State Democrats win chairmanships in GOP legislature

17th January 2012   ·   0 Comments

By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer

Noting that the media focus on the BCS Championship that even­ing to the exclusion of all else, Bob­by Jindal was inaugurated into his second gubernatorial term just hours before kickoff. He joked that if his swearing-in was the next day, Tuesday, January 10, instead of that Monday, the voters would clamor for “national championship coach Les Miles” in the Executive Mansion instead of him. (In retrospect, 24 hours later, the defeated LSU coach would prove anything but an electoral threat to the governor.)

If Jindal took office on Jan. 9th with little fanfare (with the BCS even forcing a delay of the inaugural ball by a day), the convening, swearing-in, and election of officers for the Louisiana House and Senate barely warranted a mention in the local press.

Yet, in non-college bowl weeks, their organizing actions would make the legislators worthy of national headlines.

Louisiana’s new Republican-majority Representatives and Senators broke partisan-ranks with their ideological peers across the nation, and continued a tradition of power-sharing begun under Democratic legislatures. Com­mittee Chairmanships and leadership posts were handed out regardless of party. Worries that the advent of GOP majorities in both chambers would lock out African-American and other Democratic members from posts of influence proved unfounded.

The question, though, remains if any of the newly empowered Democratic Committee Chairmen will oppose the Jindal Admini­stration’s push for expanded school vouchers—and further mergers of higher education boards, including those of historically African-American colleges—key Gubernatorial priorities. If they do, will the Democratic leadership influence will remain in the House and Senate?

Currently, though, even his harshest critics credited Jindal for allowing some of his most outspoken opponents on the other side of the aisle to be named to positions of influence. For example, the number two job in the Upper House, Senate President Pro Tem, went to Sharon Weston Broome—the Senate’s veteran Black female from Baton Rouge and a frequent Jindal foil.

New Orleans area Democrats also gained in the Chairmanship battle. African-American Senator J.P. Morrell will take the prominent post of overseeing the court system as Chair of the Senate Judiciary B Committee, despite his past criticism of administration policy. Senator David Heitmeier, who represents parts of Orleans and Jefferson on the West Bank, will Chair the influential Senate Health and Welfare Committee, key to the metro as the legislative oversight body for the construction of the new UMC-LSU Med Center in Mid-City.

African-American Senators Elbert Guillory and Yvonne Dorsey-Colomb will head the Senate Retirement Committee and Senate Local and Municipal Committee respectively. While Guillory is known as a Jindal ally, Dorsey-Colomb was one of the Governor’s loudest critics, as was Caucasian Democratic Senator Francis Thompson, named Chair last week of the Agriculture Committee.

Yet, both were rewarded with chairmanships. In part, some claimed, Democratic legislative influence remains due to Jindal’s embrace of Edwards’ Era-powerbroker and former Democratic House Speaker John Alario of Westwego. Now a Senator and a GOP-convert, Alario still retained the loyalty of most of his former Democratic colleagues, and their votes in his bid for the Senate Presidency.

Not that he needed them. Jindal had made known his choice of Alario for the top post, over more consistent administration allies, and as usual, the nominally-independent Upper House jumped to elect the governor’s hand-picked candidate with the divided powers alacrity of the Russian Duma doing the bidding of Vladimir Putin.

Still, one could argue that enthusiastic Democratic support for Alario, and long-standing relationships in the Black Caucus, stands as reason that Democrats will control committees overseeing re­forms in retirement pensions and health care management, both priorities of the Jindal Admini­stra­tion.

That is, unless one considers the success that Democrats had in winning committee chairmanships in the overwhelmingly Republican House of Representatives.

Rep. Walt Leger of Uptown New Orleans, who crossed swords with the governor several times over the last four years from the SUNO-UNO merger to the pay-raise, was elected House Speaker Pro Tem. Rep. Jeff Arnold of Algiers received the Chairmanship of the House Judiciary Committee despite seeking the Speakership over Jindal’s hand-picked candidate, GOP Rep. Chuck Kleckley of Lake Charles.

One of the local Democratic Party’s most noted “up and comers,” Rep. Neil Abramson, also of Uptown, will now Chair the House Civil Law Committee, and direct its impact on commercial and property spheres — probably one of the most powerful posts given to a Democrat.

Abramson was an outspoken critic of Jindal’s attempts to consolidate juvenile mental health services out of Orleans Parish and into Mandeville after Katrina. He was also the most vocal white legislative opponent of the SUNO-UNO merger. (However, most Repub­lican legislators do view Abramson affectionately. As a sign of his influence, the Uptown Rep. was aided covertly by many GOP members in his re-election bid against Republican challenge Fenn Fren­ch, despite running in a conservative-leaning district the GOP could have picked up under different circumstances.)

In an even more stunning move, Democratic Rep. Jim Fannin won the Chairmanship of the House Appropriations Committee. Thou­gh, it is worth noting that Fannin tends to lean more sympathetically to the administration’s positions than many other Dems. Yet, for a Democrat to control the major money committee angered some stalwart Republicans in the tea party blogsphere. Regardless of the conservative angst, Fannin’s appointment came with Jindal’s enthusiastic backing.

Other prominent Democratic appointments in the House include Rep. Andy Anders, Chairing the Agri-culture Committ-ee, Rep. Herbert Dixon, head­ing the Labor Com­mittee, and African-American Reps. Girod Jackson and Karen St. Germain, Chairing the Municipal, Parochial & Cultural Affairs Committee and the Transportation Committee respectively.

However, the governor’s tolerance of Democrats in such posts of power may come with a price. The Democratic caucus in general and the Black Caucus in particular remains hardly enamored with Jindal’s ambitions to expand school choice in Louisiana. Teach­er’s Unions and key Black Democratic leaders are laying in for a fight over the governor’s reported proposals to expand vouchers from the current 2,000 limit to as many as the majority of public school students—in failing districts at least—across the state. Jindal has often expressed the hope that Loui­siana would become the first school choice state before he leaves office.

To whom much is given, much is expected, and that does not exclude voting with the administration on a key White Paper issue like vouchers. While some Democratic elected officials do support government funds going to private or parochial schools, it remains a key plank of opposition for the Democratic party. Many of these Dem-Com­mittee Chairs in a GOP dominated legislature may be caught between their own party and the Governor who allowed them to remain in power.

This article was originally published in the January 16, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper