Apart from eating boudin, avoiding specifics and having supporters describe opponents in the vilest terms, one of the enduring Louisiana campaign traditions is the pilgrimage to PAR, first to understand what in the world those constitutional amend…
Jim Engster of “Talk Louisiana” has been gathering the opinions of folks around town about the last 10 governors, and it was my turn last week to rank them.
After a few weeks of trying to link Gov. John Bel Edwards with supporting unchecked immigration, the Democratic governor’s Republican opponents also are blaming his “trial lawyer” ways for what they call Louisiana’s sluggish economy.
What with the Congressional censure that passed Tuesday and an impeachment resolution that failed Wednesday, voters overlooked how effectively President Donald Trump shifted the politics of his 2020 reelection campaign and unintentionally, the dis…
Before the storm dominated everyone’s thoughts, last week marked the beginning of a political season that will dominate public conversation for the next dozen weeks.
The governor’s election is somewhat of a snoozer, so far.
Nationally, if pundits and politicos are to be believed, the political “Year of the Woman,” has been fueled by dislike for President Donald Trump.
The Louisiana Legislature’s inability to address the high cost of auto insurance is sure to be a potent issue in this fall’s elections.
The iconic image of this class of legislators who finished their last session Thursday evening was how they finished their first: charging the podium in a scrum to pass $1 billion of temporary taxes that would expire and set up another crisis in 2018.
This session of the Louisiana Legislature will be remembered more for the carcasses left than the policies addressed.
What was called the "most important bill" of the session — one promoters said would lower Louisiana’s high auto insurance rates — fell apart after members of a Senate committee showed that the legislation was what opponents contended all along: an…
A few minutes after the Louisiana Senate on Monday overwhelmingly rejected allowing a statewide vote to abolish the death penalty, senators ran through their “sanctity of life” speeches again then approved one of the strictest bans on abortion.
After hearing a legion of local officials sharply criticize his proposed system for handling the Industrial Tax Exemption Program, in which the state forgives a corporation’s local property taxes, state Sen. Bodi White had enough.
Baton Rouge Republican Rep. Paula Davis looked at her colleagues collecting their belongings at the end of the day and noted that while last week was busy, no single issue has dominated the session.
If J.R.R. Tolkien was writing about this session of the Louisiana Legislature, Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards would be cast either as hero Bilbao Baggins on a budgetary quest or the power-mad, super-spender Sauron, depending on who is telling th…
Gov. John Bel Edwards opened the 2019 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature with a kumbaya appeal for both sides to work together instead of falling into partisan bickering, which was the hallmark of most of his three years as governor.
Incumbent Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, in absentia, took it on the chin when his Republican challengers gathered last week on the same stage for the first major forum in the gubernatorial campaign.
Almost from the minute last June when the Louisiana Legislature approved raising the state sales tax to 4.45 cents on every dollar spent — it would have been 4 cents — Louisiana Republicans talked about rolling back the increase long before the Ju…
A lot of Louisiana Legislators were surprised last year to learn that in their last-minute scuffle to fix the state budget, they had jettisoned sales tax holidays.
If the Louisiana Legislature has a Don Quixote, he is Baton Rouge Rep. Steve Carter.
Louisiana politicos have spent much time trying to root out the horde of profligates they say have fraudulently joined Medicaid. They’re going to have to find a new issue.
Fourth-graders in my kid’s school study slavery by running from classroom to classroom in a mock-up of the Underground Railroad, the series of secret trails and safe houses that helped spirit about 30,000 enslaved people from the South to freedom …
Shortly before Christmas the U.S. Census Bureau reported that Louisiana was one of nine states that lost population with 10,840 fewer people as of July 1 than the year before.
Those around the country trying to comprehend a federal lawsuit over a referee’s call, or rather lack thereof, need look no further than the business community’s reaction to the Baton Rouge school board not embracing a $2 million tax break for one…
House Speaker Taylor Barras was described last week “as the ultimate gentleman” in the announcement that he would be the Mardi Gras Grand Marshal in his New Iberia hometown.
Louisiana Senate President John Alario likened the standoff over how much money state government has available to spend to the deadlock over the border wall that has shut down the federal government.
A lot of fingers were pointed when a special state committee convened last week to decide whether to take over the Natchitoches Parish village of Clarence, which has such a staggering debt that policemen have been laid off and drinking water is ab…
A new year in the rest of the country means state legislatures are opening their sessions.
The “tort reform” idea being discussed so frequently by the Louisiana business community this Christmas season really started in mid-January 1995, about three days into George W. Bush’s tenure as Texas governor.
Louisiana House Speaker Taylor Barras is a piker when it comes to legislative obstruction — at least when compared to assemblies in the upper Midwest.
Louisiana Senate President John Alario recalls a time when lawmakers huddled on the House floor to resolve budget debates by deciding the price of oil.
Rickie Collins wasn’t surprised when his niece, Gwen Collins-Greenup, flew under the radar of the Louisiana politico class yet won a spot at the top of Saturday’s ballot.
In a Daily Caller interview, President Donald Trump claimed Wednesday, without presenting evidence, that fraudsters had cast ballots in the Nov. 6 election, changed their shirts to disguise themselves and voted again.
Jazz musicians often use recognizable melodies as their base from which they improvise their way to new interpretations.
Key conservative funder Lane Grigsby sounds like he’d rather drink weed killer than support a run by U.S. Sen. John N. Kennedy for Louisiana governor.
In his early days as governor, John Bel Edwards laid down the law to a gathering of higher education pooh-bahs: He would brook no more bickering, “Not on my watch,” two of the participants in that conversation recalled.
Former Gov. Bobby Jindal has again grabbed for the steering wheel from the backseat.
A casual observer of the Secretary of State’s race — and that includes pretty much everyone — could be forgiven for mistaking George Soros as the leading candidate.
Four years ago, seething tea-partiers and their allies stormed the State Capitol to stop Louisiana from joining Common Core, an effort to raise academic standards in the nation’s schools.
Like those Nextdoor social media sites where your neighbors whine about the way things used to be, the Louisiana Legislature’s largely negative reaction has overshadowed news of an actual surplus after 15 mid-year deficits over a span of nine years.
The thought of San Francisco Democrat Nancy Pelosi becoming speaker of the U.S. House “should scare all Americans,” GOP Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said last week when asked what would happen if the Republicans lost their 23-seat majority in th…
Sometime during the 14th straight day sandblasting rusting metal in the Gulf, I soured on offshore work.
Almost 55 years ago, President John F. Kennedy was gunned down on his way to deliver a speech to the Dallas Citizens Council.
Led by U.S. Sen John N. Kennedy and Attorney General Jeff Landry, Louisiana Republicans have spent much of the summer reminding party faithful of how their positions differ from those held by a Democratic governor — the only one in the Deep South …
Just a month ago, when the nine candidates for the secretary of state’s race were getting their names on the Nov. 6 ballot, their narratives were all pap bromides that sound good but have little to do with the job.
On the “Talk Louisiana” radio show last week, Republican Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser was unapologetic about his willingness to work with Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards.
Attorney General Jeff Landry last week proposed a political red meat trifecta — bring back hanging, firing squads and electrocutions — to break the logjam of executions and bring peace to victims’ families.
With the fiscal cliff under control for at least a few years, legislators and the governor took off on vacation leaving the State Capitol quiet, at least as far as governing issues go.
It’s been said Louisiana always lags a little bit behind. And a century-old poem by Irish nationalist W.B. Yeats proves a good example.
Baton Rouge Democratic Rep. Ted James was cut off Thursday when he tried to make the point that the Republican House majority had sent a total of one bill to the Senate that addressed the fiscal cliff facing the state’s budget at the end of this month.
“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,” in the words of William Shakespeare’s Henry V, as the Louisiana Legislature charges into its sixth special session to cover the gap between promised services and the money available.
