Cassidy made desperate after Senate race shakeup

Just like that, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy now is odds-on to miss the party preference primary nomination for his office and may lead him to consider doing the previously unthinkable.

Which isn’t to drop out. Up to this week, Cassidy increasingly had buffeted storms in his quest for reelection later this year as GOP quality challenger after quality challenger entered the contest. Up until the middle of last month, the multiplicity of such challengers had put him in a position with his projected support so eroded that he would have to endure a runoff for the nod which he seemed likely to lose, but regardless was the most likely to survive to it.

Then Republican Rep. Julia Letlow made a surprising entrance into the race after GOP Pres. Donald Trump endorsed her out of the blue. That by itself began to threaten Cassidy’s place in the runoff, as Letlow would take more votes from him that the other more-conservative competitors, all the more particularly since Cassidy had made an enemy of Trump by voting to convict him of half-baked impeachment charges between Trump’s terms.

Costs, benefits calculus warrants CCS skepticism

What those promoting carbon capture and sequestration cannot either understand or admit to is, even if they can make claims about safety and economic development, that the overall cost to society of subsidizing their efforts exceeds benefits conveyed to society, justifying local populations in rejecting their entreaties.

Increasingly, Louisianans express alarm at the idea of sequestering carbon near or under their back yards. The latest flashpoint comes in Ascension Parish, where unusual bedfellows find themselves moving together to oppose a CCS project called River Parish Sequestration. It is a subsidiary of a firm called Blue Sky Infrastructure managed by Blackstone, a private investment firm comprised of hedge funds.

Part of the opposition comes from the usual leftist suspects who decry any industrial expansion as forfeiting “environmental justice.” But this anti-intellectual screed is joined by the growing conservative opposition in many parts of the state objecting to CCS over issues of safety and property rights, both real and pecuniary.

Constitutional convention bill meritorious

An audacious plan to redo Louisiana’s Constitution might just succeed within the next two years.

While widely agreed it should happen, constitutional convention implementation has foundered over recent years on charges it would be too rushed, too narrow or too broad, and too exclusive of citizens. Which is why HB 4 by Republican state Rep. Dixon McMakin should draw serious consideration.

The bill would establish a rolling convention, setting up subcommittees to review each of the overstuffed document’s 14 sections and an executive committee to oversee. Presumably, subcommittees, required to meet at least monthly, would do so over starting in early 2027 for the next nine months or so, followed by a decision on changes by all 93 delegates. The product would be available for voter approval at the 2027 general election. Any parts of the current Constitution not included in the end product would revert to statute.

Reveal what LA GATOR ESA opponents really mean

Understanding the rationale behind Louisiana’s foray into education savings accounts presents a good argument for program expansion, a view at loggerheads with some legislators who actually supported this plan at its inception.

Another battle seems brewing between education freedom advocates in Louisiana, backed at the top by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, and those policy-makers more cautious on the issue, represented by GOP Sen. Pres. Cameron Henry. The throwdown came with Landry boosting in his fiscal year 2027 budget spending on educational savings accounts by double, which would allow for more than only the few hundred families at present able to take advantage of these besides the thousands of low-income families carried over from the state’s previous voucher/scholarship program aimed at allowing children who did attend or who would have attended inferior schools a choice at a better education environment. He had tried something similar last year, but Henry led opposition in thwarting that.

At and after the budget presentation last week, Henry threw cold water on the requested increase of around $44 million. During the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget hearing, he opined that the program had too many other possible family uses attached to it besides moving children away from failing schools to private schools, and accused the Department of Education of bad faith in keeping him informed about these details. Afterwards, in an interview he went further, saying he would reconceptualize the whole program, limiting it to tuition costs needed to move children out of subpar schools.

Higher cost, tougher on crime policy benefits LA

An increase in costs for Louisiana to house inmates, because more are being sentenced to jail and fewer are out on parole? Money well spent.

Far leftist media in the state began hyperventilating after the release of Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s budget. In it, about $82 million more will go to corrections, fairly evenly split between the state system and in reimbursements to local jailers for housing state prisoners. Landry led the charge with legislative Republicans two years ago to overhaul the state’s criminal justice laws, which several years earlier had been relaxed, to sentence more people to jail and fewer to probation, force convicts to serve the vast majority (or if convicted after Aug. 1, 2024, all) of their sentences in jail, and to reduce the possibility of parole. In addition, Landry has appointed to the Board of Pardons and Parole members who more critically vet potential parolees, which has reduced the proportion of the lower proportion receiving a hearing that successfully attain early release.

These media bemoaned these outcomes, ideologically because of the tougher-on-crime agenda producing them, but also instrumentally in that this means fewer dollars to redistribute from state government to or to go to policies aiding their favored constituencies. The goal is to allege that the new policies largely waste money as they produce little or no benefits, defined as the opportunity for if not actual fact of reduced crime.

Monroe must try harder to avoid big rate hikes

Monrovians will have to bite the bullet – and very hard and big – over the water, sewerage, and waste disposal fees coming their way in May, which didn’t have to be this hard or big.

This week, the City Council is expected to ratify an ordinance that will increase these costs by nearly $300 annually (assuming a typical average usage of 4,000 gallons monthly for water and sewerage by a city residence) per ratepayer. Water rates will rise 7 percent, sewerage rates will jump by 45 percent, and garbage pickup costs per month will mushroom 87.5 percent.

Impetus behind the move comes from the city’s debt covenant for water, which requires it to have revenues of 125 percent of the principal and interest, federal and state law regarding funding for sewerage, and market forces with garbage collection. It makes for necessary ratepayer evils, but getting slammed all at once and at this level didn’t have to happen.

Tweak good Landry budget for better future

Strangling Medicaid costs threaten to derail Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s desire to right-size Louisiana’s budget, data behind his latest budget proposal for fiscal year 2027 revealed.

Last week, the Landry Administration submitted its FY 2027 budget to the Joint Legislative Committee of the Budget, in preparation for legislative deliberation in the upcoming 2026 Regular Session. This document must adhere to the state’s Revenue Estimating Conference, which last month disgorged the latest estimates over the next few years, and covered the source that the Legislature can utilize in appropriations bills, the general fund.

The end product was essentially standstill according to the general fund (aided by significant efficiency cuts in the neighborhood of $300 million), but incorporated a noticeable reduction of $3.5 billion overall, split fairly evenly between declines in statutory dedications and federal funds (more of the former than latter). The main factor behind the federal funds decreases is as a result of turning off the debt-fueled/inflation-triggering spigots from the Democrat Pres. Joe Biden era and Republican Pres. Donald Trump Administration programmatic changes plus some disaster-related expenditures, while for dedications that dropped mainly because the Revenue Stabilization Trust Fund was tapped so heavily for projects the previous year.

Electoral politics outs Cassidy's true self

Whether he believes the impression he conveys, now Louisiana voters are receiving confirmation about the real Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, fueled by his seriously endangered reelection chances.

Cassidy had something to say about a tragic shooting in Minneapolis, where far left activists intentionally have invited confrontation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol officials to serve a political agenda unconcerned with the rights of illegal aliens. A man, who has been described as ardently dissatisfied with GOP Pres. Donald Trump, apparently brandishing a pistol was in the process of being disarmed by agents when a gunshot, seemingly from the weapon, went off and an agent shot the suspect to death.

Unfortunately, the man showed poor judgment in deliberately bringing a firearm to a location where he acted to disrupt armed officers performing duties under the color of law and apparently not immediately identifying himself as carrying a concealed and loaded weapon. With the evidence so far gathered, a leading theory is that the weapon discharged accidentally, with the man possibly disoriented after having been sprayed with pepper along with a woman right before the disarming attempt.

Early data signaling even lower LA rates to come

Early hopeful signs concerning vehicle insurance costs for Louisianans might escalate, data from elsewhere portend.

With the end of the roadblock that was the pro-trial lawyer Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards upon his leaving office at the start of 2024, that year and last year the Republican legislative supermajorities and GOP Gov. Jeff Landry got busy with meaningful tort reform. Those supermajorities hardly breached the Edwards firewall protecting a legal system designed to disproportionately shovel money to trial lawyers, but Landry proved far more accommodating in ushering in agenda that has chipped away at this archaic edifice, with the assistance of Republican Insurance Secretary Tim Temple (although the two came to loggerheads sometimes with Temple wanting to push the pace faster than did Landry).

Given a fair amount of lifting over the past couple of years in the books, 2026 will look to be much quieter for insurance changes as a period of digestion seems in order. Yet already it appears fruits of this labor are accruing to consumers. Amid a half-dozen announced insurer average rate reductions since the start of 2025, pushing down the overall statewide average personal vehicle rate a calculated three percent, more dramatic changes could enjoy a pause, as results from similar legislation enacted in Florida show.

Bossier Jury makes excuses rather than follow law

It would be so easy to defuse the controversy if the Bossier Parish Police Jury would just do a few easy, simple things to follow the law.

Jurors apparently were not pleased with a recent post here (remarks reiterating that also were delivered during public comment period at the Jan. 14 Jury meeting) that pointed out deficiencies in it following the law concerning the parish’s Library Board of Control. In at least five ways, the Jury violates the law in the composition and operation — really, non-operation — of the Board.

In response, the Jury dispatched the 26^th Judicial District assistant district attorney seconded to it for its legal affairs Patrick Jackson to defend it in print. The effort fell flat, as the rejoinder didn’t address the Jury’s actions required under law but merely tried to provide justification for the Jury to operate as the Board given past Board actions that jurors alleged were insufficient.

Letlow enters Senate field in pole position

So, here we go. Republican Rep. Julia Letlow has entered the Senate race, and that entrance reverberates throughout Louisiana’s political environment putting her, for the moment, in the catbird seat.

She can be quite competitive. One lingering question has been whether jumping in nearing the qualification deadline over a year after the first serious challenger to incumbent GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy did would affect her ability to raise resources. With a little over $2 million in hand, as substantial as that might be with the Cassidy account at almost eight figures and several million more in political action committee funds, plus with other challengers having at least as much as she (plus a lead of months to build up name recognition statewide), she’ll need likely as much again and within the next four months.

That’s not insurmountable. As she received Republican Pres. Donald Trump’s effusive and explicit endorsement, that should open the taps to national donors in case those in state have fatigue. And it should poke off the sidelines those more comfortable with a Washington insider but who frowned upon Cassidy’s last five years in office.

Everyone and their dog may join LA CD 5 race

If Louisiana’s Fifth Congressional District becomes an open seat, what often is a frenetic process probably goes onto steroids courtesy of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Because Louisiana is just a handful of states that does not have most state and many local elections held during even-numbered years, contests for Congress tend to two directions: either one or two candidates consolidate support very early in the process or, absent that, a number of quality candidates end up offering themselves. As this is due to the fact that most candidates holding a state or local office do not have eschew running for reelection in order to take a shot at Congress, that encourages more candidates than typical to hit the hustings if at least one candidate hasn’t worked the political ecosystem hyper-effectively. It doesn’t matter whether blanket or semi-closed primary, the dynamic remains the same.

Thus, if Republican Rep. Julia Letlow does take a hint from GOP Pres. Donald Trump’s endorsement and jumps into the U.S. Senate race, expect a land rush of names to put their hands up to take her place in a district that basically clips Monroe, clips Alexandria, clips Baton Rouge, and sprawls eastward from all of these points. One report already has dug up five names, all state legislators, who have expressed interest in competing for the seat if Letlow shunts it aside.

Trump endorsement possibly upends LA Senate race

And now, the Louisiana Senate race of this year gets really interesting.

The contest seemed pretty much set in its field at last summer’s end. Five Republicans – incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy, state Rep. Julie Emerson, Treasurer John Fleming, state Sen. Blake Miguez, and Public Service Commissioner Eric Skrmetta – emerged that had the chops to win it all. Most likely, Cassidy would make the semi-closed primary runoff against one of the other four, who then would be favored over Cassidy given the sourness among Republicans over Cassidy’s reversal to vote to convict GOP Pres. Donald Trump on half-baked impeachment charges, as well as concerning his sucking up on various pieces of legislation to the Democrat majorities in the first part of the decade. That challenger then easily would claim the seat in November.

Among those contenders, all vied for Trump’s endorsement, which is thought to convey an almost unimpeachable advantage to whoever receives it. However, concerning incumbents of his party that have displeased him running for reelection, Trump had not endorsed any challengers although, as in the case of Cassidy, he also withheld endorsements of some incumbents. Absent that, Fleming, who once worked for Trump as one of his senior White House aides, was considered in the best position to be viewed as the candidate Trump implicitly backed, although Miguez has played up his association with Trump’s policies as often as he could.

LA case gives chance to bolster impartiality

And this is why the U.S. Supreme Court should grant broad latitude for diversity cases such as Chevron v. Plaquemines Parish.

This week, the Court heard the case, focused on a narrow issue: should this kind of case be heard in federal or state courts. The minutiae of the case make it turn upon just how deputized energy companies are when the federal government gives some authority to their activities. The Court is asked to decide the level of assignment necessary to allow an entity to have a case heard in federal court as opposed to under state law.

In this case, the parish (and others consolidated into the case) accused Chevron (and the entities that it absorbed, plus others consolidated into the case) over decades of straying outside the boundaries of state law in its activities that supposedly caused environment degradation. Independent Judge Michael Clement of the 25^th Judicial District ruled in the parish’s favor, slapping a $744 million judgment onto Chevron that could bring the trial lawyer firm of Talbot, Carmouche & Marcello nearly a quarter-billion dollars. Chevron contends federal law protects it from this punishment.

LA pushing courts to dismiss outdated decrees

With determined effort, where once dozens of school districts in Louisiana several decades ago were under court orders and supervision to desegregate racially, by the end of 2028 every one might be relieved of this useless burden, blazing a trial for other states to follow.

When cases were brought against many of these districts 60 years or more ago, they were deserved. Segregation was rampant, even after a dozen years had passed since Brown v. Board of Education (emphasized by other such cases in the intervening years). It would take a couple of decades to ensure policies were in place to prevent discrimination in education provision in many of these instances, and when such changes were brought to the attention of the particular federal district court its judge would resolves these.

Yet others dragged on for decades after corrections had been made. Entering the second Republican Pres. Donald Trump Administration, Louisiana still had a dozen systems under these orders. The cases continued on autopilot, long after the designated judges or even original plaintiffs had died. Fortunately, the Trump Administration has aimed to clear these cases from the books, seeing them as promoting race-based behavior in the absence of any proof of discriminatory intent.

Dueling reports add up to better LA economy

So, are people coming or going in Louisiana, and what does it all mean for the state’s economic and political futures?

Each year, Atlas Van Lines puts out data about their service moving households, calculating how many trips go from one state to another. For 2025, Louisiana repeated its performance of 2024 by being the state with the highest ratio of outbound to inbound trips of family goods, of nearly 2:1.

Also each year, U-Haul publishes rankings on rentals that happen in one state with the vehicle or trailer deposited in another state. Using raw numbers, unadjusted to population, Louisiana ranked 31^st for dropped-off rentals, but this is significant because it jumped 13 places from 2024.

Allow expedited process to leave consent decrees

Long-suffering families in Concordia Parish and its school district finally might get some relief from once necessary but now burdensome and needless regulation over details about how parish public education operates.

For years, district administrators have tried to exit the school system from court supervision over a desegregation consent decree now six decades old. In these instances when plaintiffs, almost always joined at some point by the U.S. Department of Justice, sue to stop a state and/or local district from engaging in an illegal practice, often the defendants enter into an agreement to take remedial action that corrects the discrimination. This all playing out could take many years, even decades, so the presiding judge and then any successors monitor progress.

Concordia officials implemented a series of reforms long ago agreed upon by the plaintiffs and the court and, with the exception of the opening of a charter school last decade that had to be fit into the decree, for about 45 years little has changed in terms of carrying out agreed-upon actions. As with many of the ten Louisiana districts at present under decrees, this has devolved into an annual exercise of status reports with only incremental statistical changes without the need of any practice alterations, wasting enormous taxpayer resources to continue compiling and reporting with no actual need present.

Data center surge may give Port bills traction

For Republican state Rep. Danny McCormick, it’s not just a matter of trying again, but trying harder to correct potential secret government overreach on property rights as the issue becomes amplified by the data center boom in Louisiana.

McCormick has been a persistent critic of alienation of property without owners having sufficient say in what happens to their possessions. In his second term in office, he has sought to shield owners from overaggressive expropriation, side effects of carbon sequestration, and particularly the ability of the Port of Caddo-Bossier from imposing its will in those two parishes.

In 2021, a law was passed that basically gave the Port Commission, an appointive body chosen by area governments, the ability to make economic development deals anywhere in the two parishes without oversight by other elected officials and bodies. Other local governments could not have any input into those deals, or even know any details about these in the negotiating phase. This included tax abatements that could detract from revenues of these governments.

Nat'l food, Venezuela policies to pay off for LA

You win some, you lose some. Louisiana had that reinforced with recent developments about its sugar and oil industries.

This week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced a new, and radical, change in its guidelines for nutrition. Principally, it pivots away from processed food and other suggestions that invoked sugar-composed consumption.

That’s not so good for Louisiana sugar production, which leads the country. And it could be significant because, although not a lot of consumers will base their shopping choices on the 2025-30 dietary guidelines, promised cooperation with the Department of Agriculture’s nutrition programs — which send $400 million a day out the door — will affect what foodstuffs can be purchased, which affects demand, which affects producers.

Landry going to Nuuk as Trump jacks up more wheels

So, Mr. Landry is going to Nuuk, as part of Republican Pres. Donald Trump’s larger foreign policy goals that risk driving purveyors of conventional wisdom and unimaginative analysts and journalists to the brink of madness.

Louisiana’s GOP governor was appointed as a special envoy to Greenland late last year, and he says he’s going to make a trip there in a couple of months to rap with Greenlanders about how their independence leading to closer association with the U.S. can make their lives better. In fact, there he’s been invited to the world’s largest dogsledding event (although if he pilots a sled, beware).

That must irk Danish authorities a bit, especially as they can’t stop Landry from visiting and spreading this gospel. With Greenland existing as an autonomous entity loosely associated with Denmark and as part of the 2009 revisions to that status, it gained the ability to admit nationals of other states without Danish oversight. In essence, Landry will argue that an association deal that Greenland and its roughly 57,000 residents can get with the U.S. will top that from what Denmark does and could provide.

Startling new growth chances to challenge LPSC

The Louisiana Public Service Commission acted correctly on streamlining the vetting process of large power customers, but it shouldn’t get too far ahead in boosting the state’s competitiveness for economic development that may hike needlessly rates for all, leaving commissioners in a tough political spot.

Last month, the LPSC revamped how it evaluates power providers’ requests to bring on new customers, specifically designed for those with large demands. This change was held out as a competition measure, enticing such customers by cutting red tape and thereby speeding up rendering a decision.

Now, the provider that has gained the most to date by adding large customers, Entergy Louisiana, has signaled intent to add another such payee and in conjunction with that also seeks approval to upgrade transmission capacity. This mechanics of these proposals differ from the one that dominated discussions last year, the Hyperion project in Richland Parish, in that ratepayers in Entergy’s footprint would pay for a much higher proportion of the project.

Bossier Jury breaking laws over library board

The new year marks just on two years that the Bossier Parish Police Jury has been breaking the law concerning how it governs its libraries, and it gives no indication it’s going to stop doing that any time soon.

Mark Jan. 10, 2024 as the day the Jury began to rack up legal violations. Statute places library governance in the hands of a library board of control for municipalities and, in this case, parishes. R.S. 25:215 states that the board of control shall have authority to establish rules and regulations for its own government and that of the library not inconsistent with law. This includes employing and evaluating the library director, establishing and adopting written library policies, working to secure adequate funding for the library system, adopting the library system’s annual budget, and takes responsibility for providing and maintaining library facilities, resources, and services.

The governing authority, in this case the Jury, has its involvement defined largely in R.S. 25:214. It appoints members to the board and, through R.S. 33:1415 mentioned in this statute and R.S. 25:220.1, also exercisers budgetary and fiscal control that includes approval of annual operating budgets with the right to veto or reduce line-items and vet for approval any submission to the people to levy any tax or issue any bonds. In succeeding sections, statutes say that the head librarian (synonymous with director of libraries) and the Jury are to deliver an annual report, the Jury must pay expenses monthly for the library out of any special tax levied for that purpose and if insufficient its general fund, and must approve of any gifts received for the library system while the board must approve of any expenditures from these.

Court schedule may challenge nat'l GOP, Landry

Unless they get a satisfactory judicial ruling within the next couple of weeks, it looks like Louisiana will end up using its current congressional map, which may challenge Republicans nationally and GOP Gov. Jeff Landry specifically.

The country waits upon the U.S. Supreme Court to decide in Callais v. Louisiana, which fundamentally could change how reapportionment for legislative bodies occurs. The case itself directly addresses Louisiana’s present congressional map, which is built on the assumption that unless the proportion of districts that have a minority-majority (of blacks) is roughly equivalent to the (black) minority proportion in the population (where “black” is defined as someone claiming descendancy from a black person), it is assumed racial discrimination is occurring in the drawing of that map.

Callais challenges the ability of the federal government to use statute (specifically, Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act) to enforce this, calling it a contravention of the Constitution’s 14^th Amendment. The Court head the case in October, and when it issues a decision is anybody’s guess.