The full makeup of legislative committee assignments shows that the leadership struck a bipartisan balance while the governor maintains control, particularly of the panels where the most sensitive issues will be handled. The House list of chairmen, as LaPolitics reported last week, has nine Republicans and seven Democrats, while the Senate will have 10 GOP chairmen and six Democrats. That split remains fairly consistent in the full committee rosters. Two committees expected to see controversial measures in this term, however, Education and Retirement, are stacked toward the GOP. Spreading the chairmanships around does not favor the Republicans as much as it does the governor, who controls more power by dividing it among the parties.
—Behind the unity of a full slate of Republican statewide officials inaugurated on Monday, the governor and the attorney general are sharply divided over how attorneys working on BP oil spill cases should be compensated. Attorney General Buddy Caldwell is asking the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to throw out an order by District Judge Carl Barbier for the state to set aside 4% of any settlements for a committee of plaintiffs attorneys leading the litigation. Gov. Jindal supports Barbier’s order and has pledged the state would not appeal it. Jindal and Caldwell even disagree on who is empowered to represent the state. In one filing, Caldwell cites his constitutional authority as the state’s chief legal officer and comments, “One would have thought the governor’s office would have had the good judgment to stay out of this issue.” “He is the governor,” responds Jindal’s communications chief, Kyle Plotkin.
They said it: “Big, Easy” —Headline in The Anniston (Ala.) Star on Tuesday, following the BCS national championship
(John Maginnis publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com.)
