Louisiana Politics: Constitutional convention dies legislatively, not politically

No bills or resolutions have been introduced for the regular session to address the issue of another constitutional convention, which had otherwise become a perennial topic at the State Capitol in Baton Rouge.
And even if a proposal did surface, passage would still be a long shot.
On the political side, however, the issue is still very much alive. Public advocacy groups and business associations are expected to take up outreach campaigns this summer and a well-funded activist organization intends to make the matter a campaign topic.
The Louisiana Committee for a Conservative Majority and Associated Builders and Contractors, for example, have asked candidates to discuss the issue in questionnaires.
Constitutional Coalition 2020, founded by businessman Lane Grigsby, has even gained commitments from newly elected Reps. Chris Turner, Ryan Bourriaque and Mike Johnson, who all voiced support for a “People’s Constitutional Convention,” as consultant Kyle Ruckert calls it.
“It’s something that I am definitely interested in looking in to,” Turner said.

Political eyes turn
to decided House race
When a special election on the west side of the Mississippi River, in House District 18, yielded a 25 percent turnout — a nearly-unheard of number in this era of extraordinary legislative races — many politicos were left scratching their heads.
Democrat Jeremy LaCombe carried the district with 69 percent of the vote, crushing challenger Tami Fabre and ending the GOP’s hopes of picking up a district that had been a longtime target.
“We worked our butts off knocking on doors,” Rep. LaCombe said.
Republican consultant Chris Comeaux, who managed Fabre’s campaign, said the election carries big implications for other races that will be waged this fall.
“It is a wake-up call,” Comeaux said. “This is what they are going to do in October.”
Comeaux credited LaCombe’s victory with a huge GOTV effort, which the consultant believes could be deployed by the Democrats statewide in the regularly scheduled races this fall — or at least in cherry-picked legislative districts.
Maybe, he added, it revealed the working strategy of Democrats.
“My hope is that they played that card unnecessarily,” Comeaux said.
Democratic consultant Michael Beychok, who managed independent expenditures related to voter turnout, said that a targeted, professional ground game was key. But he wouldn’t divulge much more.
Those close to the process, though, suggest other high-profile consultants were involved, from New Orleans and Chicago, with one having firm connections to the successful campaigns of former President Barack Obama.
“We know on what doors to knock,” Beychok said. “As contact increases so does voter turnout.”

Political History: An
execution on the first day
In 1988, then-Congressman Buddy Roemer swept into the Governor’s Mansion after scoring a massive upset over Edwin Edwards, defeating the wily Cajun politico in the primary.
Pledging to clan up the Capitol and to “scrub the budget,” the new governor took office amid much fanfare and optimism. Columnists heralded a new day in Baton Rouge and the start of the “Roemer Revolution.”
Just minutes after taking the oath of office on March 14, however, Roemer was confronted with a very real manifestation of the powers of the governorship. In the weeks before he had left office, Edwards had scheduled the execution of convicted murderer Wayne Robert Felde for midnight on Inauguration Day.
That meant that Roemer’s first decision as governor was to determine the fate of Felde.
According to The New York Times, Felde’s lawyers argued to the new chief executive that their client should be granted a brief reprieve because of the transition of power. Corrections officials countered that Felde had confessed to killing a Shreveport police officer, and while claiming insanity, said he was likely to commit another homicide.
As the gala for Roemer got underway at the Governor’s Manson, he was not greeting guests on the veranda, instead holed up in a side room, agonizing over the decision. Lawmakers, who went into session the next day, wandered around the party, looking for the new governor.
“I remember people were on the lawn dancing while I was upstairs with lawyers and family members deciding,” Roemer later told LaPolitics founder John Maginnis, adding, “The life-or-death question — I wasn’t prepared. … It’s something governors and kings are unprepared for. I didn’t want to do that the first night.”
In the end, the new governor decided not to intervene and the execution went forward as scheduled.

They said it
“The economists are performing comedy this morning. Next thing you know the actuaries are going to do standup.” —Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne, on the work of the Revenue Estimating Conference, on WVLA-TV
For more Louisiana political news, visit www.LaPolitics.com or follow Alford and Rabalais on Twitter via @LaPoliticsNow.