This year’s LSU Louisiana Survey didn’t purport to predict the fall gubernatorial election. There were no questions about what voters think of Democratic incumbent John Bel Edwards or of his Republican challengers, U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham of Alto …
When he got the question on his call-in radio show Wednesday, Gov. John Bel Edwards noted that by now, he was expecting to be asked each month when Louisiana would legalize marijuana for recreational purposes.
LSU pollsters recently found that criminal justice reform became more popular among Louisianans over the past year, which is interesting.
If the people looking to unseat Gov. John Bel Edwards this fall were hoping that LSU’s new Louisiana Survey might offer them some ammunition, they must be pretty disappointed.
You never know until people go to the polls, but there are lots of reasons to believe that Louisiana voters would give a thumbs-up to a slightly higher minimum wage.
With a critical mass of state senators set to depart Baton Rouge due to term limits, it’s a good bet that the more sober-minded upper chamber will soon start resemble the rowdier, more confrontational House — not least because those Senate term-li…
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For the first time this election year, Gov. John Bel Edwards and one of his opponents sat down Friday to talk to each other.
New Orleans is asking the governor and Legislature to help solve a Sewerage & Water Board funding crisis, both short-term and recurring. Any deal to claim a larger portion of tourism revenue, Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s main focus, would likely ha…
If you’re following the nascent governor’s race on social media, you might get the impression that it’s already devolved into partisan sniping. Staffers and advocates for Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards are going at his two Republican challengers…
Gov. John Bel Edwards talks about his decision to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act whenever he can. The governor boasts of giving access to preventive care and coverage for illness to about a half million Louisianans, most of them wor…
The decision by New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell's administration’s to quietly reduce the margin of error for drivers passing through zones monitored by traffic cameras sure comes off as a money grab.
A strong narrative has developed around the Louisiana Legislature in recent years — that Baton Rouge is, increasingly, operating the way highly factionalized Washington D.C. does. There’s lots of evidence to support this argument, much of it stemm…
Whatever happened to simple dignity in politics?
In case anyone watching Gov. John Bel Edwards deliver his legislative session-opening speech Monday didn’t notice how much the fall elections hung over the proceedings, they only needed to look at the podium behind Edwards. There, alongside legisl…
The classic TV comedy “Seinfeld” has often been called a show about nothing. The huge hit from the 1990s featured lots of talking and arguing, but in the end nobody learned anything, nobody grew, and not a whole lot changed.
U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy has been looking to take a lead on some sort of paid family leave bill for a while now, but he hasn’t outlined just what he’d support.
Ever wonder what it looks like when a problem is identified and addressed?
The latest installment of the 2019 Louisiana Survey, conducted by LSU's Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs, mostly covers Louisianans’ perceptions and misperceptions of how they are taxed.
Call it a good news, bad news, poll for Gov. John Bel Edwards. But mostly a good news poll.
For reasons that are clear only to him, President Donald Trump wants Congress to take one more stab at overturning the Affordable Care Act. This despite the fact that many Republicans are gun-shy about revisiting the losing fight, and the Democrat…
Grace Notes: LaToya Cantrell helped stop new tax for the elderly. Now it's her turn to offer a plan.
The final score on Saturday’s New Orleans property tax vote was a lopsided 29 percent yes, 71 percent no.
It’s almost time for Louisiana lawmakers to return to Baton Rouge for the annual legislative session, so let the budget games begin.
It would be overstating things — by a lot — to say that the Louisiana governor’s race is finally getting interesting. But at least voters trying to tell the difference between Democrat John Bel Edwards’ two Republican challengers now have somethin…
If Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, a bunch of other state-level Republicans — and as of this week, the Trump administration — get their way, a lot of Americans could lose their health coverage.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell hasn’t finished her first year in office, but already she’s developing a high profile elsewhere. Like, in New York.
Consider this a public service announcement for New Orleans voters.
New Mexico U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, who announced this week that he would not seek reelection, is a towering figure among environmentalists, clean energy advocates and those seeking urgent action on climate change. Not exactly the sort of record that …
Every now and then, Louisiana’s political journalists are called on to write about a public figure’s problem gambling. The topic tends to come up when the person in question commits some sort of clear harm in order to feed his or her destructive habit.
Congress has been trying to update the National Flood Insurance Program for years, and — as it so often does — has repeatedly found itself stuck.
Medicaid was always bound to be an issue in this fall’s governor’s race.
As state Republicans started to position themselves to take on Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards for reelection, a few theories emerged about how to avoid a rerun of their 2015 shellacking.
When a New Orleans mayor does something that sparks memories of former mayor Ray Nagin, it can’t be a good thing.
Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards loves to talk about Medicaid expansion — specifically about the more than 500,000 Louisianans who now receive coverage, at mostly federal rather than state expense, since he signed an executive order to adopt this …
On May 7, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell will mark the end of her first year in office. Depending on how things go between now and then, she could have quite a bit for show for it.
It probably got lost in the news of who else is going to Baltimore (we’ll miss you, Mark Ingram), but the path from New Orleans is starting to look pretty well-beaten.
When it comes to President Donald Trump, Republicans in Congress are finally starting to show a little spine.
These days, former politicians frequently reinvent themselves as pundits, and ex-Gov. Bobby Jindal is no exception. Just this week, he put in an appearance on the Fox Business Network with Neil Cavuto, where he took the entirely predictable tack t…
Every now and then, I read something that stops me short. This week, that something was a blithe assessment of why Republican women are underrepresented in political office in Louisiana, and elsewhere.
Maybe all federal judges should start out as criminal defense attorneys. At least they understand how guilty defendants operate.
As former Vice President Joe Biden inched closer to declaring his candidacy for the Democrats’ 2020 presidential nomination last week, U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond went on record predicting that Biden would be the party’s best hope to defeat Presiden…
President Donald Trump’s proposed budget, like just about every budget submitted by every president, will not be passed by Congress. It will not even be taken all that seriously — and based on much of what’s in it, from money for the border wall t…
The Louisiana Democratic Party threw its official support behind Gov. John Bel Edwards’ reelection bid over the weekend, as everyone knew it would. The only real suspense as the race develops is whether any more Republicans will join the fight.
In an announcement that would probably shock nobody, Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy told the USA Today Network last week that he plans to seek a second term in Washington next year.
Stephanie Grace: In Manafort case, players from William Jefferson trial take on very different roles
Watching the ongoing Paul Manafort saga from afar, former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson might well be thinking that it’s a painfully small world.
It’s way to early for endorsements in the 2020 presidential contest, but it’s already clear that one likely Democratic candidate can count on some high-level support from Louisiana.
After a surprisingly quiet first term in Congress, U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins is finally having his 15 minutes of fame.
If it’s good to have a doctor in the House, it’s arguably better to have one in the Senate. Better still to have even more, if one of them is Rand Paul.
The NFC championship game refereeing debacle left New Orleans with a lot of what-ifs.
U.S. Sens. John Kennedy and Amy Klobuchar don’t hail from the same party or represent the same part of the country, but they’ve got a few things in common. Both are lawyers and both are known for their one-liners, although unlike Kennedy, the shar…
Walter Reed, the longtime North Shore district attorney-turned-convicted criminal, says he’s ready to go to prison.