No matter who wins House and Senate races this Election Day in Louisiana, the state’s congressional delegation will have less seniority and less clout next year, USA Today reports. That’s largely because the delegation will include three freshmen—two new House members and one new senator.
“It will probably end up being the least experienced delegation in the entire country,’’ says Jeffrey Sadow, a political scientist at LSU at Shreveport. “As far as advancing particular causes or interests of the state, it (will) be a little more difficult.’’
Louisiana’s senior senator, Republican David Vitter, decided after losing the governor’s race last year that he wouldn’t seek a third term. His term ends in January. And two GOP House members—Reps. Charles Boustany and John Fleming—decided to compete for the Senate seat rather than run for re-election. They’re among 24 candidates in the Senate race.
Boustany, serving his sixth term, is on the Ways and Means Committee and chairs the panel’s subcommittee on Tax Policy. He’s helped lead GOP efforts to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
Fleming, also a physician, chairs the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans. Fleming, in his fourth term, recently pushed to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, saying Koskinen didn’t cooperate with a congressional investigation into whether his agency improperly scrutinized conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.
Because of Louisiana’s “jungle primary” system, the Senate race probably won’t be decided until a Dec. 10 runoff.
“One thing it guarantees is that the delegation’s seniority is going to decline,’’ says Pearson Cross, a political scientist at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. “Both seats in the House and (one seat in the) Senate will be filled by newcomers.”
The changes mean Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, elected just two years ago, will be Louisiana’s senior senator. He served in the House from 2009 to 2015. Rep. Cedric Richmond, the lone Democrat, in the delegation is serving his third term, but Democrats are in the minority in the House. Republican Reps. Ralph Abraham and Garret Graves are both freshmen.
Serving his fifth term, Rep. Steve Scalise is the only Louisiana lawmaker in the leadership ranks. Scalise is the House majority whip and third-ranking Republican in the House. He will be the senior member in the state’s House delegation next year.
Despite that, experts say, few other delegations will have as little experience as Louisiana’s next year—and that matters.
