Last ditch Democrats to push House races right

If you want excitement out of Louisiana elections this fall, you’re only hope is a pair of congressional contests that originally would have been settled by now as well.

The state’s six congressional elections found themselves rescheduled and reformatted after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the previous districts unconstitutional, but time was running short. Additionally, Republican Rep. Julia Letlow forwent her Fifth District seat to win the GOP nomination for the Senate, meaning she will win by at least double-digits in the fall.

So too will the party’s nominees for three Supreme Court slots (technically, already elected), two Public Service Commission spots, a seat on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, and three of the six congressional districts. The Democrats will triumph only in a single House district.

Caddo, Bossier races: ain't broke, no need to fix

Caddo and Bossier Parish contests for school boards and judicial positions this fall will follow a maxim that if it doesn’t seem broken, don’t fix it.

In Caddo Parish, only one incumbent judge across the First District, Shreveport City Court, and Caddo Parish Juvenile Court drew a challenger. That was the embattled Democrat City Court Judge Sheva Sims. Earlier this year she drew another suspension, the first since 2015, for nine months from the state’s Judiciary Commission, but decided to run again. Two other black Democrats, lawyers Kharmen Davis-Taylor and Trinicia Leonard, have challenged her. The other two City Court incumbent judges plus newcomer Republican Amy Brainard faced no opposition.

For District Court, all but two incumbents will walk back into office. Another rookie, Republican Heather Courtney, also will get a free pass, along with her husband Republican Justin Courtney on the Juvenile Court bench and his two compatriots. The only competition here will occur for the other open seat where Republican Hugo Holland will face off against Democrat Treneisha Jackson Hill.

Lesser-known races to provide NW LA excitement

Three of the highest-profile contests in northwest Louisiana for this fall’s election involve offices most voters rarely consider, all with some controversy involved.

Two of the hottest will occur in Shreveport and Bossier City for the obscure office of marshal. Each city court in the state, whose judges are elected, also has a city marshal attached to it, who carries out the orders of the court. Often that isn’t a great deal to do, so, in line with Parkinson’s Law, they perform other tasks as by ordinance (and reap extra compensation).

These offices often draw competition, and there is a logical explanation as to why: they can turn into huge jackpots because statute allows a marshal to collect fees for a wide variety of actions. The office does have expenses, principally for deputies in larger jurisdictions, but above and beyond those the marshal can keep the rest for himself. Several in the state make more than any other elected official in their jurisdictions, into six figures.

Can GOP's Arceneaux win again in Shreveport?

Perhaps obviously the Shreveport city majoritarian branch elections will make a big splash in northwest Louisiana, with the largest question of whether surprising results from 2022 can replicate.

The Shreveport mayor’s contest tops local office tussles in the region. Four years ago, Republican now-Mayor Tom Arceneaux upset Democrat then-state Sen. Greg Tarver to win in the majority-black city electorate. He accomplished this by making small but significant inroads into the black vote beyond the baseline city-wide Republicans had come to expect, which came as a segment of the black vote simply found Tarver unpalatable.

Since then, Arceneaux’s mission became how at least to hang onto black voters willing to give him a chance under those circumstances and perhaps capture more while hanging on as much as possible to his Republican base. That has produced a mixed bag of results: generally competent leadership but having to navigate consequences of crises he inherited especially up against a hostile Democrat-led City Council, and from time to time scoring own goals.

Reject Monroe school taxes for future lower rates

About the only thing that makes sense coming from the split among Monroe City School Board members over looming property tax renewals/reductions is the Board majority scheduling the vote in December when it has the best chance of passing.

Last month, the Board voted to put the propositions of 13.93 and 5.94 mills for operations and maintenance on the Dec. 12 ballot after renewals of 14.41 and 6.15 mills failed in May elections headlined by party primary votes for the U.S. Senate. These proposed are the current millages being levied, after the Board eschewing rolling forward rates to their maximums allowed since 2016, which then were levied at the rate that failed the voter test. The current levy expires at the end of the year.

Putting an election on a date with much less stimulus for voters to turn out is an age-old trick of local governments to pass taxes. Disproportionately supporters, who may be government employees whose agency directly benefits from the tax that also incite their families and friends, turn out for these. Delaying the vote from Nov. 3 also avoids at the same time that three supportive board members would have their names up for reelection on the same ballot as a tax.

Restrict, not ban, license plate readers in LA

There’s no question that automated license plate reading cameras need increased scrutiny. The only question is by how much.

Recently, Republican state Rep. Danny McCormick, over social media and the airwaves, served notice that next year he would introduce a bill to ban such cameras. He declared the Legislature had momentum to do so after last year banning traffic enforcement cameras in all areas except school zones and the city of Opelousas. As well, the presence of reader cameras has irked privacy advocates worried that this has become another big data source ripe for exploitation, if not a breeding ground for constitutional violations of probable cause for searches.

However, he should expect some resistance. Law enforcement agencies have found the technology, which captures plate images that a private vendor collates into a database that law enforcement may access, helpful in tracking down suspects, even almost in real time that improves apprehension and conviction rates. Simply, this pits privacy rights against public safety.

LA should conduct study to increase JP relevancy

A little-known new law might serve as the start of the answer to making a superfluous, anachronistic office more relevant in the 21^st century.

Starting last month, courtesy of Act 950 passed this year, East Baton Rouge Justice of the Peace Districts were extended into Baton Rouge. That means they overlap with the Baton Rouge City Court, but only concurrently on one piece of jurisdiction: evictions where rent is fewer than $5,000 monthly.

Area legislators successfully advocated for the measure in order to reduce the backlog of eviction cases piling up in City Court. Ordinarily, within their jurisdictions as well as with evictions JPs deal with bail for minor cases (with an amount in controversy fewer than $5,000 or not with hard labor as a potential penalty), litter abatement, movable property abandonment with parish approval, and in a few parishes immovable property standards and nuisance cases.

Bossier Parish restroom ordinance appropriate

Again, it’s important to remember that when on the losing side of the argument, delivering distraction and non sequiturs becomes the order of the day, as recent squawking about a proposed ordinance in Bossier Parish illustrates.

Last month, the Bossier Parish Police Jury passed along a measure that creates a framework to ensure and enforce that in parish-owned or run buildings those of a biological sex only use restrooms and dressing rooms designated for that biological sex, unless the facility were designated family/single occupancy. Essentially, a parish employee if discovering or alerted to a violation may issue two warnings (first, exiting the facility, then exiting the building, which could be the same) if not heeded then makes the person subject to arrest and criminal penalties. Essentially, it adds criminal enforcement to existing state law.

The ordinance bends over backwards in other ways. It exempts actions pertaining to a parent assisting a minor child., assistance provided to a disabled person, emergency medical care, law enforcement activities, custodial or maintenance services, and emergency evacuations or disasters.

Miscreant top judge not wrong on clarifications

You can be right and wrong at the same time, a recent flareup at the Louisiana Supreme Court proves.

No party Chief Justice John Weimer keeps getting on the wrong side of his colleagues. In 2023, upset at how they thought Wiemer ran the Court – the senior-most justice legally becomes chief regardless of the desires of others – that they formed a committee to administer the Court, leaving only ceremonial duties for Weimer. Republican then-Assoc. Justice Scott Crichton was appointed to lead it.

He almost found himself out of a job years early (he will surpass the age limitation disallowing reelection in 2032) when in 2024 almost all of those then on the Court backed a reapportionment plan that would have changed his district residency. He survived when a subsequent plan kept him in place.

Trump and Landry defuse Luddites on data centers

It’s not as important that another Republican Gov. Jeff Landry win tamped down discord among some over data center spillover costs, but that it deflated the rearguard action conducted by climate alarmists.

Already having set the stage with his recent executive order that said costs passed on to power and water consumers as a result of data center creation and expansion had to be matched by benefits conveyed to consumers in other ways, Landry received an assist from his ally Pres. Donald Trump upon the latter’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge  recently drawing the signatures of heavy hitters in the data center universe. Governors also were invited to sign off, and Landry assuredly did that which crept a bit more forward than his executive order.

Essentially, the pledge says entities involved will not pass along exclusive data center added costs to the general public. All major Louisiana power utilities have signed it as well as a number of entities building, overseeing, and operating, or planning to do so, data centers in the state. A framework to restrict this already exists with the Public Service Commission, although a dissident Democrat on it claims this should occur more specifically.