Conversation there about Landry outright win

So, Republican state Rep. Richard Nelson pulled the plug on his gubernatorial candidacy. It changes little that GOP Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry and Democrat former cabinet member Shawn Wilson are heading to runoff, with Landry having a decisive advantage.

Nelson, whose campaign best fits a libertarian mold, never cracked two percent in polling, with the latest survey for Gray Media television stations in Louisiana not even including him in its summary of voter preferences that occurred a few days before he announced his withdrawal. Given the state’s political culture with a history of liberal populism that emphasized social conservatism and liberal economics, reversing the pair doesn’t fit well.

Low on funds, Nelson recognized the obvious and went out endorsing Landry. That seems odd on the surface, for why run against the front runner if you ultimately think he’s better than all other challengers? It may have been for strategic purposes, with Nelson now out of electoral politics and perhaps searching for a way to stay in governance with an appointment and Landry the likely one to do the appointing come next year.

Pressured BC Council graybeards still defy law

As its legal woes mount, once again the Bossier City Council violated the city charter, although on this third occasion one councilor decided it was time to cut his losses.

At its last meeting, once again Republican Mayor Tommy Chandler placed on the agenda an item to put on the Nov. 18 general election runoff ballot a referendum on a three-term lifetime and retroactive limit on elected officials. A petition, following the charter’s stipulations, was certified by the registrar of voters to force the Council to do this if it did not itself resolve into an amendment this change within 30 days of certification.

It has 90 days after that to call the election or piggyback onto another. And it failed to follow the charter for a third time, which had the practical effect of pushing the matter off the Nov. 18 ballot and now placing it on the Mar. 23, 2024 presidential preference primary ballot. Given the presence of the certified petition, legally it must do so by early November, although the same majority bloc of the Council that so far has blocked this muscled through a resolution to go to court to try to declare the petition invalid because it didn’t follow the letter of the law in its format although it had all the information required by law.

Arceneaux wounds self over Carnival changes

Carnival krewes often venture into politics as a subject of their parading. But in Shreveport, politics has ventured into carnival krewes’ parading.

In great contrast to his predecessor, Republican Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux has kept things low key and not tried to induce drama into his governance. Until recently, when he began dictating terms to the area’s two oldest and largest Carnival krewes, sticking his head into a hornet’s nest somewhat voluntarily.

About half a year prior to their next parading, the Krewes of Gemini and Centaur received notification of these changes. For many years now they have marched on the first and second Saturdays of Carnival, typically towards the later afternoon beginning at the southern end of downtown on the Clyde Fant Parkway, then hanging a right at Shreveport Barksdale Highway until going left onto East Kings Highway and ending up at Preston Avenue, typically finishing around 8:30 PM. They used to start in Bossier City and crossed over the Shreveport Barksdale Highway Bridge until city officials on the east bank didn’t like to be inconvenienced and kicked them out.

Better debate, leaves Landry & Wilson in lead

While the second televised candidate forum for Louisiana governor on the was better executed, it only marginally provided greater insight and information into the candidacies.

Nextstar television stations produced this one eight days after the first and featured two additional candidates to the first, which had Republicans state Sen. Sharon Hewitt, Treas. John Schroder, and former gubernatorial official Stephen Waguespack; Democrat former cabinet member Shawn Wilson, and independent trial lawyer Hunter Lundy. Front runner GOP Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry joined this one, along with the candidate that polling shows drags the rear, GOP state Rep. Richard Nelson.

As opposed to the previous one, this forum perhaps even more sparsely viewed focused more narrowly and more in depth on subjects, and the journalists asking questions did a better job of removing themselves from the topics of debate. Still, a minute for answers and rebuttals even shorter don’t provide much, and some decisions on questions were puzzling, such as spending almost a third of the entire program on the issue of abortion, which in a recent survey ranked as only the seventh-most important issue to state residents while the debate ignored third-ranked education.

NW LA Senate campaign reports prove interesting

Collectively, according to recent campaign finance reports perhaps the most competitive Louisiana Senate races are happening in northwest Louisiana, although clarity has begun to emerge in the contests mainly in Caddo Parish.

Those are the three-candidate Senate District 38 and 39 contests. Less certain in outcome are the paired matchups in sprawling Senate District 31, which has a plurality of its voters in Caddo and Bossier Parishes, and District 36, with mainly a Bossier constituency.

The reports filed last week importantly for most of these candidacies reveal for the first time campaign donations and expenditures. These give an idea of the relevant potency of a candidacy and the kinds of supporters it draws, if any.