The amount of influence Bayou State politicians have inside the Beltway has become a cyclical topic, says Jeremy Alford, adding it was last discussed with some seriousness in 2008 when former Congressman Bill Jefferson was inching ever closer to prison on bribery charges and his colleague Jim McCrery decided to retire near the peak of his power on the House Ways and Means Committee.
In the preceding years, Alford says in his latest column, there was even more reason for concern as Appropriations chair and almost-speaker Bob Livingston resigned amid a story about an extramarital affair, and was later followed out the door by House Energy Chair Billy Tauzin and Senate heavy John Breaux.
“All three landed lucrative lobbying deals, thus continuing their influence, just not on behalf of Louisiana,” Alford writes.
Which brings us to the present, in which U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu is herself a former after losing her seat last year to current Sen. Bill Cassidy. With Landrieu’s exit, Alford notes, the state relinquished the chairmanship of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee (she would have lost it anyhow with the GOP takeover) and suffered the loss of a seasoned voice on the Appropriations Committee.
“Cassidy scored assignments to both committees when he was seated, but is still proving his worth,” he writes. “As a result The Hill, a Washington newspaper, downgraded Louisiana’s rank in its “Clout Index” from 4th to 30th, below Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and 26 other states. It credited Landrieu’s defeat for the dramatic drop—and Congressman Steve Scalise’s ascent to majority whip, the third most powerful position in the House, for it not being worse.”
Alford says as we look ahead to 2016, the picture may very well become darker.
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.
