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Last year, the Governmental Affairs committees in both chambers considered more than 100 bills between them, HGA Chair Beau Beaullieu recalls. The committees probably won’t be that busy during this year’s fiscal-focused regular session.
But that doesn’t mean they won’t be taking on weighty and potentially divisive issues, including redistricting, party primaries and campaign finance.
The biggest elephant in the room, Beaullieu says, is the question of what the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will do with the House and Senate maps.
Last year, a district court ruled that the maps for both chambers violate the Voting Rights Act. Oral arguments in the appeal concluded last month, though lawmakers don’t know when to expect a ruling.
“We may not have an answer from them by the time that session is over,” Beaullieu says. “So that’s kind of a wait-and-see that has us all on standby.”
He will carry the omnibus election bill for Secretary of State Nancy Landry, which is an election code cleanup package each year, explains Joel Watson with Landry’s office. Landry also will be announcing what Watson described as a package of voter protection measures.
Beaullieu expects to do some cleanup work related to the party primaries that the Legislature approved at Gov. Jeff Landry’s urging last year. Under the new system, candidates for Congress, the Louisiana Supreme Court, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Public Service Commission will run in party primaries, while other races would still use the jungle primary.
During last year’s regular session, House Ways and Means Chair Julie Emerson proposed a bill to make statewide elected and legislative offices “party primary offices,” but her proposal didn’t make it out of HGA. Beaullieu says legislators have approached him about adding more offices to the party primary list.
Emerson tells LaPolitics that she is not sure whether she will file another bill to expand the party primary system, but notes that there is interest among members in at least adding statewide offices.
Clarifying the rules around how political action committee funds can be spent is a personal project for Beaullieu. For example, if he has to burn gas and put mileage on his vehicle to drive around the state for redistricting meetings related to his HGA chairmanship, he can reimburse himself from his personal campaign fund, but it’s not clear if he can use dollars from his leadership PAC, he says.
As for the other chamber, Senate and Governmental Affairs doesn’t have a permanent chair at the moment, following former SGA Chair Cleo Fields’ election to Congress. Senate President Cameron Henry did not respond to inquiries, but there may not be an official new chair until shortly before the session.
Sen. Blake Miguez, the SGA vice chair, agrees that campaign finance will be an ongoing topic of discussion this year. He says members are seeking clarification about how recent campaign finance changes, featuring higher contribution limits, will be implemented.
There are typically measures related to voter registration and election integrity proposed during session, Miguez notes. And he expects there will be quite a few confirmations to consider for the governor’s second year, he says.
He also expects more discussions about new voting machines, or the lack thereof.
“That’s a hot topic amongst the grassroots: How do you intertwine auditing, audited or paper ballots, into the current system,” he says. “I think audibility is the most important thing.”
The regular session starts on April 14 and must end by June 12.
—They said it: “I think she means well, but if she ever had a clever thought, it died alone and afraid.” –U.S. Sen. John Kennedy responding to singer Sheryl Crow posting on social media that she had sold her Tesla and donated the money to NPR, on Fox News
