Charles Dickens probably would have made a big, wordy mess out of the past 12 months of politics in Louisiana.
It was the best of times: President Barack Obama became a frequent visitor to Louisiana this year. It was the worst of times: He was only here to check out the Deepwater Horizon disaster. It was the age of gubernatorial book releases: Leadership and Crisis, by Gov. Bobby Jindal. It was the age of vice presidential book releases: American By Heart, by Sarah Palin. It produced a legislative session of incredulity: fees disguised as taxes. It was down with the Democrats and right with Republicans. And as voters survived an election year, another round is ahead in 2011.
Then again, Dickens would be perfect for the job. He often wrote about the emotions involved with social reforms, like Obama’s health care package; he mastered huge personalities with troubling flaws and provided them with redemption, like a public figure impossibly overcoming public scorn for sins of the flesh; and he loved cliffhangers, like a governor who is traveling the country at every opportunity not to build a presidential campaign; if someone offers a vice-presidential slot, that’s different.
Dickens, though, has been dead for 140 years. Louisiana, on the other hand, survived the past year, warts and all. And it’s good to look back, because it helps us understand where we’re going. That’s certainly a theme that a sentimental writer like Dickens would appreciate.
1. HARD TIMES
There’s a great deal of fear and loathing over Louisiana’s $27 billion budget, a bloated nightmare that’s up from $19 billion just five years ago.
Why? The Legislature and Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration will only have $24 billion to $25 billion in revenues to work with in 2011. You don’t need an abacus to figure out that means a potential $2 billion to $3 billion shortfall, the impact of which could be felt in every corner of state government.
Among the squeakiest wheels so far is higher education, and for good reason. There are $300 million to $430 million in cuts that public universities might need to absorb before the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. Higher education supporters want to raise fees and tuition, the business community is calling for more autonomy for universities and lawmakers are avoiding dramatic votes with reelection around the corner. As a result, the Board of Regents has become a target of lawmakers, many of whom are calling for a plan.
Then there’s health care. Physicians, hospitals and private industry have stepped up when it comes to lobbying and community outreach, most notably forming the Coalition to Protect Louisiana’s Healthcare. The Jindal administration has already backpedaled on some of its plans for Medicaid, and industry players now have chairs at the administration’s table during the decision-making process. The devil, as they say, will be in the details of the governor’s plans, which presumably are forthcoming.
In the meantime, state Treasurer John Kennedy has once again become the fiscal hawk of the moment. He promoted a 16-point plan for a balanced budget this year. He argued that the administration should begin weighing expenditures on consulting contracts and payrolls against priorities like education, health care, coastal restoration and infrastructure.
“It all comes down to political courage. We’ll find out this spring,” he said, referring to April 25, the day lawmakers must convene the 2011 regular session.
2. A TALE OF TWO PARTIES
Everywhere you look in Louisiana, Democrats are in trouble. Attorney General Buddy Caldwell is now the only statewide Democratic official, and there are only two Dems in the new congressional delegation: Congressman-elect Cedric Richmond and Sen. Mary Landrieu. Both are from New Orleans.
That’s all Louisiana Democrats currently have going for themselves. And that’s the reason many party faithful are reassessing the political landscape. Earlier this month, state Sen. John Alario of Westwego shocked the political establishment by joining the Republican Party, and several lawmakers have followed in his footsteps. Other officials, including Department of Natural Resources Secretary Scott Angelle, who briefly served as lieutenant governor this year, also have hitched a ride on the conservative bandwagon.
Joshua Stockley, a political science professor at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, says the changes increase the stakes for the upcoming election for secretary of state, the next opportunity Democrats have to shore up support. The election brings to mind Caroline Fayard of New Orleans, who made an unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor.
“Caroline Fayard has a bright future in Democratic politics, even in this very conservative state,” Stockley says. “She just has to show people she’s not the southern, just-as-liberal version of [current House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi. Democrats need a big win in Louisiana right now. They need to show they have some presence here. The secretary of state’s election should end up being very competitive.”
3. DAVID VITTERFIELD
This fall’s elections might have done more to bolster U.S. Sen. David Vitter’s political stock than anything else. The Metairie Republican is inarguably one of the most powerful politicians in Louisiana today. He bested U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon, a Napoleonville Democrat, and 10 others, with 57% of the vote.
There’s a reason Vitter’s victory is remarkable. In 2007, phone records showed a link between Vitter and the so-called D.C. Madam, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, who later committed suicide. At the time, Vitter said, “This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible.” He added soon after that he had “asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling.”
Vitter’s status seemed to worsen earlier this year, when new revelations came to light over former staff member Brent Furer, who handled women’s affairs and other issues for Vitter. Furer was allowed to remain on the senator’s staff for two years after criminal charges were brought against him for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend. After Furer accepted less serious charges, Vitter said he permitted him to stay on his staff until ABC News reported that Furer likewise had a criminal background that included charges for driving while intoxicated and drug possession.
Pearson Cross, a political science professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, says Vitter’s reelection this fall will go a long way to putting these controversies to rest.
“Once all the dust settles from this election cycle, all the brouhaha about prostitution will be behind him. Then probably after another six years in office, he can probably just put it to rest,” Cross says. “Of course, there will always be people who try to make hay of it. That won’t change.”
4. THE UNCOMMERCIAL TRAVELER
When you achieve the kind of astronomical poll numbers as Gov. Bobby Jindal did, eventually there’s no way to go but down. Such was the case last month, when Baton Rouge-based Southern Media and Opinion Research found that Jindal’s approval rating had fallen at least 13 points since April 2009.
For starters, Jindal took a great deal of flack over his controversial sand berms, which were constructed at a cost of $220 million—BP’s money, to the taxpayers’—in an effort to stop the flow of oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster from reaching Louisiana’s marshes. Earlier this month, the National Oil Spill Commission released a draft study that suggested barely any oil was captured by the berms—or even reached them—after the April 20 explosion.
“In short,” the report concludes, “massive offshore barrier berms are not a viable oil spill response measure.”
Jindal’s flirtations with the national limelight could also be catching up with him. Twice in the past three months, the governor has been greeted in his travels with a letter to a daily newspaper editor, sent from his home state.
First, it was LSU Student Government President J Hudson, who sent letters ahead of Jindal to the Keene [N.H.] Sentinel and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale. “Our governor, Bobby Jindal, is spending more time in your state than the one he was elected to represent,” Hudson wrote. He criticized Jindal for his proposed cuts to higher education and likewise addressed the governor directly.
Earlier this month, State Rep. Damon Baldone, a Houma Democrat, did the same with the New York Daily News. “We haven’t seen much of Jindal back home,” Baldone wrote. “First, he spent months jetting around the country campaigning for other politicians. Now, he’s back on the road promoting his book and raising money. … Clearly, personal political aspirations are more important to him than the reality we face here in Louisiana.”
5. NOT-SO-GREAT EXPECTATIONS
For politicians in New Orleans, opposing President Barack Obama and his policies likely cost them their jobs. But everywhere else in Louisiana, standing up to the president was a badge of honor. According to Southern Media and Opinion Research’s winter poll, Obama’s disapproval ratings in the state neared 60%.
The rancor has been most heated in Louisiana’s energy sector. As such, public agency heads, private businessmen, politicians and representatives from special-interest groups have collectively been discussing “aggressive strategies” to overcome the hostile environment created by Obama and his federal regulators. In the past few months, his administration has shuttered the eastern Gulf of Mexico to drilling activity and added a new requirement of environmental studies for the permitting of deepwater drilling.
A new group, the Back to Work Coalition, was established earlier this year to do nothing more than undermine Obama’s perceived anti-oil push. It was done at Jindal’s request and is being spearheaded by Angelle. “The deepwater drilling moratorium may have been lifted,” he says, “but the federal regulatory challenges continue to delay the return of new drilling in the gulf.”
6. A HOLIDAY ROMANCE
What would any Louisiana political list be without a shout out to former Gov. Edwin Edwards? He’s expected to transition from Oakdale Federal Correctional Complex to a halfway house in early January. Leo Honeycutt, who wrote the official Edwards biography, says the feds are not announcing a set date so as to avoid a media circus. Still, inquiring minds want to know.
Earlier this month, independent journalist John Maginnis reported that Edwards might have a girlfriend in Alexandria’s Trina Scott. Honeycutt confirmed the juicy tidbit. “As it has been told to me, she read the book and fell in love with him,” he said.
And so, the state is bequeathed with a Christmas gift that might keep on giving throughout 2011: a prison romance that moves out from behind the bars.
