A look ahead: Ten top local political headlines to look for in 2019
2nd January 2019 · 0 Comments
By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer
While other publications look backward into the concluding year, The Louisiana Weekly opts to examine the ten major local political stories that began in late 2018, which promise to dominate the local political landscape in the coming year.
1. John Young Returns
Jefferson Parish President Mike Yenni has tirelessly labored to get past the “high schooler sex scandal” of his first year. His ostensible approval ratings have rebounded, but most of the local political establishment watched as the mere possibility of John Fortunato endorsing Yenni for re-election tanked the veteran JPSO cop’s bid for Sheriff. Toxicity remains.
Perhaps nothing indicates Yenni’s vulnerability better than the fact that former parish president John Young has announced that he is running for his old job. Facebook and Social media are cluttered with Young’s public appearances – from the sidelines of the Saints game to major awards ceremonies in Jefferson. Considering that Young won 49 percent of the vote in Jefferson in his bid for Lt. Governor, only narrowly losing the runoff slot (and the Jeff West Bank) to Billy Nungesser, a far stronger contender than Yenni, Young stands in a strong position to get his old job back. He was elected parish president twice, by commanding majorities, and left office with commanding approval ratings. Young also first came to office as a scandal collapsed the standing of his once popular predecessor.
2. Challenger for Donelon
Jim Donelon spent most of his last four years in office telling spectators and supporters alike that he did not plan to run again for Louisiana Insurance Commission-er in 2019. His emerging plan to launch a re-election bid came as a surprise to many, especially to Donelon’s immediate predecessor.
J. Robert Wooley was singularly responsible for appointing the former GOP legislator as 1st Assistant in the LA Insurance Department, and ultimately Donelon’s ascension to the Commissionership. Wooley is now doing everything in his power to make sure Jim Donelon is defeated for re-election next Autumn, actually going so far as to manage the campaign of Baton Rouge Insurance executive Tim Temple for the IC’s position.
Thanks in large part to the former Insurance Commissioner, Temple has been raising campaign dollars at a record clip, and, even a year out, apparently has already secured a number of major endorsements.
The falling out between the two LA Insurance Commissioners has turned quite a few heads in the local political world.
The two were once close friends. Robert Wooley, a Democrat, had appointed the long-time Jefferson Parish Republican State House member and 1998 GOP U.S. Senate candidate as First Assistant Insurance Commissioner in 2001. Wooley cited Donelon’s long experience Chairing the House Insurance Committee and the latter’s authorship of landmark Mental Heath coverage mandates for health insurance in Louisiana.
However, when Tim Temple, the son of Aubrey T. Temple Jr., the founding chairman of the board of Louisiana Workers Compensation Corp. (LWCC), a former U.S. Senate staffer, and insurance executive, expressed interest in the IC’s position, Wooley reportedly put his legal practice on hold to manage the DeRidder native’s campaign full time.
Nevertheless, other than the Gubernatorial election next year, the hottest anticipated statewide race is shaping up to be the election for Commissioner of Insurance.
3. No Challenger for Edwards (yet)
When Donald Trump carried Louisiana by double digits, prognosticators were quick to write the current Democratic Governor’s political obituary. Elected “in a fluke” thanks to the Vitter prostitute scandal, the local punditry openly opined that a first tier GOP challenger would dispatch John Bel Edwards from the Governor’s Mansion in 2019.
However, seeing the Democratic Incumbent’s strong poll numbers, the most prominent challengers Attorney General Jeff Landry and U.S. Senator John Kennedy demurred. In fact, the only announced contenders on the Right are wealthy first time candidate and an unknown U.S. Representative. North Louisiana Congressman Ralph Abraham has announced a bid, yet he has never run in populous South Louisiana. Moreover, Abraham’s state campaign warchest stands as a fraction of Edwards’ horde.
4. Term Limits Visits Again
For the first time since 2007, more than half of all legislative seats will be open in 2019. Constitutional term limits will bring forth a new crop of potential House members. While many of the current incumbents will likely run for the State Senate (and some for the lower House), a major shakeup in representation will occur – particularly on the East Bank, where most of the House incumbents have been in office for the maximum twelve years.
5. The Strange & Wonderful Decrease in Crime (Xmas Excepted)
Overall homicides decreased by nine percent in 2018, shootings by thirty percent, and armed robberies by twelve percent. The city stands to have its lowest murder total since 1971, as The Louisiana Weekly reported in our last edition. That means crime will not dominate the political discussion in all likelihood next year.
6. The Unexpected Outbreak of Regionalism in Public Transportation
It was a small step with major implications for the coming year. Jefferson’s JeT Bus System agreed that the RTA Tulane Avenue Bus should continue down Jefferson Highway to Ochsner Hospital and then onto Causeway Blvd. The news came on the heels of the restoration of a single daily bus pass for Orleans and Jefferson – and RTA listing JeT bus arrival times on its website.
The two historically rival transportation agencies have suddenly begun to collaborate, discussing future bus routes across the 17th Street Canal.
7. Teachers Lost Thanks to Oil
Will this week’s rise in mean in Gas price mean that they will win in 2019?
There was outrage from the Governor’s office when House Appropriations Chairman Cameron Henry refused to authorize another $42 million in spending at the Revenue Estimating Conference on Nov. 27. The money was earmarked for a Christmastide $1,000 Teacher Pay Raise, along with a few million for Sheriffs and prisons, but was predicated on the price of petroleum staying above $80 per barrel.
Prices fell to $60 per barrel, and Henry (as well as subsequently Speaker Taylor Barras) estimated that a resulting fall in state’s petroleum tax receipts would occur. On Boxing Day, they were proved correct. State Revenues ended up being overstated by $31.1 million, according to a year end report by Louisiana Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera. Initiating the teacher pay raise would have caused a mid-year deficit.
8. Sewerage and Water Board Crack Up
To paraphrase Orleans Democratic Executive Committee member Mark Vicknair’s post on social media after the latest “boil water emergency”, ‘Is this what I get for all the taxes I pay?’
The infrastructural collapse at the Orleans Sewerage and Water Board has forced (the latest) current management to bring back experts – out of retirement back to the SWB – to sort out the mess. However, the Cantrell Administration, by all accounts, has concluded that the lack of investment and rot of personnel has passed a point-of-no-return. The next year will likely see a land-mark restructuring of the Sewerage and Water Board, as fundamentally headline-making nationally as the New Orleans’ restructuring of the Public School system into 100 percent Charters after Katrina.
Out of desperation (and investment capital), sources within City Hall tell The Louisiana Weekly that a public-private partnership – previously impossible in the wake of the privatization controversies of two decades ago – may constitute the preferred reform route. Whether this transformation will take the form of converting the S&WB into a quasi-governmental non-profit which can seek private resources, as in the case or NORD-C, or whether the S&WB will taken over by a private operator like Entergy, time will tell. Regardless, expect the continuing cascading catastrophes to cause a change previously perceived as politically precarious.
9. Terminal Success
With the news that the City of Kenner and the State Department of Transportation completed the final negotiations for an interstate exit on Loyola Drive, Armstrong Airport’s gleaming, if long-delayed, new terminal will open. Originally slated to be in operation in time for the Tricentennial, the new terminal’s modernity and space will nonetheless boost MSY into a higher league of airports.
The new arrival platform promises to pull in a plethora of international direct flights, as well as further bolstering the numbers of domestic direct connections. These routes will not only make travelers’ lives easier, but they will also allow the metro New Orleans Area to appear more attractive to businesses seeking new locations. The major corporate complaint lodged against the metro rests in the difficulty in flying in and out of New Orleans. The billion dollar terminal looks to encourage more airlines to permanently homebase several planes at Armstrong, alleviating the concern that there are few direct flights.
10. Ninth Ward Housing Returns
It’s small development, yet it provides great promise that the never-ending recovery from Hurricane Katrina may be nearing its conclusion. Four developers have been chosen to build affordable homes in the Lower 9th Ward as part of a plan by city officials to revitalize that neighborhood. Sixteen vacant properties along Andry Street near Dr. Martin Luther King Charter School were made available for rehabilitation. The nonprofit Home by Hand will develop up to four of them, while SBP will take up to three properties. Lucas Construction will take up to two, and UnCommon Construction will take one.
While bleak spots remain elsewhere, such as the still unreconstructed Municipal Auditorium, the potential rebirth of the Ninth Ward may constitute the greatest symbol that the New Orleans has reached the post-storm, “end of the beginning.”
This article originally published in the December 31, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
