Edwards ALEC connection part of myth building

Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards addressing the American Legislative Exchange Council? That’s not beyond belief upon understanding the requirements of the Edwards myth of centrism.

The group convened its annual meeting in New Orleans yesterday and heard from the governor. At first glance, that may seem odd, for the group’s conservative, good government agenda hardly squares with much of what Edwards has spoken favorably about and has pursued throughout his policy-making career.

Indeed, checking upon Edwards’ score as a legislator and governor on the Louisiana Legislature Log scorecard, as a member of the House of Representatives he averaged about 30 and as governor he has averaged around 47. Higher scores indicate higher congruity with voting for a conservative/reform agenda, while lower scores denote voting fealty to liberal/populist preferences.

The Press-Herald column, Aug. 8, 2018

Gatti’s ties to Edwards may haunt him
http://press-herald.com/gattis-ties-to-edwards-may-haunt-him/

Links:
https://thehayride.com/2018/07/why-is-ryan-gatti-using-john-bel-edwards-as-a-fundraising-tool/
http://www.ethics.la.gov/CampaignFinanceSearch/LA-63631.pdf
http://www.ethics.la.gov/CampaignFinanceSearch/LA-63631.pdf
http://www.ethics.la.gov/CampaignFinanceSearch/LA-55509.pdf
http://www.ethics.la.gov/CampaignFinanceSearch/LA-52086.pdf
http://www.ethics.la.gov/CampaignFinanceSearch/LA-50787.pdf
http://www.ethics.la.gov/CampaignFinanceSearch/LA-64549.pdf
http://www.ethics.la.gov/CampaignFinanceSearch/LA-63321.pdf
http://www.ethics.la.gov/CampaignFinanceSearch/LA-69432.pdf
http://www.ethics.la.gov/CampaignFinanceSearch/LA-69867.pdf
https://www.ktbs.com/news/gatti-the-governor-and-foster-kids/article_9ee8fe68-96c7-11e8-a8b9-43db53e59c87.html
http://www.labi.org/assets/images/media/2016-Scorecard.pdf

LA bishops can clarify death penalty confusion

The death penalty debate has gotten some recent attention in Louisiana, with both Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards and his spiritual leaders thrust into it.

Edwards found himself subject to criticism on the subject by Republican Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry. The state’s chief prosecutor removed his office from a lawsuit preventing the state from carrying out executions, saying the governor remained insufficiently committed to resolving the case in a way where the state could resume carrying out capital sentences.

Since 2014, the courts effectively have enjoined the state from doing this, citing its inability to conduct lethal injection in a constitutional manner. State law mandates this as the only method for capital punishment, and Landry faults Edwards both for not doing what’s needed to put the state in a posture to carry this out and failure to back changing the law to add methods of execution. For his part, Edwards brushed this aside as political grandstanding.

Anti-reformers get leg up in Jefferson races

Round III in the reform vs. anti-reform battle for the Jefferson Parish School Board got more interesting last week.

The nine-member body has received much attention over the previous two election cycles. In 2010, tired of lagging student performance, reform interests backed by area business managed to elect a majority.  In the ensuing four years, the board let go of a collective bargaining agreement that hampered change and became much friendlier to policy options such as charter schools, hiring a superintendent to match.

In the interim, the district’s performance improved. Despite that, the empire struck back. With union-affiliated organizations piling hundreds of thousands of dollars into 2014 races, labor won back a majority. Reinstituting collective bargaining followed plus the hiring of a new superintendent without reformist impulses.

The Advocate column, Aug. 5, 2018

Gov. Edwards does everything but give an answer on death penalty issue 
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/jeff_sadow/article_dfe634a0-95cb-11e8-b260-477dbc6c2721.html

Links:
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/legislature/article_918f9046-8b97-11e8-9578-ff8afbf1924c.html
https://www.theadvocate.com/gambit/new_orleans/news/the_latest/article_e1831ce8-85fd-11e8-ae7a-8b4c165eef81.html
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/article_8efd7606-91a8-11e8-9757-034ab796e450.html
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/methods-execution
https://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2018/07/jeff_landry_death_penalty.html

The Press-Herald column, Aug. 1, 2018

La. dodges bullet on Wind Catcher
http://press-herald.com/la-dodges-bullet-on-wind-catcher/

Links:
http://press-herald.com/aep-cancels-wind-catcher-project/
https://www.rtoinsider.com/puct-wind-catcher-swepco-aep-96904/ 
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/article_56e152a2-74e7-11e8-be83-cf17f839d291.html
http://www.ethics.la.gov/CampaignFinanceSearch/LA-68699.pdf
http://www.ethics.la.gov/CampaignFinanceSearch/LA-48016.pdf
http://www.ethics.la.gov/CampaignFinanceSearch/LA-36900.pdf

Group's efforts won't affect LA conservative rule

Emerge Louisiana will find its far-left leanings won’t allow it to enjoy the low-hanging fruit success it has experienced in other parts of the country, as upcoming 2018 election results will ratify.

It serves as the state arm of the national Emerge America organization, which aims to elect female Democrats to offices at all levels of government. Women, it claims, benefit the polity by their staunch support for democratic principles like equality and fairness, actively involve themselves in a variety of gender-salient issue areas (such as healthcare, the economy, education and the environment), and show more responsive to constituents, value cooperation over “hierarchical power,” and find ways to engineer solutions in situations where “men have trouble finding common ground.”

The national group has a smorgasbord advisory board reflecting its political fealties: far-out feminists, abortion-on-demand harridans, big-government former elected officials, lionized ex-candidates defeated decisively, and ex-party hacks. (The Louisiana version’s board has a different function, as fundraisers.) Nationally, it boasts of a 73 percent success rate so far in 2018 (although a not-insignificant portion includes very minor boards or Democrat governance committees, and likely many of the posts would elect a Democrat in any event).

New LA ITEP rules allow for bad policy

Want to go about implementing in the wrong way new directives about a tax break in Louisiana? Look no further than action taken by the Orleans Parish School Board in July.

Earlier this year, Gov. John Bel Edwards had revamped the implementation of his executive order dealing with the Industrial Tax Exemption Program. This allows the state to waive local property taxes for projects that introduce or expand a business for up to ten years.

Originally, the order allowed several different local governments to weigh in on a decision that could create outcomes spanning from entire shielding to no shielding at all of tax liability. This created confusion and uncertainty both for the petitioners of the credit and the governing authorities trying to figure out what they should do.

Inadequate defense trial balloon for Edwards?

Perhaps the reply was well meaning, but it featured an awful lot of tap-dancing, some of it inaccurate, that won’t serve well as a counterargument.

My Jul. 22 Baton Rouge Advocate column drew a response from Karen Scallan, who identifies herself as a member of the state’s OCDD System Transformation Workgroup. She is visible in the disability community as a consultant who helps people unravel the complex world of Medicaid provision to people with disabilities.

In a Jul. 27 letter to The Advocate, Scallan refers to my column as having my “heart in the right place.” My piece applauded the Louisiana Department of Health for erasing a 10,000-person waiting list for Medicaid waiver services, and explored ways, using existing revenues sources without raising taxes, to address that the “changes haven’t helped provide all necessary assistance [italics added] to 28,000 people with more complex and intense needs.”

The Advocate column, Jul. 29, 2018

Baton Rouge council could learn from Caddo Parish on how to handle death of a councilmember
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/jeff_sadow/article_d61862d8-9105-11e8-a1c5-b7e746b0fbfc.html

Links:
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/article_6d12305e-8b7c-11e8-9fbe-c7f8b4485889.html
https://electionstatistics.sos.la.gov/Data/Registration_Statistics/Parish/2018_0701_par_comb.pdf
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/article_84eaf9cc-7ae7-11e8-9b55-a36998e74f5b.html
https://www.ktbs.com/news/education/caddo-school-board-names-interim-board-member-for-district/article_503427a6-1bd5-11e8-b825-fb73a6e8a4cf.html