Voters in Louisiana’s boot are going to suffer off-year overload with not only hotly-contested U.S. Senate and Fifth Congressional District races but also a slew of state-level elections that may prove as vigorously contested.
After a number of years out of the political limelight, when past member Republican Paul Hollis received confirmation as GOP Pres. Donald Trump’s director of the U.S. Mint, Republican Anh “Joseph” Cao was appointed by GOP Gov. Jeff Landry late last year to hold the seat on an interim basis. He signed up to finish the last couple of years of Hollis’ term.
Cao rose to fame by being the right guy in the right place at the right time. Running for Congress in 2008 in the majority-minority Second District with the Republican nomination, he scored an upset win when Democrat former Rep. Bill Jefferson’s campaign imploded under charges (and eventual conviction) of corruption. The magic couldn’t last with Cao’s defeat in 2010 by a black Democrat and for the next decade he made other unsuccessful attempts at elective office.
His appointment by Landry to the unexpired term obviously signals the governor is satisfied with his service. However, in Congress Cao voted more often with Democrat leadership than any other Republican and infamously became the only Republican to support disastrous health care changes still haunting the country to this day. With commonsense policy based on conservative principles having become the rule on BESE over the past several years, focusing on accountability and choice, GOP primary voters may prefer an alternative.
They have two from political families. The least venerable is Republican Ellie Schroder, whose background as a teacher and school administrator commends her. She’s also the wife of GOP former Treas. John Schroder, who left office after coming up well short in the 2023 gubernatorial race won without a runoff by Landry. Her husband and the governor weren’t on the best of terms as a result of their electoral clash, but that was over two years ago.
Of sanguineous vintage is Michael Hollis, who brokers insurance. He is Paul Hollis’ brother and the son of GOP former state Sen. Ken Hollis. His only political experience has been a past appointment to a board in New Orleans, but his same-sex marriage could make some GOP voters queasy about supporting him, given recent controversies about the role of some schools and school districts in other parts of the nation in trying to steer children towards identifying differently from their biological sexes.
Hollis has no campaign reports yet filed. Nor does Schroder, although her husband has a leadership political action committee and the remnants of his statewide office account which if the latter donates to the former could provide nearly $75,000 in support. Cao has emptied his various accounts, so all candidates start well short of what they should need. It is possible that a PAC arrangement could enable transfer of the nearly $15,000 in Paul Hollis’ account to help his brother’s campaign.
Will this turn into a Landry v. Schroder battle, round two? Or an attempt to pass the torch from one sibling to another? The winner will have to separate himself or herself on policy terms in convincing voters of best following the zeitgeist of accountability and choice in pursuing the ends that the entire electorate wants, better academic performance from schools Whoever comes out on top will steamroll in the general election a token Democrat who filed unopposed, so hopefully GOP voters will experience a campaign where the candidates speak in detail to issues to make the decision of differentiating among them a simpler task.
And, to spice things up a little bit more for southeast Louisiana voters, another past prominent Republican filed for the PSC race. John Young served successfully on the Jefferson Parish Council and then as parish president, but lost narrowly the lieutenant governorship and then missed reclaiming the presidency four years later. When in parish government he had a relationship with GOP former state Sen. Julie Quinn, and interestingly she ran for the PSC in a different district in 2024. To prove competitive against Republican state Reps. Stephanie Hilferty and Mark Wright who already have at least some name recognition after Young faded from the scene many years ago will take much more than the $31,000 he had left in old campaign accounts after 2024.
No comments:
Post a Comment