How do you flunk 94 lawmakers, most of which are facing re-election in the fall, and then turn around next year and ask them for their help?
“That’s the question many political insiders are asking in light of the legislative scorecard released recently by the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry,” writes Jeremy Alford in his latest column. “A vast majority of the Legislature received F grades; that means your representative and senator are probably on the underachiever’s list, according to the state’s most influential business lobby.”
With many lawmakers seeking re-election this fall, Alford notes, the timing of the report card from LABI is terrible for them.
“They won’t be able to run to the mailbox to get their scorecard before their constituents see it, and they won’t be able to turn that F into an A by drawing a line down the righthand side,” he writes. “No, lawmakers will have to explain their votes on more than $600 million worth of tax-related measures that ensnared companies big and small alike. They do have explanations, to be certain, but they won’t play as well on direct mail pieces and in radio spots as those big fat Fs surely will.”
Members of the House and Senate were faced with an unprecedented $1.6 billion budget shortfall to address this session, Alford notes, which had to be closed with little to no guidance from the administration.
“Lawmakers will rightly say that higher education would have suffered greatly had business and industry not been temporarily taxed. Then again, representatives and senators could have spent more time trying to reduce spending and cutting the more bloated corners of government,” he writes.
So what happens next, with the votes cast and scorecards distributed?
“For starters, there’s going to be some major blowback any which way you slice this political pie,” Alford writes. “By failing a majority of the Legislature, LABI has chosen to cut many of them off from receiving donations from the organization’s four political action committees—and, really, the PACs run by other business groups, too. LABI has also weaponized candidates who are challenging incumbents and, in what may be LABI’s most important contribution this session, they could end up recruiting folks to run against lawmakers on their target list.”
But on the other hand, Alford notes, LABI has itself become a target for those flunked lawmakers who will return to the Capitol next year.
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.
