Louisiana: the ‘red state’ we live in…
23rd October 2023 · 0 Comments
Louisiana residents filled Louisiana voters went to the polls on October 14, turning Louisiana into the deepest red since former Governor Bobby Jindal ran the state.
Louisiana citizens now will be governed by a Republican supermajority in the state House, state Senate, and the Trump-backed Republican Governor-elect Jeff Landry.
Landry’s election says much about Louisianans recently participating in the lowest gubernatorial election turnout in 20 years. Jeff Landry, who is currently the state’s attorney general, won the governor’s office with 547,827 votes. Louisiana has 2,970,167 registered voters. Landry was elected by 18 percent of the state’s electorate.
What Landry’s election also proved is that, like it or not, Louisiana is Trump’s country. Thanks to voters who didn’t turn out and gerrymandering by Republicans in the state legislature, a minority of voters elected Landry.
Still, if Landry’s words are valid, he will be a governor “for all the people.”
Landry told reporters on election night that his priority is tackling crime in urban areas, namely, New Orleans. That’s a welcomed promise. The Crescent City has the second-highest homicide rate in the nation, and while carjackings are down this year, auto thefts have increased, according to the New Orleans Police Department.
Hopefully, Landry will provide resources and work with the city’s administration and city council to make New Orleans safer.
Landry is a staunch law and order advocate. He brings years of experience in law enforcement to the job. In addition to serving as Louisiana’s attorney general, he was a local police officer, sheriff’s deputy and attorney. Landry also spent 11 years in the Louisiana Army National Guard. Governor-elect Landry also knows how to legislate. He represented Louisiana’s third district in Congress for one term.
Experience aside, though, Landry’s penchant for supporting policies that the majority disagree with is a significant concern. Indeed, Governor-elect Landry may sign bills that were controversial and vetoed by outgoing Governor John Bel Edwards.
Claiming to be pro-life and pro-family, Landry supported the Louisiana abortion ban. He also backed laws banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender youths and restricting youths’ access to “sexually explicit material” in libraries, which some believe target LGBTQ+ books.
We anticipate that Landry will sign bills prohibiting public and private schools from requiring the COVID-19 vaccine, eliminating the corporate franchise tax, requiring a supplemental voter canvass, making 17-year-olds arrested for violent crimes prosecuted as adults, releasing restrictions on oil and gas production policies, and shielding signatures in recall petitions for 90 days.
We anticipate a revival of bills in the 2024 state legislature session that Edwards vetoed that are dangerous attempts to override federal election policies and gerrymander the state judiciary.
House Bill 260, from Rep. Beau Beaulieu, R-New Iberia, required state legislative approval for any federal election directive handed down from Washington. This bill clearly attempts to thwart a possible U.S. Supreme Court mandate for a second majority-minority congressional district.
Then there’s House Bill 661, by Rep. Nick Muscarello, R-Hammond, which called for the Judicial Council of the Supreme Court of Louisiana to suggest merging or splitting judicial districts that the legislature could legislate into law.
There are also fears that Louisiana will execute more prisoners under the incoming Landry administration. Landry is a death penalty proponent.
Last July, the Louisiana Board of Pardons and Parole set aside 56 clemency applications filed by nearly every death-sentenced prisoner in Louisiana without reviewing them. The prisoners asked for their sentences to be commuted to life without parole. However, the Board returned the applications based on an advisory, non-binding opinion from then-Attorney General Jeff Landry.
However, on August 9, Governor John Bel Edwards asked the Board of Pardons and Committee on Parole to return the 56 clemency applications filed by death-sentenced prisoners in Louisiana to its docket for consideration and set them for hearings.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, Louisiana has executed 28 individuals and 12 innocent people in Louisiana have been exonerated.
Gov. Edwards opposed the death penalty at a March 22, 2023, seminar at Loyola University. “When you make a mistake, you can’t get it back. And we know that mistakes have been made in sentencing people to death.”
Sixty-two people are currently on Louisiana’s death row. Of that population, 74 percent are people of color and 67 percent are Black.
Sister Helen Prejean, a longtime advocate for death-sentenced prisoners, warns that Governor-elect Landry “will use his power to line people up and execute them.”
Apparently, compassion and mercy are not among Landry’s values. Governor-elect Landry’s support of the death penalty is odd, given his pro-life stance. It’s okay to be a law-and-order proponent, but some see the death penalty as cruel and unusual punishment and the sole province of the creator.
Moreover, Landry’s opposition to new trials for people convicted by less than a jury of 12 and ex-felons right to vote paints a picture of a person devoid of fairness and justice for all.
That may be a harsh assessment of Governor-elect Landry, but his actions speak louder than words.
Still, Maya Angelou’s wisdom may apply here: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
This article originally published in the October 23, 2023 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
