Hurricane Katrina served as a reminder of how important political relationships can be, especially when dealing with the federal government, writes Jeremy Alford in his latest column.
“That’s when we saw a Democratic governor and a Republican White House at odds over the response to that horrific 2005 storm,” he writes. “The squabbling, of course, did nothing to help those who needed assistance the most.”
No one wanted to experience that again in the aftermath of the flooding in south Louisiana this month, Alford writes, so expectations were high for a smoother exchange between Gov. John Bel Edwards and the apparatus of President Barack Obama. Both men are Democrats, he notes, they’ve spent time together and politically they have common interests.
“But Edwards can’t do it alone—and he won’t have to. Louisiana has a stable of players that couldn’t be better suited to lead the state out of the waters and onto dry land,” Alford says.
Louisiana has a political superstar in House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Jefferson Parish, who holds the third most powerful position in the nation’s lower chamber, Alford says. And if a spokesman for the recovery is needed in Washington, D.C., Alford says Republican Congressman Garret Graves of Baton Rouge is a great fit.
Graves has “a wealth of experience when it comes to flood-related policy, dating back several years to his stint as a U.S. House and Senate staffer,” Alford notes. “He also spent six years under former Gov. Bobby Jindal as a senior policy adviser on disasters and as the chairman of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. Graves even headed up negotiations on behalf of the state during the BP oil spill in 2010.”
There’s also Republican Sen. David Vitter, who’s on his way out. Congressmen Charles Boustany of Lafayette, and John Fleming of Minden, are running for Vitter’s seat.
“We could be losing as many as three veteran members of Louisiana’s congressional delegation or at least two,” Alford writes. “Therein begins the challenges for this recovery dream team. The road to stability will be long and difficult, especially for freshman lawmakers. They could possibly be forced to pay for the sins of their predecessors, many of whom have objected to recovery dollars for disasters elsewhere, like Superstorm Sandy in the northeast in 2012. It’s difficult to ask for recovery money when members of your own delegation have voted against similar packages in the past.”
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.
