Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Fannin, D-Jonesboro, says he is running for speaker of the House, while another contender, Speaker Pro Tem Joel Robideaux of Lafayette, says he is considering switching from independent to Republican. Either move would shake up the crowded speaker’s race, but also a future alliance between the two could have a decisive impact. Colleagues see Fannin’s real motive as a bid to secure his chairmanship of appropriations, the most powerful committee in the House, though Fannin says, “I got in it to win it.” Robideaux would welcome an alliance with Fannin but recognizes he might have to switch parties to make it work. The Republican-controlled House may balk at making an independent and a Democrat the top two leaders in the lower chamber. “If it’s a game changer by doing a switch, it’s something I would consider,” Robideaux says. Three Republicans have announced for speaker: Hunter Greene and Erich Ponti, both of Baton Rouge, and Chuck Kleckley of Lake Charles. Democrat Jeff Arnold of Algiers is running, too.
—In a lightly attended statewide meeting of parish assessors earlier this month, Plaquemines Parish Assessor Bobby Gravolet made a motion for the group to endorse his parish’s president, Billy Nungesser, for lieutenant governor. Some supporters of Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne who were present doubted it would pass, until it did, 18-17. “Jay Dardenne was naturally a little upset,” says one assessor. “A few of us started talking,” the assessor says, and that led to a special statewide meeting being called for the next week. When more assessors showed up for the second meeting, instead of re-voting between the two Republicans, they decided to endorse both men.
They said it: “I had to hear everything four times to learn it.” —Ex-Gov. Edwin Edwards, telling a fifth-grade class how he spent the first four grades in the same classroom, in The Advocate
