If the Louisiana House of Representatives has taught us anything over the past four years it’s that independence can take on many forms, writes Jeremy Alford in his new opinion piece.
Four years ago, a majority of the membership in the state’s lower legislative chamber voted to distance themselves from the rule of the governor. While his predecessors played heavy roles in previous internal elections for speaker, Gov. John Bel Edwards became the first executive in recent memory to be bucked by the House, in 2015, when representative selected former Speaker Taylor Barras, R-New Iberia, over Edwards’ choice, former Speaker Pro Tem Walt Leger, D-New Orleans.
That move by the House, now cemented in our political history, had as much to do with party control—Republicans had it and the governor happened to be a Democrat—as it did with the body’s innate yearning to be free of outside influence.
There’s a phrase that lawmakers use when they want to differentiate what they go through as a Legislature, as compared to everyone else who seeks to influence their shared responsibility. Lawmakers often talk about being “inside the rails” with reverence, a nod to the literal and figurative barriers that surround the House and Senate floors. And never have they been more solidly inside the rails than these past four years, particularly in the House.
On Monday, in the first election for speaker since Barras made history, representatives voted once again to throw down a gauntlet of independence. While the highly anticipated vote didn’t possess the same kind of weighty significance as Barras’ selection, it was nonetheless a blinding flash of light that will be seen not only for the remainder of this term, but possibly for many more years to come.
Read Alford’s full column, in which he writes about what Monday’s internal elections in the Legislature mean for the state and the upcoming term.
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
