Louisiana Politics: Resignations are mounting as Legislature reaches midterm

State Rep. Chris Broadwater, R-Hammond, is now the 10th member of the Louisiana Legislature to resign from his seat over the past two years, a historically high number as lawmakers reach the middle of this current term.
Broadwater said he resigned from the House to spend more time with his family and to focus on his law practice. Broadwater notified House Speaker Taylor Barras last week, and told his colleagues about his decision in a written letter Monday morning.
“(It) is time for me to refocus my attention on the wonderful family with which I have been blessed,” Broadwater wrote in a revealing and personal letter to his colleagues. “I know that what I have described is not foreign to any of you.”
Broadwater has tendered the Legislature’s 10th resignation this term, which will eventually pave the way for the body’s 11th special election.
There have been eight special elections conducted for House seats, one due to the passing of late Rep. Ronnie Edwards, since the Legislature was seated in January of 2016.
Two more still need to be held, including the race to replace Broadwater in House District 86 and the pending contest in House District 93, where Democratic Rep. Helena Moreno has been elected to the New Orleans City Council.
In the Senate, meanwhile, there has already been on special election conducted to replace disgraced former Sen. Troy Brown, who was threatened with a legislative investigation related to misdemeanor domestic abuse charges.
House Clerk Butch Speer predicted in a recent interview with LaPolitics that the resignation count for the current term “could get worse.”
Before term limits, he said, the statehouse had “remarkably few” special elections. “We’ve been losing people hand over fist ever since,” Speer said, later adding,”If they didn’t like being here, they just didn’t run for election next time they came up. There was no benefit to quitting in the middle.”

Trouble with Trump’s
pick for Corps of Engineers
According to a story published last week by CQ, a subscription-based publication, Baton Rouge Congressman Garret Graves is less than impressed when it comes to R.D. James, who is the president’s choice to lead the Army Corps of Engineers.
Louisiana’s senators don’t sound like they’re in a rush to champion the nominee, either.
CQ obtained an email written by Graves and published it: “I’ll be very candid. This nomination was a mistake. The Trump folks have pulled a number of quality/impressive candidates for key positions. This isn’t one of them. Having a 36-year appointee that has done absolutely nothing to modernize the organization or ever challenge the institution is entirely inconsistent with the style of this administration or president.”
Then there was this, a sentence by reporter Jacob Fischler: “Louisiana’s senators, both Republicans, declined to say whether they backed the selection.”
As a floor vote gets closer, this could become a process where Louisiana lawmakers have a strong voice.
Lawmaker gets a
different kind of gavel
State Rep. Franklin Foil, R-Baton Rouge, was sworn in last week as a new Naval appellate court judge, during a ceremony at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C.
He’ll be able to keep his gig at the Capitol while taking on his new role with the U.S. Navy Reserve. Foil will be hearing Marine Corps and Navy cases on appeal.

Homegrown connections
to Alabama race
Doug Jones’ defeat of Roy Moore in Alabama’s U.S. Senate race last week has a few Louisiana ties.
Baton Rouge consultants Trey Ourso and Michael Beychok of Ourso Beychok produced direct mail in the race, mostly aimed at Moore. While it may have gone overlooked back home, the Louisiana duo was being thrown bouquets in Alabama on election night.
Also, Jones’ long shot bid has already started drawing comparisons to the dark horse campaign of Gov. John Bel Edwards, who bested former U.S. Sen. David Vitter, the early GOP favorite to win, in 2015.

Political History:
The Christmas tree bill
With the Democrats holding majorities in both chambers and his friend Lyndon Johnson in the White House, late U.S. Sen. Russell Long decided that the fall of 1966 was the right time to push for campaign finance reforms aimed at presidential candidates.
Long, who was worried about the influence certain donors have, proposed a voluntary $1 opt-in donation for taxpayers when they file their annual returns. The money, Long suggested, should then be equally distributed to the major candidates during the next regularly-scheduled election.
Rather than pushing a standalone bill, Long attached a rider to a Johnson Administration tax credit bill. Knowing that this strategy would ensure an easier route to passage, Long allowed colleagues to toss in their own hitchhikers, both germane and non-germane.
When the tax credit vehicle came up for debate that Christmas, one senator supposedly likened its numerous amendments to ornaments on a tree, coining a new legislative phrase: “The Christmas Tree Bill.”
The bill passed, of course. And if you want, you can still donate $1 when you file your annual return, for deposit into Long’s fund.

They said it
“The least you can do is demand that his cabinet appointees pay their taxes.”
—U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, recommending that back taxes should be paid by former state police Superintendent Mike Edmonson, after noting the tax increases supported by the Edwards administration
“Sen. Kennedy is not one to pass up an opportunity to get a headline.”
—Richard Carbo, the governor’s deputy chief of staff
For more Louisiana political news, visit www.LaPolitics.com or follow Jeremy Alford on Twitter @LaPoliticsNow.