Walt Leger v. Cameron Henry for La.’s Speaker of the House
11th January 2016 · 0 Comments
By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer
They were both elected in 2007. They stood for office as protégés of powerful politicians. They were both thorns in the side of Governor Bobby Jindal, after initially being supportive–and felt personally let down.
They are both children born in neighboring parishes to those they now represent in the State House. The imprints made in their natal neighborhoods, though, left deep ties that make each far more cosmopolitan to the needs of the entire metro New Orleans area than the average, parochial State Representative might feel. Their perspectives have allowed each to defy powerful constituencies in their respective political parties and live to tell the tale.
In fact, they have both held senior positions in the Louisiana House, which Jindal sought to strip due to each of their individual oppositions to the Governor’s fiscal policies. They are both pro-business rising stars to whom the sentiment “He’ll be Governor someday” seems appropriate. They are both New Orleans area legislators and were once considered allies across the aisle.
This week, Representatives Cameron Henry and Walt Leger III are in a bitter fight for the powerful House Speakership that puts a GOP majority against the personal wishes of a newly elected Democratic Governor and several iconoclastic metro area Republicans who prefer Democrat Leger over GOP Henry, at least since John Bel Edwards does.
The race for Louisiana Speaker of the House pits more than two candidates against one another. It pits the Federalist Papers concept of divided government versus the traditional Pelican State notion that the Governor can choose his candidate to run the legislature. Will the swing Republicans vote along partisan lines, electing Cameron Henry? Or, will 13 GOP members fell the lure of a committee chairmanship, and opt for the Governor’s choice, Democrat Walt Leger III?
In the end, more is at stake than the philosophical construct pitting the Anglo-Saxon versus the Latin perception of the parliamentary power of the Chief Executive. The battle between Henry and Leger for Speaker cuts the GOP into two distinct factions – partisan loyalists who believe in independence and pragmatists who argue that the voters have spoken and their wishes should be respected. In each case, the fight also decides who will control Appropriations and Ways & Means, and therefore, levy the real power.
The Democratic Contender
To understand Walt Leger III, one has to understand his roots in St. Bernard Parish. Likely no other legislator representing the Garden District has likely ever had such a statement said about the roots of his personality development. Especially a State Representative who so perfectly embodies the moderate, silk-stocking politics of his Napoleon Ave. to Central City to the Warehouse District to Mississippi River seat. Leger votes pro-business and pro-charter, satisfying the (admittedly Country Club) Republicans of this seat. At the same time, he maintains close ties to unions and progressive groups without going so far to the Left that he is an anathema to the GOP.
Without even seeming so, Leger has a bit of populist about him, as a son of Arabi might, and as the son of Walter Leger, Jr., counselor to governors and presidents, could not survive without. That is not to suggest that Walt Leger III has not succeeded in constructing his own political reputation. In fact, he has done it so well over the last eight years, as the architect of the deal creating the South Market District, as the leading bipartisan bridge between legislative factions, that he almost has managed to escape his father’s shadow. Yet, the son (who’s law office is just down the hall from his father) would be the first to confess the political education that he learned from his Dad.
This unique tutelage came as the son of the most prominent lawyer in St. Bernard, where Big Politics meets Big Oil and Big Sugar. Leger learned a political sensitivity in the one metro parish that has long been the kingmaker in Statewide races. St. Bernard enjoys a unique swing-status, only shared by a few places in the nation, where conservative social politics merged with progressive fiscal policies. This is Ground Zero of the 1927 Great Flood, where Huey and Earl Long made inroads in Southeast Louisiana. A parish ravaged by Betsy, just as it was by Katrina, it is a land who’s battle against nature made the small government policies of the Right just as unfitting as the progressive causes of the Left.
Chalmette stands as a locale mugged by the realities of South Louisiana. Small enough that it had to grow politicians able to work across the partisan divide and assemble enough influence to build coalitions to fund its massive needs of flood protections and economic stimulus. It births moderates by nature, even in this Tea Party age.
Leger was elected at the height of Louisiana’s Republican Revolution, however, in 2007, a time when moderate Democrats like he would have seemed an endangered species. As the son of a Democratic Eminence Gris, Walt Leger III switching to the GOP would have turned heads. And, it certainly did not personally fit the moderate nature of the young man. However, the increasingly gentrifying nature of Uptown certainly did. Leger who had lived in the area for several years, opted to run there as a Democrat, yet skeptics gave him little chance. White or Black liberals had been elected from the area in a constant chain, occasionally broken by the odd Garden District Housewife.
Leger realized on the contrary that changing demographics and evolving attitudes had begun to transform Uptown just as young people flowed back into the inner cities. He gambled that the local electorate was ready for something new, or perhaps quite old, a conservative Democrat, and in a crowded field, he won.
He started his legislative term as a bridge-builder between the sides. The irony of the current fight against Leger for Speaker is that he was one of the key players in electing Terrytown Republican Jim Tucker when the Democrats still held the overall House majority. That was the will of the new GOP Governor Bobby Jindal, and Leger quickly became a Lieutenant for the new GOP Speaker. As Tucker was term limited out, though, Leger became a critic of Jindal’s budgetary choices. The Governor who had run against using “one-time” money had embraced the bait-and-switch spending, usually costing huge mid-year cuts in Higher Education and Health Care.
Still, Leger was so popular with his colleagues that he spent most of the last four years as Speaker Pro Tem to Republican Chuck Kleckley of Lake Charles, balancing harsh critiques of Jindal’s policies with bipartisan legislation.
The Republican Contender
Mr. Jefferson Parish, so might one flatter Cameron Henry. The standard-bearer of a new generation of GOP leadership, he might instead say of himself. Certainly, Henry made his reputation as a fiscal conservative so principled in his stands that he vocally defied Bobby Jindal and had his committee chairmanship stripped as a result. Mr. Republican, like his mentor Steve Scalise, others called him.
Henry worked as Scalise’s Legislative Aide for so long that he was a veteran of the La. Legislative Right for a decade before even taking office at 33. He inherited his mentor’s political instincts for conservative-leaning reform and his constituency in Jefferson Parish.
Henry filled that role so well, that while he won in 2007 with 57 percent of the vote in a hard fought race, he actually lost the one part of District 82 that stretched into Orleans Parish. It went into the Riverbend, and not far from where Henry actually learned what being a Louisiana pol was all about.
To understand Cameron Henry, one only needs to look at an iconic Uptown eatery, Domilise’s. Just off of Magazine Street sat his Great-Grandparents’ Po-Boy Shop. This very New Orleans landmark — and the people who patronized it —helped frame his political perception. Uptown then is a lot like Old Jefferson and Metairie today. On the other side of the 17th Street Canal, Henry launched himself into the legislature on Steve Scalise’s “Young Turk” reputation, and as term limits emptied the House and Senate of long-time mainstays. Having more practical experience than most of his peers, as a staffer, Henry became the legislature’s budget expert. Which is where he ended up on the wrong side of Bobby Jindal. Henry knew the thrice counted sale of public hospitals was a paperwork fiction, as was the raiding of long-term emergency accounts to plug yearly deficits. He objected, and the governor retaliated.
Henry, however, has an ability to earn the backing of powerful GOP patrons. David Vitter had held a $1000 per plate fundraiser in Washington when Henry was just a contender for the legislature. It was a highly unusual honor that almost no other first time candidate enjoyed. He built upon that relationship, becoming Vitter’s close ally, and eventually his designate to become Speaker if the US Senator became Governor.
The Math
In the State Senate, the battle over replacing the GOP President of the body was moot. Republican Sen. John Alario publicly backed John Bel Edwards over David Vitter, and the Governor-Elect returned the favor by pledging to maintain the status quo.
With Henry so identified with Vitter, however, the leadership of the State House of Representatives is another story. The Republicans hold a 61-44 majority. Henry counts upon the GOP to stand together in partisan loyalty, and elect him over Leger. He notes that at the GOP Caucus meeting three weeks ago, a unanimous sentiment existed to have a Republican Speaker.
That has not stopped Leger for claiming to have the necessary 13 GOP votes to prevail. He points to Republicans like Covington’s Rep. John Schroder who has publicly crossed aisle in the Democrat’s favor. (Leger also announced that Schroder, who himself had been a candidate for speaker in the early Autumn, would be his selection to chair the House Appropriations Committee, which deals with the $25 billion state operating budget.)
With committee chairmanships at stake, many Republicans–including Jefferson Parish Republicans in districts that neighbor Henry’s — are leaning towards Leger. A Political Action Committee has been established to stop wavering legislators from backing the Democrat. As its founder, Republican operative Chris Comeaux explained, “JBE being Governor is bad enough. But we can’t allow the Speaker of the House to be a Democrat. This 61-44 majority is the greatest GOP majority in the history of the state. We have formed a PAC, the Committee For a Free Louisiana. Tee and I have contributed the first $3,000 toward this effort. Several other donors have contributed as well and we… launch[ed] radio and tv attacks…to call out the ten to 15 Republicans who are being persuaded to sell out Republicans across the state.”
Rep. Joe Lopinto, one of those targeted by the PAC, told the daily paper that he plans to “probably” back Leger. Noting the generally non-partisan nature of the House Chamber, he lamented, “Unfortunately at the end of the day, you have some people willing to play Washington politics,” Lopinto said. “Would I prefer a Republican speaker? Yes. But, I’m realistic… I’m going to do what I think is best for the state and my constituents, especially with the situation the way it is now.”
Balloting for legislative leadership positions will be held this Tuesday, Jan. 12.
This article originally published in the January 11, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
