House Speaker Clay Schexnayder is quite the gearhead, having worked as a certified mechanic before managing and then eventually owning his own garage in Ascension Parish, writes Jeremy Alford in his new opinion piece.
Schexnayder also raced IMCA/UMP modified cars on dirt tracks on a circuit that includes Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. He participated in 200 to 300 races between 1998 and 2013, developing a need (and “love”) for speed along the way. On a dirt track, moving too fast can be dangerous, as Schexnayder has learned from some crashes along the way, but at the Capitol, a little momentum can go a long way.
The regular session of the Louisiana Legislature is set to convene in roughly three weeks, and within the first 14 days lawmakers should be well into their first hearings on tort reform. That was the roadmap offered up last week by state Sen. Barrow Peacock, a Shreveport Republican who addressed a mostly conservative audience assembled by the Louisiana Coalition for Common Sense and Louisiana Lawsuit Abuse Watch.
If Peacock, a Senate judiciary chairman, sticks to his plan for bills that will be assigned to his committee, the timing of this centerpiece issue—tort reform, in some fashion—could influence the pacing of the entire regular session. Since it’s the first session of a new term, that pacing along with its aftermath may color the next four years as well.
A rapid and deliberate pace could help lawmakers avoid last-minute dustups over the budget and capital construction bill, which have proved to be final-day thorns in recent sessions. Then again, progress can be just as infectious as panic in Capitoland, and a rushed approach could lead to a crash of the entire session. Read Alford’s full column.
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.
