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9.11.24

GOP retaining House majority gets Landry off hook

As Republican Gov. Jeff Landry tries to shepherd home far-reaching reforms in Louisiana’s fiscal structure that would enhance his political stature, it looks as if he avoided a major hit to that with his party retaining control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

While the solid victory of GOP former Pres. Donald Trump will return him to office next Jan. 20 and appeared to aid in a pickup of four U.S. Senate seats, it’s looking largely stasis for the House. With about a dozen races still not definitively decided at this writing but several leaning the party’s way, it seems the House will remain in Republican hands and, in fact, projected to have the same number of seats, 220.

That, of course, is good news for the state’s Republican majority delegation, but really good news for GOP Reps. Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise. Johnson serves as the speaker and Scalise the majority leader, the top two positions in the chamber. The unprecedented tenure of the pair coming from the same state in those positions can continue only if Republicans retain control of the House.

7.11.24

Shreveport pollster goes big, goes home big

If you think Democrats with Vice Pres. Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket just suffered a disastrous showing, wait until you hear about the launch of the Shreveport-based polling firm that went all in and then some predicting the opposite for her campaign.

Vantage Data House operates on a subscription-based model. Rather than a one-shot picture in time of a particular race or a few, subscribers have access to an entire database and can pick from many contests nationally. It claims a proprietary method that relies upon information about a respondent’s residence, party registration, race, age, and gender. The firm appears to have been running in background for perhaps a year or more, apparently gathering a national panel of voters up to 40,000 a state through the web. It claims it called correctly 29 of 30 Louisiana contests last year in a test run, and so recently rolled out the entire operation focusing on national contests this year.

It announced itself about 10 days prior to the election with a lengthy web document predicting not only that Harris would defeat Republican former Pres. Donald Trump in the so-called “swing states” minus Wisconsin plus Florida, but that nationally it would be a “blowout” in her favor. It went to length justifying its conclusions, along the way stating “Many [independent polls] prefer to be wrong with the crowd rather than risk standing as outliers, so they adjust their numbers and reinforce the faulty averages,” “Republicans are in serious trouble, though few are willing to acknowledge it,” and “A significant widening of the gender gap and Harris’ growing support among independents … is propelling her toward a potential 300+ electoral college victory.”

6.11.24

Except EBR, LA wraps up unexciting elections

Louisiana’s unexciting 2024 election season ended mostly with a wimper, discouraging political consultants and media outlets that endured races with little competition and controversy that stimulated less spending for their services and an early end to almost all further opportunities.

That’s because any national or state race of consequence ended this election day with little suspense. With the Supreme Court contest already decided through litigation, Republican state Sen. Jean-Paul Coussan rolled over the competition to secure the Public Service Commission District 2 post (and a good thing he won’t take office until next year, as GOP Gov. Jeff Landry can use every vote from the political right in the Legislature to help his fiscal reform package into being during the special session beginning this week). That reinforces the PSC’s Republican majority of 3-2.

This was the biennial interval without a Senate race, and all congressional incumbents won back their seats handily. In the one race not featuring any the only question was whether black Democrat state Sen. Cleo Fields would win outright without a runoff in a majority-minority district built for him (for now) when he headed the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee. He did – barely over black Republican former state Sen. Elbert Guillory.

5.11.24

LA case set to redefine reapportionment law

Louisiana will find itself at the epicenter of reapportionment jurisprudence, the U.S. Supreme Court signaled this week.

The Court essentially scheduled hearing Robinson v. Callais, consolidating two cases. Two years the Court decided a case, the Milligan decision, that elevated race as a primary consideration over others in reapportionment, relying on past interpretations that didn’t explicitly do so. That framework was used in the Louisiana Robinson case to justify enjoining, without a full trial, reapportionment of congressional districts that didn’t include two majority-minority districts of the state’s six on the basis that black population proportion roughly be reflected in district demographics.

The state responded by drawing a new map, but creating a congressional district that made race the obviously dominant criterion, in violation of the law and past Court decisions. A special three-judge panel ruled as such in the Callais case. The new combined case, where the Robinson plaintiffs and the state, which claims all it wants is clarity in how to proceed, have sued the Callais defendants, allows the Court to evaluate the decision throwing out the two M/M map.

4.11.24

Left tries to reverse LA retreat surreptitiously

As Louisiana’s political left fights to halt a retreat that has accelerated over the past year with the election of Republican Gov. Jeff Landry and the most conservative Legislature ever, its tactics have begun to rely more heavily on subterfuge and “useful idiots.”

Although thought to have originated from Soviet strongman Vladimir Lenin to describe non-communist sympathizers to communism, the term seems to have come from Western European communists referring to other leftist political parties. It has evolved these days into a term more closely associated with economist Ludwig von Mises’ “useful innocents,” or people generally unaware or uncaring of the implications of a radical political agenda but who agree with its propagation for their own reasons unrelated to the underlying ideology.

Where the left understands it cannot control majoritarian political institutions or public opinion, it seeks out indirect ways, using nondemocratic agents if necessary, to try to advance its policy agenda. Some recent examples in Louisiana demonstrate the left’s willingness to find more ways to skin a cat to force its unloved agenda into policy.

3.11.24

Bossier schools myths prevent real tax cuts

A little more in desperation mode, the Bossier Parish School Board followed the Bossier Police Jury’s formula regarding property tax rates, relying upon an old mythology undoubtedly implicitly adhered to by all if not eagerly propagated by at least one board member willing to display his ignorance in public.

This week, the Board met in special session to establish rates on five millages for 2024. It had been levying 65.10 mills, behind only Zachary Community, Grant Parish, and Caddo Parish schools (2022-23 data). This meeting had been postponed from last month, when the Board seemed poised to roll forward rates. Every quadrennial reassessment levied rates automatically roll back to a point where those times total value of all properties not improved and under the same ownership equals that value from four years ago times previous rates; to roll forward and go above the rolled-back rates requires a two-thirds or better votes by the taxing entity.

Bossier Parish had sent the same signal, only to back down by raising four of their five but reducing its library rate more than the total rolled forward, in essence lowering overall rates. The Board played follow-the-leader and did something similar. Of its five, only four were subject to rollback, as the debt service one at 14.50 mills is exempt, and of those four the 10.31 mills salary and benefits and 10.31 mills operations and maintenance were ineligible to roll forward because they were just recently renewed, leaving just the constitutionally-set millage of 3.41 mills (due to roll back to 3.07) and the other 26.57 mills salary and benefits (due to roll back to 23.92) available to roll forward.

30.10.24

Big GOP early vote gains may flip EBR leader

The uptick in early voting by Republicans nationally matters even in Louisiana, where Republican former Pres. Donald Trump should win handily.

Reflecting the trend nationally, more Republicans voted in Louisiana during the early voting period (plus absentee ballots received through its end) with overall turnout number a bit down from 2020, where voting outside of election day was encouraged in light of the ongoing Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. In 2020, over 986,000 registrants had voted a week prior to the election, of which almost 436,000 were Democrats and almost 368,000 were Republicans, while this year turnout was off to over 961,000 or a drop of about 2.5 percent, of which almost 345,000 were Democrats and nearly 431,000 were Republicans.

The near-reversal in these figures might send some uncomfortable signals to Democrats. With early voting, it’s never known until after the fact whether it reflects fairly faithfully the proportions of the electorate that turn out on election day or if some kind of substitution effect is occurring where for one demographic group as compared to another its members who would have voted on election day instead turn out early, or delay turning out, with the overall proportions when all votes are counted following historical norms.

But there’s reason to believe the higher GOP trend presages something like the same on election day, in that it is occurring broadly coast to coast. That also for Louisiana specifically weakens the notion that the partisan difference is as a result of party-switching from Democrat to Republican that has been a steady feature in Louisiana for decades, as back in 2020 there were about 124,000 more Democrats and around 87,000 fewer Republicans than seen in 2024. Indeed, the drop in early voting number is barely more proportionally than the drop in the overall electorate, down around 72,000 as a result of population losses accelerating in the second term of Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards.

Another sign that it’s likely more trend and less substitution is turnout by race. 49,000 fewer blacks showed up as opposed to 28,000 more whites. Typically, blacks have been more likely to vote early.

If in fact these numbers denote disproportionate Republican turnout – they were 25 percent higher than Democrat numbers in an overall electorate where Democrats are 8.5 percent higher – and we reasonably can expect few will defect from GOP candidates (indeed, Democrats will have a higher defection rate because the blanket primary system doesn’t penalize, at least until 2026, keeping the same registration even if years ago someone began voting consistently for the other major party candidates, as a greater proportion of Democrats have done), this should impact the two major contests on the ballot this fall parts of the state: the Public Service Commission District 2 and East Baton Rouge Parish mayor-president contests.

The fantasy for this fall among Democrats at least to slow the long and steady decline in election victories in the state is for the EBR chief executive’s office to be retained by the party, either in the form of incumbent Sharon Weston Broome or by former state Rep. Ted James, and to pull off a major upset in the PSC race by having rookie Nick Laborde somehow defeat GOP state Sen. Jean-Paul Coussan and Republican former state Sen. Julie Quinn. These results bank upon turnout in a fashion that eliminates Republican educator Sid Edwards, the GOP frontrunner, in the EBR contest and puts Laborde into the PSC runoff, and then for the runoff internecine battling in EBR, a major component of District 2, stimulates Democrats into turning out while Republicans sit it out disproportionately and somehow this resonates to vault Laborde past a Republican.

It's quite the dream, but the early voting statistics threaten to turn it into a nightmare. If Republicans turn out disproportionately, Edwards likely would make a runoff against Broome or James with a real chance of winning in December. And the same dynamic might mean even as the default Democrat in the PSC race, Laborde gets aced out by both Republicans, and that internecine battle spills over into helping Edwards win.

The numbers in key parishes show this may happen. Most of EBR lies in District 2, and other large parishes in it are Lafayette, Lafourche, and Terrebonne. In 2020, the ratio of Democrats to Republicans in early voting was 1.6 in EBR, 0.9 in Lafayette, 0.7 in Lafourche, and 0.6 in Terrebonne. In 2024, they were, respectively, 1.2, 0.5, 0.4, and 0.4. In EBR, about a thousand fewer whites showed up early, but about 4,000 fewer blacks did as well.

If replicated on Nov. 5, Democrats certainly will find themselves continuing to look in from the outside for the PSC seat but also in big trouble in holding on to the EBR top spot. In a few days, we’ll know whether the early voting results were this canary in a coal mine.


29.10.24

Greene case especially lacking political justice

The final act of the Ronald Greene incident, now drawn out to almost five-and-a-half in the making, appears nigh and increasingly obvious that the higher up the chain of command, the less justice will be done.

Throughout the years, involving federal investigations, state investigations, media investigations, and attempted prosecutions, of five Louisiana State Police troopers and Union Parish sheriff deputies, only two will face charges and one, retired trooper Kory York, just accepted a plea deal that amounts to little more than a slap on the wrist.

The deal was opposed by Greene’s family. Black motorist Greene led law enforcement officers through a high-speed chase in May, 2019 that ended with a stop where officers corralled him, restrained him, stunned him, and struck some blows, even as he resisted but didn’t use any force against them. After the intervention of questionable physical tactics lasting nearly an hour, he was transported to a hospital but died.

28.10.24

Bossier Jury dodges bullet; problems remain

The Bossier Parish Police Jury made it over one obstacle in its doubling up as the parish’s Library Board of Control, but by no means is it out of the legal and political woods over that.

The Jury, unlike any other parish governing authority in the state, has inserted itself directly into Board affairs since 2016 by appointing its own to that. It grew increasingly bold in that regard and by 2023 all Board members were jurors. In public, at least one member has justified the complete takeover as necessary to safeguard children from unsupervised access to books with explicit sexual themes and descriptions.

A new statute aided in that task, which requires library systems to install a system that flags such material and gives parents the option of prohibiting their children from accessing that. That started as an initiative from the Attorney General’s office, then headed by Republican now-Gov. Jeff Landry, at present backed by GOP current Atty. Gen. Liz Murrill.

27.10.24

Good tax reform plan has small margin for error

For his tax reform by cutting a thousand things to pass into being, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry must avoid its death by a thousand cuts.

Months ago, Landry began stumping for large-scale tax reform to ensconce a more rationale and efficient fiscal structure in Louisiana that will encourage economic growth. The current system’s complexity, favoritism to certain entities, and inflexibility that encourages outsized government has for decades dampened economic development prospects.

Apparently satisfied he has something effective that can become law or part of the Constitution, he has signaled early next month he will call the Legislature into special session for a couple of weeks or so, which means he must issue the call this week. His Department of Revenue with an assist from the Legislative Fiscal Office has produced eight pieces of model legislation and fiscal analyses of each, totaling 385 pages of changes that forecasts overall state government revenues won’t change materially but likely positively in the short term.