brainchild of Caddo Parish School District Superintendant Gerald Dawkins, the Caddo Plan, is in the books. Hyped as the solution to turn around a school system in decline, it instead has turned out to be a bandage – a big, impressive, expensive one, but a bandage nonetheless that has done little to address the problem of decline because, as noted in this space previously, it merely rearranges the deck chairs on a sinking ship. And the expense is putting the system into financial crisis, according to the state.

Confirmation of this poor plan and use of funds came with school accountability scores released by the state last year. Across the entire state, Caddo had the honor of having a majority of the few new schools declared academically unacceptable. Further, no parish schools that were on the list exited even as the overall number listed statewide shrank. And it gets worse, as an increase in standards in the next two years probably will push even more schools into the unacceptable category; if scores remain the same over the next two years, 17 more will be added to the 11 already there, giving around a third of the district schools this dubious honor.

Those already on the list and those likely to be there soon contain most of the schools presumably “reinvented” by the Caddo Plan.

Political group discredits self by honoring ex-convict

What is it about this state that makes people who should know better want to celebrate dishonest rogues who betray the peoples’ trust?

Now that he’s out in the community in a restricted fashion, Prisoner #03128-095 finds himself still fêted by certain people of ignorance or who hold especially low standards. If it’s not some bucolic gathering of the hoi polloi it’s an urban recreation of past glories by the haute bourgeoisie. 

But the ignorant nor sycophants explain why the nonprofit Louisiana Political Museum would induct knowingly into its Hall of Fame a scurrilous individual. (At least #03128-095, known at the time of his induction in the inaugural class of 1993 as former Gov. Edwin Edwards, had not yet been sent to prison.) That’s what the institution plans to do this week on behalf of Prisoner #03312-095.

Caldwell switch underscores declining Democrat fortunes

There’s not a whole lot to read into the imminent party switch of Atty. Gen. Buddy Caldwell to the GOP except as a larger metaphor of how far that Republican Party has come, and how much Democrats are in eclipse, in Louisiana.

Caldwell faced no serious challenge this fall and, while betraying some liberal attitudes such as supporting contingency fee payments for state business that do more to enrich trial lawyers than bring justice and countenancing jackpot justice under his watch, he also has acted on conservative themes such as joining the state to a suit that yesterday garnered a ruling that the 2010 health care changes championed by liberal Democrats were unconstitutional, so it’s not a stretch to argue that this move doesn’t go significantly against type for him unlike with other recent switchers.

If anything, staying with the Democrat label when he ran in 2007 might have been more for political reasons than ideological in his case. Then, he faced off against a liberal Democrat damaged by decisions he made while in office, and a conservative Republican who damaged his own candidacy by decisions he made during it. Calling himself a Democrat, as he had for his several terms as a district attorney but not articulating liberal preferences may have made him seem a safe, moderate default choice for voters.

But three years later the Democrat label has taken a scouring and worse could come by the state’s election day, so its usefulness no longer exists in this context, whereas adopting the Republican label might prove handy to cut off at the pass a Republican from thinking he can ride discontent over Democrats into knocking off Caldwell. The best opponent for an incumbent is no opponent at all, and with nearly $200,000 banked at the end of 2009, the switch increases the chance he’ll get a free ride this fall.

More significantly, out of seven statewide officials and the two U.S. senators elected statewide, now only Sen. Mary Landrieu remains a Democrat. Assuming Caldwell files the paperwork by the end of the week, on that day five years ago, only one of the nine, Sen. David Vitter, was a Republican. And looking forward by Feb. 19, then back five years to that day, when then Democrats held a 67-37 advantage in the state House led 25-14 in the Senate, by contrast shortly in the future the GOP should hold a 52-48 advantage in the House and may lead the Senate 20-19. This means in five years Democrats will have gone from 88.89 percent of officials elected statewide to 11.11 percent of them, from 63.81 percent of House members to 46.15 percent of them, and from 64.10 percent of senators to 48.72 percent of them. That’s not just a tide coming in; it’s a tsunami.

It’s happened that fast that Louisiana has caught up with the rest of the South, and after 2011 elections the GOP likely will extend its leads further in the Legislature; it now cannot go higher in number with the seven constitutional officers by having all of them – the last time the same party had all being 20 years ago but then all Democrat, and never all Republican in the post-Reconstruction era. If you are a Louisiana Democrat loyalist, the world indeed has turned upside down.

Jindal proposes even bolder, needed college reforms

Gov. Bobby Jindal swept past concerns that he paid insufficient attention to the funding of Louisiana higher education by proposing changes not only along his customary attention to bureaucratic details, but also by a bold calling to streamline its governance to set the stage for improved institutional performance and better use of taxpayer dollars.

Addressing an audience comprised of the members of the present five higher education governance boards, perhaps they and their staffers may be the only ones not cheered by Jindal’s proposals, all of which will need legislative approval with the biggest requiring amending the Constitution. That’s because the most radical of the bunch, building upon his apparent desire to merge the University of New Orleans and Southern University New Orleans, was to have only one higher education governance board.

Sometimes criticized for his lack of boldness, Jindal likely recognized conditions probably could get little better to swing for the fences on this issue. While indicating he would not reduce current institution budgets more than 10 percent and said it likely would be significantly less, the fact that the state faces a tough fiscal climate for at least the upcoming year and higher education dollars depend so much on state general fund revenues means savings are eagerly sought, with board parings likely to count in the tens of millions of dollars.

Recapture, rewrite of past behind Roemer deliberation

That former Gov. Buddy Roemer seems somewhat self-aware of the utility of any run of his for the presidency makes it all the more maddening that he seems so self-deceptive in assessing his skill set and temperament for attaining and serving in that office.

Roemer hints broadly he’s about to pursue this office, two decades after whispers of the like must have reached his ears. Back then, he and neighboring former Pres. Bill Clinton, both governors of southern states, both perceived (if not in reality) as moderate Democrats, both relatively young and speaking of innovation and new paradigms in governance, many considered them the future leaders of their party as the contradictions inherent to the unvarnished liberalism of the industrial age increasingly became apparent through the policy failures it engendered. Surely every reader of these lines knows which of them grasped that mantle.

He failed to the extent that, even with a party switch while in office, at his reelection opportunity he got aced out of office by two figures that would go to prison on matters related to their political activities that today nobody seriously can envision them winning that office. Four years later against far less controversial and more ethical figures, he still could not advance to the general election runoff in an attempt to recapture the chair.

Now relaxed, rested, and apparently ready to go 16 years later, Roemer presents himself as a member of an aggrieved public, a businessman who sees politicians as too disconnected from the real world and people in it, too connected to special interests, with an unwillingness to confront actual problems such as massive deficit spending. He claims “nobody who’s elected is going to talk for the common man, for the small businessman, for the soldier or sailor. They talk for Wall Street.” Even so, he doubts he can win but seems prepared to give it a try.

Such statements imply his candidacy would constitute either of a sure sense that people retain little memory of political history or of farce. Roemer’s personality doesn’t suggest the former so he must kid himself by truly believing in the latter that his candidacy represents not the special interests of Wall Street or Dupont Circle, but of Main Street.

Both socially and politically, Roemer has eaten with nothing but silver spoons. He came from wealth, he moved into politics because of family connections, and, while he has shown he can run a successful business, one wonders whether others could have succeeded to the extent that he has without connections obtained by having been a former member of the U.S. Congress or having occupied the Governor’s Mansion. How this makes him more the spokesman of the “common man” than other potential Republican candidates, most of who’s origins are more humble and who have had as or more successful careers inside and outside of politics would appear to baffle everybody but him.

Further, this cantor of restrained government spending now over two decades ago then sang a very different tune. Although initially he articulated that virtue as governor, eventually he gave way to gimmickry to fund a state government that among the states went from 27^th to 20^th in per capita expenditures during his term by such tricks as the Louisiana Recovery District, and setting up the state lottery that would come to fruition after his term. Maybe his fiscal religion now is genuine, but his past does not make him the most convincing spokesman for it when other candidates have acted with much more fidelity on the issue. And his seeming distaste for “Wall Street” seems a bit forced coming from a banker whose profession mirrors to a great extent exactly what he rails against.

Even with these incongruities between Roemer’s present rhetoric and past life and deeds, that doesn’t mean that he would not be a good candidate. But it does lead one to wonder whether he really doesn’t understand the skepticism that accompanies his reinvention that makes him a less-convincing candidate than the presumed ones out there that he doesn’t think are adequate on this kind of platform. Add to that his astuteness that he is an unfathomably long shot (made especially so by his pledge to take only small donations which will get him nowhere close to the nearly $750 million Pres. Barack Obama raised in 2008) so if he does run he is aware he will receive little attention and add probably nothing to the 2012 policy debate, begging the question of why run?

In the final analysis, for somebody who inflates his credibility to run for an office he knows he cannot win indicates either or both of a crisis of ego or purpose. Perhaps Roemer just can’t resist one last try to fulfill a promise brought down many years ago by the very qualities of his governance that now he thinks would outclass the present, presumed field.