If anything, had Louisiana congressional candidates not pulled in record dollars of campaign donations that would have been unexpected.
In sum, this election cycle has produced the highest total ever given to candidacies, in aggregate $74 million. Yet this should surprise no one, because of several factors.
It’s time for Louisiana to stop swimming against the tide and use money thrown away on making movies for more important needs – especially as larger economic trends threaten to wither away the program.
Recently, New Orleans’ film office director and city councilors griped about how film production statewide but in the city particularly had taken a tumble. Years ago, a billion dollars a year was coming into the state in production costs, but now that has dropped to $185 million. This matters according to advocates of using government as a direct jobs creator as fewer jobs result from a dive in production value. Thus, they call for increasing the generosity of the state’s tax credit regime, which already is quite lucrative: 25 percent tax credit for all production costs and 10 percent more if an in-state screenplay and 5 percent more if outside the New Orleans area, and then 15 percent more on compensation for all Louisiana residents used plus 5 percent on special effects past $1 million. The maximum base is 40 percent.
Further, the credit is almost entirely refundable, meaning investors outside the state without Louisiana state income tax liability can reap all of these benefits, at the 88 percent level, meaning taxpayers pick up the tab. In a recent ranking of states, the state winds up sixth-best in generosity, and doesn’t have a higher showing only because it caps the amount of credits issued and paid per year at $125 million, something advocates for more largesse wish would revert back to the previous uncapped that also would speed up claims paid out.
Democrats’ national playbook surfaced in the candidate forum between Republican Caddo Parish Commissioner John Atkins and Democrat City Councilor James Green.
They contest the Public Service Commission District 5 seat, which stretches across north Louisiana. Incumbent Democrat Foster Campbell faces the three-term (18 years) limit at year’s end, although he served an additional one after being grandfathered in.
Atkins works in asset management, principally in energy. He has served the three-term limit on the Commission and is due to leave office at the end of 2027. His latest campaign financial disclosure, which doesn’t include anything from regulated utilities since he eschewed publicly donations from them, isn’t hurting with nearly half a million bucks bankrolled through late last month.
The cognitive dissonance, or perhaps strategic planning to sustain its mission, of the political left truly can amaze at times, as continuing housing provision struggles in New Orleans and conflicting government housing policy demonstrate.
Last month, the Louisiana Housing Corporation took another step in reorienting the state’s housing policy away from the failed housing first model to a treatment first paradigm. The former insists on finding or building permanent spaces for the homeless regardless of whether behavioral problems hold back persons from engaging with the world in a way that permits them to use own resources in housing provision, while the latter emphasizes temporary housing for them while they participate in procedures and programs designed to produce positive behavioral change that facilitate their abilities to obtain housing using own resources.
One vocal critic was the nonprofit organization HousingNOLA, which advocates for greater government involvement in encouraging or building “affordable” housing in New Orleans, i.e. housing designed for residence by lower-income individuals. But only days later the Republican Gov. Jeff Landry Administration’s shift in approach found vindication when a report critical of the city’s housing efforts came out, with almost simultaneously the city changing policy of a few years that tried to strongarm developers into building more low-income units.
If winning the Shreveport mayor’s race were only a matter of money, Republicans would control that office for another four years. As it is, that only may determine which Republican advances to a runoff.
After months of campaigning in 2026, submission of campaign finance reports through Sep. 24 were released yesterday. Incumbent GOP Mayor Tom Arceneaux lapped the field with resources remaining of about a third of a million dollars, after having spent almost that much, although raising only around $78,000 in this period. His donors this year to date comprised a number of long-time party activists (he sat on the City Council four decades ago) as well as a few from the near the city, and his spending reflected a broad spectrum of campaign communications.
Technically, challenger Republican Caddo Parish Commissioner John-Paul Young outraised him by a $100,000, with the bulk of his contributors being from his Highland area neighborhood. But his biggest contributor by far was himself, plunking down $130,000 of his own dough on himself that meant others’ donations were fewer than $50,000 that left him with just over $50,000. He spent disproportionately on electronic media and billboard advertising.
With recent help from the federal government, Louisiana can ensure wind power advocates don’t take advantage of the state.
A recent article in leftist media lamented how Republican Pres. Donald Trump short-circuited efforts to spread windmills from sea to shining sea. Trump appears to have a visceral dislike of wind power and early in his second term basically brought offshore wind power to a halt by declaring no permits would go to new projects and by discouraging, even in a sense through bribing, existing projects from moving forward.
But states control wind power regulation on land except for that owned by the federal government, and that has steadily marched on. However, Trump did address an unfair advantage that wind power had, federal tax credits, by eliminating with the help of Congress those for projects not started by the middle of this year or if not completed by the end of next year. There was no defensible intellectual reason to give preference to this source of intermittent energy production when none existed specifically for other fossil fuel-based reliable power-generating activities.
Caddo Parish voters will face one boondoggle and a subset additionally will deliberate about a search for relevance in their making decisions next month about two tax propositions.
On the ballot Nov. 3 will appear a measure that authorizes the Caddo Parish Commission to blow $70 million on a sports complex. As previously noted, it’s a bad idea that’s not even totally funded – the issue would be only up to $60 million, with $10 million more to be found elsewhere preferably by donations – which rests on pie-in-the-sky hopes of attracting tournaments (which will have the effect of crowding out less-affluent families from having children participate in sports) in an area with plenty of all of government, nonprofit, and for-profit venues. It would waste a lot of money with little return even on the account of amorphous “quality of life” and doesn’t even guarantee that property taxes won’t rise to find it as it only disallows raising the rate for the first year of issuance.
Shreveport voters will have a crack at another one, an item that on the surface begs to renew. The city’s quasi-independent Downtown Development Authority has 9.04 mills – 1.05 mills higher than the expiring levy, due to a decline in the value of downtown properties in aggregate – ready to ramp up in 2028 for 25 years. That funds the agency that many may think doesn’t cost them anything, as the tax is levied only on commercial properties in the district for administration, operational expenses, acquiring property, project expenses and/or the retirement of bonds or other evidences of indebtedness.
The crybaby majority on Monroe’s City Council, fuming it couldn’t get its way, last week decided to take its toys home and put the city in a bad spot.
At its regular meeting, shortly after convening Democrat Councilors Juanita Woods motioned and Rodney McFarland seconded passing over the entire agenda, and they with Verbon Muhammad approved that over the objection of Republican Councilor Gretchen Ezernack, who at least got a chance to ask why. GOP Councilor Doug Harvey was running late and missed everything.
The Democrats remained closed-lipped about their rationale – with McFarland waving off Woods from even speaking to a reporter – until the next day, when they took to social media to complain their act showed displeasure at “disrespect” from independent Mayor Friday Ellis. The group and he have locked horns over many issues since McFarland and Muhammad took office in mid-2024, and from the timing it appeared on this occasion over the city’s new-old fire chief, Timothy Williams.
An issue-oriented candidate forum for Louisiana’s Fifth Congressional District gave viewers a chance to see three repeat candidates and four new ones vying for the office in November (with a likely runoff in December) that did little to set apart competitive Republican candidates.
This was the second such forum conducted by a Monroe television station, public radio station, and the local Chamber of Commerce and the University of Louisiana Monroe. Some months ago, under a prior and unconstitutional district map these entities held a forum featuring present GOP candidates Board of Regents chairwoman Misti Cordell, state Rep. Mike Echols, and independent businessman Austin Magee. Joining them were four of the other six new contestants: Republicans state Sen. Stewart Cathey and state Rep. Gabe Firment, and Democrats lawyer Dan McKay and state Rep. Pat Moore.
Through the course of the questions and their opening and closing statements, McKay demonstrated himself as the least informed and most out-of-touch with the district’s sentiments (judged by party registration numbers favoring Republicans). For example, he erroneously said removing Social Security tax income caps would solve for the growing depletion of its trust fund, when in fact it, using static analysis only, only about half to two-thirds of the gap would be covered. This may have been due to the severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome he exhibited, and its prominent symptom of suspended critical thinking abilities.
Polling by Democrat Senate candidate Jamie Davis released to the public denotes more an effort to chip away at a national Republican fundraising advantage and bolster the state’s depleted Democrat bench than serving as an assessment whether Davis can win.
Twice now, the campaign has released polling data that purport to show Davis trailing GOP Rep. Julia Letlow by only four points, which would be a remarkable showing for a Democrat in a statewide election. The firm doing it, Hart Research, is a venerable firm that deals almost exclusively with Democrats but ranks in the top quarter or so firms under one study of quality in 2024 (although its record was based on only three presidential polls, none for a Senate contest).
This particular poll does have some problems. The sample size was a bit low (500) which accentuated that it didn’t apportion by geography and likely oversampled Democrats, positing an enthusiasm gap that might exist in more competitive states but unlikely does in the Bayou State. It also had two push questions in Davis’ favor that after their rendering actually showed him with 53 percent, nine percent additionally.
