Legislators attribute the defeat of the college merger bill, which was the centerpiece of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s legislative agenda, to a number of factors. While it was a racially charged issue, all the energy came from blacks, at the Capitol and in the districts. White Democrats with significant black constituencies felt great pressure to oppose the bill but not much enthusiasm from whites to support it. A Southern Media poll showed the state nearly equally divided on the question of the proposed merger between Southern University at New Orleans and the University of New Orleans. Jindal and his staff lobbied the bill hard but lacked an essential tool for winning over legislators: He had no money to offer them. One Democratic source believes the governor could have got another handful of supportive Democrats, enough for passage, with the right incentives, either in the budget or the capital outlay bill. But he was working empty-handed.
—A first-time candidate with a well-known political name, attorney Rick Ward, a Democrat from Maringouin, is putting out yard signs as he starts his run for the state Senate in District 17. His father is District Attorney Ricky Ward Jr., whose 18th Judicial District covers three parishes in the heart of the Senate district. The district, now represented by term-limited Sen. Rob Marionneaux, D-Livonia, covers all or part of nine parishes straddling the Mississippi River around Baton Rouge. Also running is Larry Thomas of Clinton, a retired businessman and former aide to Marionneaux. Rep. Major Thibaut, D-New Roads, is said to be leaning toward running for re-election.
They said it: “It was voted on by the people, and then we heard the train coming at us.” —Rep. Jane Smith, R-Bossier City, on the Stelly tax plan of 2002, since repealed
(John Maginnis publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com.)
