As Gov. Bobby Jindal tours the state, building support for his undisclosed K-12 legislative agenda, two polls—one paid for by him, the other by a conservative PAC active in BESE elections—indicates voters are ready for a bold approach. The OnMessage poll, commissioned by Friends of Bobby Jindal, was taken Nov. 8-11 and sampled 500 people who voted in the primary and 300 registered voters who did not. It found that 60% agreed with the statement that BESE should “pursue bold reforms that improve all our schools,” while 29% preferred the statement that BESE members should “work with our teachers and focus just on the failing schools.” Those results were 59-32% among black residents, stronger for “bold reform” than Democrats as a whole, at 52-38%. Republicans favored bold reform, 73-21%.
—Newly elected BESE member Jay Guillot, whose company holds $17 million in state contracts, is seeking a Board of Ethics opinion about what kind of business he can do with state and local governments in the future. The request for an advisory opinion is on the docket of the ethics board’s meeting next week. According to his attorney Jimmy Faircloth’s reading of state law, Hunt-Guillot can continue its project management state contracts, which were signed before he was elected, but it cannot renew them if Guillot continues to own 5% or more of the company. Its largest, a $16 million contract with the Division of Administration “for project management activities for infrastructure and other projects related to destruction incurred from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita,” expires in June 2014.
They said it: “We’re not looking for CSI. We need Andy Griffith.” —Sheila Myers, defense attorney for accused killer Gerald Nickles, on the incomplete homicide investigation by New Orleans police, in a trial ending in a deadlocked jury, which included Mayor Mitch Landrieu, in The Times-Picayune
(John Maginnis publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com.)
