Edwards can take solace in Alario reelection

Maybe the governorship of Democrat John Bel Edwards hit its high point prior to his taking the oath of office, but it may not go downhill too far or fast depending upon the wiles of legislative leader who already has served two terms in that role under a governor then named Edwards.

State Sen. John Alario gained unanimous reelection for Senate president from his colleagues earlier this week. Just as Prisoner #03128-095, known back then as Gov. Edwin Edwards, held the state’s top office for 16 years, Alario now threatens to do the same in serving as top officer of the House of Representatives, accomplished in non-consecutive terms during the last two terms of Prisoner #03128-095’s reign, and now if completing his term would log two consecutively additionally in the equivalent position in the Senate.

Interestingly, for this final voyage on the hayride he will take the trip, for the first time, as a member of a different political party than the governor. Alario switched from Democrat to Republican prior to his reelection as senator in 2011, after which he would take the Senate’s helm. In some ways it did not seem all that unusual as by then his voting record more often reflected conservativism and reformism. His Louisiana Legislature Log voting record for his last term in the House averaged 35; he registered an average of 61 his first term in the Senate and then posted a 63 during his chamber presidency (100 denotes all conservative/reform votes cast, with 0 meaning none).

Early pedestrian Edwards papers likely best of bunch

Much like when the Khmer Rouge took power in Cambodia over four decades ago, the Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards Administration seems set upon rewriting history to declare the day it took office as beginning the Year Zero, if the first transition team report released serves as any indicator.

The Economic Development Committee's conclusions were followed by the predictable Transportation version, which inevitably and sensibly argued for looking for more efficient use of infrastructure dollars, directing all of them to roads needs, before implementing increased taxation. Naturally, to follow this means putting a greater strain on the operating budget, since some of the money that could go to roads ends up spent on the state police and other matters, but beggaring other parts of state government did not concern this group’s focus only on transportation priorities.

Other than for transportation needs, the economic development recommendations actually may turn out the least controversial of the several documents that will come out over the course of the month. It lauds the state’s Department of Economic Development, citing statistics to position it as a national leader – all without mentioning it made the progress to gain this status through the two terms of former Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Barras win could signal Edwards' term peaked

Did the governorship of Democrat John Bel Edwards peak two hours prior to his swearing in?

Approximately at that time, state Rep. Taylor Barras became Speaker of the House, an unexpected choice combining with a rare contested election for the post. In the past, overwhelming majorities of Democrats elected a Democrat as speaker regardless of the party of the governor. The modern Republican governors, except for former Gov. Bobby Jindal, complied by backing a Democrat both he and the majority found acceptable; Jindal in his first term backed a Republican when neither party had a majority and when the GOP, which would gain that majority over the next four years, trailed Democrats by just one seat.

But Edwards within days of his election publicly announced he would back a promotion for Democrat Speaker Pro-Tem Walt Leger. Not only would this make for the first time in history the party not with a majority not to possess the speakership, but it also would promote to speaker someone from a party with only about 40 percent of the total chamber seats, trailing the majority party in this instance by 19. It would have become an unprecedented foray into House minority rule.

Edwards starts gubernatorial career by flunking speech

In his inaugural address, Gov. John Bel Edwards preached about how Louisiana needed unity, how its diversity need not descend into division, and that he would give the “unvarnished truth” about issues and solutions to pressing public policy problems – and in it proceeded to contradict all of that.

Edwards sprung no surprises in terms of policy preferences; indeed, the familiar bromides he presented played an integral part in the contradictions. His repeating of the statistic often used to mislead concerning pay between men and women, that when looking only at total pay to total workforce, the typical woman makes 66 percent of the amount of money that the typical man does, as something needed some kind of “correction” ignores the mountain of statistics that demonstrate with all intervening factors equal, no significant pay gap exists. In doing so, he promotes division over unity concerning an alleged “problem” that exists only in the minds of ideologues besides dodging the truth of the matter.

He argued as a chief concern raising the minimum wage needs to become a “living” wage, even though fewer than 1 in 100 mature workers earn it, only 1 in 400 serve as a household’s primary breadwinner, that for many of those jobs the minimum wage has risen at a rate five or six times as fast as justified by the gains in worker productivity over the past quarter-century, and that the most widely-used welfare programs pay more than the minimum wage in 35 states – Louisiana included among these. Nothing like trying to unify by starting off stoking some class warfare, is there?

The Advocate column, Jan. 10, 2016

State's major problem: too much spending
http://theadvocate.com/news/opinion/14502628-113/jeff-sadow-states-major-budget-problem-too-much-spending

Links:

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=521

https://www.missourieconomy.org/indicators/cost_of_living/

https://bber.unm.edu/econ/us-pci.htm

http://factfinder2.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/SLF/2013/SLF003

http://theadvocate.com/news/14425147-32/jay-dardenne-louisiana-budget-messier-than-previously-thought-tax-increases-on-table 

Jindal leaves history-making, consequential legacy

Almost 20 years ago I remember reading a news story about former Gov. Mike Foster appointing an untested young guy not long out of Oxford as Louisiana’s health secretary. I wondered who this guy Bobby Jindal was to get such an important gig. Foster gushed with such praise about him that it seemed he had come to save the state.

Now as Jindal prepares to leave the Governor’s Mansion, through his tenure in that job, as head of today’s University of Louisiana System, and as governor, the state still needs saving from lots of things that only will multiply with his successor. But he made progress, and well before I retire from academia scholars will consider him one of the five most consequential governors in the state’s history.

Academicians holding the political beliefs they do, most will pan his policies, but they will be unable to dismiss his impact, one that at its heart abnegates what they typically support programmatically. The similarly-situated mainstream media, when the occasion rises to discuss his legacy, will find themselves in the same boat. Jindal’s tenure, best understood in context, marks the decisive turn that eventually frees the state’s political culture from its populist ethos.

Senate favorite Fleming's vacating opens ups CD 4

While north Louisiana might claim its first U.S. Senator in two decades, the chase for that seems certain to produce a new U.S. Representative in the northwest part of the state.

With Republican Rep. John Fleming formally announcing that he will pursue the seat of retiring Sen. David Vitter, he vacates his safe Fourth District post. That puts him up against Rep. Charles Boustany, 2014 candidate Rob Maness, and former Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao, and others that could join in include Treasurer John Kennedy, state Rep. Paul Hollis, and Public Service Commissioners Scott Angelle and Eric Skrmetta, all Republicans.

Democrats could provide another north Louisiana option if the area's Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell enters the race, as he presently contemplates. However, a Democrat stands little chance of winning despite the recent upset that won former state Rep. John Bel Edwards the governorship. Senate contests attract an electorate more favorable to the GOP and bring to the forefront issues that in recent decades have favored Republicans in races for Congress. What a serious Democrat could do is make a runoff election and hand the highest-placed GOP finisher in the general election the victory, unless lightning strikes twice.

C.B. Forgotston, 1945-2016

Sadly, C.B. Forgotston took his own life earlier this week. The end to his commentary as a result seems consistent with the continuing shift in Louisiana’s political landscape away from a populism based upon the primacy of personality to one where conflict revolves more around issues and ideology, a process he hastened.

He and I communicated sporadically since 2001 and in a small way he inspired to create this blog. Since age 19 I have written opinion pieces for a variety of newspapers and newsletters, for a large portion of that period on a weekly basis although for some stretches only occasionally. In 2002 I made a foray into the Internet-only world through the old PoliticsLA site and then into BayouBuzz, then still submitting every week.

At that point, C.B. had produced his short, almost staccato, blog posts at relatively short intervals between for some years, and got me to considering that I could do something of the same frequency, even though it had been two decades since I had written on a daily basis, during the semester I served as editor of The Oklahoma Daily. As readers of both of us know, and perhaps befitting my journalism and subsequent academic backgrounds, typically pieces here come out five days a week, one a day, and feature greater depth and analysis than did his. Regardless, that he could find something to say on a very regular basis regarding Louisiana politics made me think I could do the same.

Skepticism warranted that LA Democrats change

When this space recently discussed the future of Louisiana’s Democrats and considered whether Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards would involve himself to moderate the party, it seems some activists had read the piece and/or had directed their thinking in that direction already. But even if the less-liberal wing of the party succeeded in taking control, whether its adherents could push the party into an electable position remains highly questionable.

A move does seem afoot to dump later this year state Sen. Karen Peterson, one of the few legislators more to the political left than Edwards, as party chairwoman. That decision will occur after the March elections of the state central committee. However, as over half of those qualifying ended up unopposed, a good picture of whether that may happen already has emerged.

With 106 votes needed for a majority to elect an officer (although theoretically because of the simple majority quorum requirement as few as 56 could do the trick) even though Peterson, a black woman, represents the far left of the political spectrum, elements wishing to moderate the party may find that difficult, perhaps impossible, to do. Already with certainty blacks will occupy 90 seats (if state Rep. Stephen Ortego withdraws as he has indicated from his contest), 23 others could win seats of which 9, given the candidates running and district demographics, should win, and an additional one likely should get appointed (if no candidates run for a seat, the central committee may appoint someone and likely from majority-black districts it would tab a black), making almost certainly a minimum of 100 votes backing Peterson (and because officer elections almost certainly will occur before filling vacancies, assuming everyone shows up a quorum she will need only 91, meaning she should have the votes already for reelection).

The Advocate column, Jan. 4, 2016

Give Bobby Jindal credit for good changes in Louisiana
http://theadvocate.com/news/opinion/14375750-123/jeff-sadow-give-bobby-jindal-credit-for-good-changes-in-louisiana

Links:

http://lfo.louisiana.gov/files/publications/November_2015_Volume4_Issue4.pdf

http://www.bls.gov/sae/data.htm

http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/