Traditionally, being middle-of-the-road in Louisiana politics can make you a target, but as Jeremy Alford writes in his latest column, a small, quiet group of state representatives has formed a centrist movement.
“It has been called the Centrist Caucus by one of the lawmakers involved and the Middle Caucus by another. Someone else has recommended calling it the Louisiana Caucus. But the name doesn’t matter. The fact that it’s even happening is more important,” Alford writes.
The small working group met for the first time this week to begin laying the foundation for a new caucus that will strive for compromise in the increasingly divided House.
“The goal is to come up with a package of bills and try to have 70 or 71 votes in place,” Rep. Gene Reynolds of Minden, the chair of the House Democratic Caucus and the man charged with holding the party line as the minority leader, tells Alford. “There’s an urgency now that wasn’t there before. This is doable.”
GOP Rep. Rob Shadoin of Ruston has been trying to put a group together over the past few months, and Reynolds and others are offering a helping hand, Alford writes. A dozen or so legislators are expected to attend the first gathering slated for Monday, and a subsequent meeting was already being planned for next week as well.
Alford notes it has been a year since the Senate president was brought to tears, a regular session adjourned without a statewide construction plan, while another concluded without an actual budget. Newspaper headlines screamed drama of all sorts at the Legislature.
The thinking now of those involved is that the middle of the road is the only place to be, particularly in the GOP-dominated House,” Alford says.
“If the numbers do come together for the Centrist-Middle-Moderate-Louisiana Caucus, it will likely be heavily weighted toward Democrats, of which there are 40 in the House, many of them willing to compromise on the budget and taxes,” he adds. “There are 60 Republicans in the chamber, meanwhile, and that’s the contingency worth watching. Any moderate movement will need a significant buy-in from the GOP ranks. There are also, of course, three independents in the House.”
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.Â
