Jeremy Alford: Leadership selections get new term off to fast start

We have reached mid-November during a statewide election year and we already know who will fill the roles of governor, Senate president and speaker of the House. 
That’s notable. Elections for governor — especially open races that lack an incumbent, like this year — are typically forced into pre-Thanksgiving runoffs. Moreover, internal leadership elections in the Legislature historically aren’t settled until the subsequent New Year, during January organizational sessions.
The norms, however, don’t apply to the political tsunami generated by Attorney General Jeff Landry, who notched 52 percent in the October primary against a packed field of politicos.
Landry’s electoral muscle was first used in the Senate, where the governor-elect endorsed Jefferson Parish Sen. Cameron Henry for president. The move instantly cleared the field, prompting anyone seriously thinking about the internal race to also back Henry.
The House of Representatives is always a little messier, with 105 members to the Senate’s 39. Instead of a few candidates angling for president, the lower chamber usually hosts several players for speaker. 
Since winning his primary election, Landry has publicly stayed quiet in the race for House speaker, but his top supporters long believed he would most to like to see Rep. Phillip DeVillier with the big gavel.
On Monday, that scenario became a reality when the top contenders for speaker withdrew their candidacies and endorsed DeVillier.  
With special sessions expected to be called for redistricting, crime and insurance issues, the early start to the next term should give lawmakers more time to focus on the work at hand. 
Gov.-elect Landry’s policy councils, meanwhile, are already hard at work diving into these policy topics — and much more. But there’s also another part of the official transition process that’s just beginning to take shape.
After his primary win on Oct. 14, Landry created more than a dozen policy councils on everything from agriculture and constitutional reform to education and the city of New Orleans. Some are already meeting. Others will soon.
The councils each have chairpersons, usually as prizes for being supportive of the governor-elect, and they’re all hoping to help craft policy agendas for the upcoming string of legislative sessions.
Although he hasn’t discussed them publicly yet, Landry has also created “Pelican Teams” to serve as connective tissue between the policy councils and their respective departments and agencies.
Some of the Pelican Teams are still being filled out, a Landry spokesperson said, and they’re positioned to play a critical role in the transition process.
Names of Pelican Team members haven’t been released, but LaPolitics has interviewed donors and conservative operatives who are involved with the various teams.
Based loosely on the “Tiger Teams” created by former President Donald Trump after being elected in 2016, the Pelican Teams are being filled with inquisitive minds and those who don’t mind a bit of work.
As of this week, the Pelican Teams are responsible for taking deep dives on the department and agency level and hunting down information requested by or valuable to the respective policy councils. 
As for how it’s going, a Landry spokesperson described the administration of Gov. John Bel Edwards as “gracious,” adding department and agency heads have welcomed the process.
What else the Pelican Team does remains to be seen, but Trump did use his Tiger Teams to help conduct interviews (a lot of interviews) of potential hires. The Pelican Team model, however, was merely inspired by the Tiger Team model and isn’t supposed to be a carbon copy.
In concert with the settled leadership elections in the Legislature, Team Landry is certainly off to an early start for the next term. Let’s hope the extra time is well spent — on enhancing transparency and fostering robust policy conversations — and not wasted on politics.
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