After witnessing yet another special session go down in flames late last night, Jeremy Alford says a dirty little secret has been revealed at the Capitol.
“No one is in charge,” he writes in his latest column. “In a building that’s brimming with overachievers describing themselves as leaders, not a single person can say they’re calling the shots or leading the popular narrative. And still we charge ahead, from one session to another, passing laws with barely a nod to what the future may hold.”
Part of the problem, Alford says, is that the governor of Louisiana is not a politically omnipotent position. And despite what you’ve probably heard about Louisiana’s governor having more in-state power than any other governor in the nation, Alford says that’s far from true.
“That’s worth remembering as you sift through the ashes of this most recent leg of session-palooza in Baton Rouge,” he writes. “The qualification will help you understand the try-and-fail culture that’s capturing the Capitol class—and it’s a legal reality that squarely knocks down what many accept as Looziana Political Gospel.”
The power isn’t in the post, Alford says, it’s in the personality—“and we’ve had giants cast shadows over that job.”
In other words, the power displayed by governors like Huey Long, Earl Long and Edwin Edwards—and to a lesser degree John McKeithen, Jimmie Davis and Bobby Jindal—shouldn’t be confused with any sort of index of powers statutorily or constitutionally conveyed.
Alford notes the election of Rep. Taylor Barras of New Iberia as House speaker in 2016 fractured the governor’s historic grasp on the lower chamber and its committee assignments, and that in turn has contributed to the fleeting power of the governor inside the Capitol.
In the Senate, meanwhile, Senate President John Alario is still viewed as a fixer. But since the budget and most tax issues must originate in the House, it has been setting the pace for practically every session this term.
Jeremy Alford publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter, or on Facebook. He can be reached at JJA@LaPolitics.com.
