Bad LA censorship law degrades election process

As election season winds down, maybe this will be the last conducted under an odious Louisiana law that chills free speech and degrades election decision-making.

Federal constitutional law sets only the most obvious and basic parameters regarding campaign communications. Basically, only the standards governing defamation apply: i.e., a public figure such as a contestant for office can have any expression made against him except those that are patently untrue and done with malice. And there’s no constitutional prohibition against making whatever claims about a candidate’s self, regardless of their veracity.

Just so. Except in those intentional defamatory cases, the political process should be allowed to play out to separate the wheat from the chaff, especially when this deals with claims made by a candidate about himself. If outright lies about past behavior or statements are made, electioneering by opposing forces quite often uncovers the falsity.

LA early voting doesn’t portend Democrat upsets

It’s madness to try to figure out election day results from early voting in Louisiana, but the best that can be derived is that Democrats won’t be as far behind as Republicans in the bellwether Senate race as has become typical.

Coming to this conclusion starts from a rough foundation. Early voting ended earlier this week, with final relevant numbers of whites casting 321,333 ballots to blacks logging 180,219, and Democrats having 222,806 voters to Republicans’ 206,278. As reference there were 1,854,793 white and 933,052 black voters registered, with 1,060,252 Democrats and 1,067,827 Republicans.

These results should start from the baseline of the last non-presidential election that featured a Senate race, 2022. Note, however, two important changes occurred between these dates. First, whereas then all elections on the ballot came as part of a general election under a blanket primary system, this time a few, most principally the presumed biggest draw the Senate contest, will feature the general election without possibility of runoff.

Build on upgrade by following reforms through

As Louisiana’s economic fortunes under Republican Gov. Jeff Landry continue to improve, it can’t rob Peter to pay Paul if it expects the progress to continue.

With the Legislature endorsing overall tax cuts and the Landry Administration hustling that grabbed hundreds of billions of dollars in new economic development, Fitch Ratings noticed and upgraded the state’s general obligation bond debt (it also recently has upgraded several other kinds of state issuances). That means in the constant revolving door of debt that state issues will come at lower interest rates, saving taxpayer dollars.

This will provide some minor relief from projected budget deficits beginning next fiscal year, which the state pegs will grow from $541 million next year to $1.23 billion by fiscal year 2030. Another debt-related maneuver that could ease the burden somewhat also would be to take the bulk of the recently-forecast surplus and pay down debt.

Reinvigorated office comes up aces on advice

Questionable spending of Louisiana taxpayer dollars by nonprofit organizations allowed by state government invites wondering why obvious fixes only now seem imminent to be put in place.

Recently, the Inspector General’s office, run by IG Angéle Davis, released a report questioning the $113.5 million doled out to various nonprofits for 2026 after a review uncovered questionable payments, inadequate financial reporting and other oversight failures. Several specific items that had been investigated posed problems according to state law, with their amounts totaling just over $1 million.

State government routinely apportions half of appropriated amounts to organizations as advance payments prior to producing documentation about spending. Agencies also appear lax in checking that. A report outlining these observations focused on only a few items, also detailing recommended changes subsequently approved to go into effect to try to mitigate problems. These include receiving reimbursements for documented expenditures rather than advance payments with exceptions allowed but capped at 25 percent, capping certain administrative expenses at 10 percent of the total, and increasing scrutiny of organizations controlled by a single individual or established shortly before receiving an appropriation.

Most, maybe all, LA amendments likely to pass

Despite the contrary musings of some, expect most, perhaps even all, constitutional amendments plastered on Louisiana’s ballot next month to pass voter muster.

Some questions about the chances of the 10 amendments up for vetting have come given that the last two elections featuring these saw every single one go down to defeat. While some speculation centered on whether this signaled a referendum of sorts on state government and its elected officials, more valid explanations focused on idiosyncratic reasons and, most importantly, the timing. Both factors will matter more favorably for the set that voters face this time.

Regardless of the often minimal attention most voters pay to these, content does matter. Many of the items of the past two years called for ambitious overhauls of the Constitution, especially in the area of state fiscal affairs. These are the measures that most optimally compel the voter with only a passing interest to turn out – and disproportionally negatively so, with the state’s long history of lukewarm or worse budgetary management. Compound that with the special interests that would lose out under new arrangements aggressively campaigning against these, and it’s a tough road to hoe.