Heading into qualifying for fall elections, Louisiana conservatives and climate realists might be staring at a low-value trade.
At present, the Public Service Commission has a 3-2 Republican majority, which roughly mirrors the division between realists and climate alarmists on the panel that regulates, among other things, utilities that provide power. Democrat Davante Lewis is nothing more than a windup, around-the-bend alarmist, while Democrat Foster Campbell has shown some sympathy for alarmist views but has stopped short of full-on promulgation of alarmism in his voting behavior.
Campbell is term-limited, and his replacement almost certainly will be Republican Caddo Parish Commissioner John Atkins who expresses realist views, so that would bring a PSC less likely to commit mistakes in the name of alarmism. Unfortunately, one of the premier exponents of realism on the PSC for the past dozen years, Republican Eric Skrmetta, also is term-limited, and the frontrunner to replace him is more uncertain in adhering to realism.
Just prior to qualification’s beginning, GOP state Rep. Stephanie Hilferty declared her intention to succeed Skrmetta. Term-limited in the Legislature, as of the end of 2024 she had only about $20,000 banked in campaign coffers, although 2025 numbers won’t be in for another couple of weeks.
Normally, for District 1 a fair chunk of change is needed to win. In his last contest, Skrmetta kicked off with $300,000 and over the course of the campaign spent a half-million bucks for a contest that was competitive but not really in partisan terms as the Democrat he defeated soundly in the runoff but only after vanquishing competitive Republicans in a race that drew about 73 percent of the electorate – more than the presidential contest on the same ballot (runoff turnout was about a sixth of the general election’s).
But Hilferty might not need nearly as much dough, as no quality Republican has signaled an intention to run.* And Democrats might not get fielded more than trivial candidates in their primary, because they might not be all that displeased with the idea of Hilferty triumphing.
In her legislative service, Hilferty lately has been the least reliable Republican of her legislator generation in casting conservative votes. Her Louisiana Legislature Log scorecard average for the past six years is just under 70, well below the House GOP average of 89, but perhaps more pertinently in the past three years she has averaged barely on the right side of the ledger at about 52.
Among her more controversial recent actions, she elected to not override a gubernatorial veto of bills that would have discouraged sexual grooming of children by school employees and would have allowed inaccurate pronoun usage of children in school without parental consent, and she has sponsored legislation to prohibit corporal punishment in schools statewide (which haven’t succeeded). At the same time, she also has stumped in the chamber for more accountability from area local governments and for when governments declare emergencies.
More recently on bills that would relate to PSC activities, she voted for greater regulation of wind power, committing the state to a more reliable energy grid, and increased regulation of siting of solar farms. These votes favored a realist perspective.
Her campaign boilerplate fits the pattern of stating things with which all voters favor. Who wouldn’t want pledging to keep rates down and lights on? Regardless, if she ends up winning conservatives should hope that there’s little room for her streak of social liberalism in PSC matters and the tendency in legislative service she has shown towards climate realism translates to her policy-making. Otherwise, even upon having Atkins entering with Skrmetta’s exit, they won’t gain much in seeing Campbell dispatched if then an unreliable Hilferty effectively pops up in his stead.
* Just after publication, Republican state Rep. Mark Wright qualified. More about that tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment