With U.S. Sen.-elect John Kennedy preparing for a move to Washington, the list of those who might replace him as treasurer in Louisiana seems to grow with each passing day.<\/p>\n
Kennedy took 69 percent of the vote over Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell on the state\u2019s pre-Christmas run-off ballot. That means a special election for treasurer will have to be called soon.<\/p>\n
Former state House Speaker Chuck Kleckley, a Republican from Lake Charles, told LaPolitics he might be a candidate for the post. \u201cIt\u2019s something I would consider,\u201d said Kleckley, who now works for the law firm of Adams & Reese.<\/p>\n
Also looking at the race is Acadiana health care executive Gus Rantz, who placed fifth in the recent primary for the 3rd Congressional District.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, state Rep. John Schroder, R-Covington, has been building his campaign for a few months. He\u2019s said he intends to be a candidate in the special election.<\/p>\n
State Rep. Julie Stokes, R-Metairie, recently held a fundraiser in New Orleans to test the waters and could make her final decision soon.<\/p>\n
You can add Republican Angele Davis of Baton Rouge, the president and CEO of the Davis Kelley Group, to the list. She\u2019s thinking about the race.<\/p>\n
After losing her bid for the U.S. Senate this year, Democratic attorney Caroline Fayard is among the many being urged to look at the special election for treasurer, which has so far been dominated by an avalanche of Republican contenders.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t made any decisions,\u201d she said, noting the election won\u2019t be held until October, and everyone is still recovering from the 2016 cycle.<\/p>\n
Reporter Julia O\u2019Donoghue at NOLA.com has included a few other possibilities in her reporting. These include state Sen. Eric LaFleur, D-Ville Platte; state Speaker Pro Tem Walt Leger, D-New Orleans; and retired Air Force Col. Rob Maness.<\/p>\n
Like Fayard and Maness, Derrick Edwards, a New Orleans attorney and quadriplegic, ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate this year. Edwards has already put out a press release stating he will be a candidate.<\/p>\n
Others looking at the contest include state Sen. Neil Riser, R-Columbia, and state Rep. Paul Hollis, R-Mandeville.<\/p>\n
Ron Henson, currently the first assistant state treasurer, is expected to be appointed as the interim treasurer until the details of a special election can be decided on.<\/p>\n
If Kennedy resigns by Dec. 14, a special election for treasurer could be called for March 25. If he resigns after that date, it could be a fall 2017 special election.<\/p>\n
Special Session Chatter Persists<\/strong><\/p>\n Will Louisiana lawmakers be forced to gather in yet another special session in the New Year? That\u2019s a question representatives and senators, along with officials from the Edwards Administration, have pondered as 2016 has transformed into 2017, and a new budget deficit has begun to surface.<\/p>\n A current fiscal year shortfall of around $300 million is anticipated. Lawmakers will have to address that sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n The two-month regular session that convenes April 10 is already weighed down by other hefty issues, like the 2017-18 budget, significant tax proposals and criminal justice reform.\u00a0As a result, according to sources in the Edwards administration, a special session held before the spring regular session may be \u201cinevitable.\u201d<\/p>\n That sentiment started to spread during the Legislature\u2019s annual Christmas party at the Capitol on Dec. 15. Earlier that day, the Joint Budget Committee voted to close a $313 million deficit from last fiscal year, which created some goodwill in a building that has become better known for its conflicts as of late.<\/p>\n If another deficit emerges for the ongoing 2016-17 fiscal year, it will be the 15th time Louisiana has suffered a mid-year budget gap over the past nine years, according to an Associated Press tabulation.<\/p>\n The job of making the most recent deficit official goes to the Revenue Estimating Conference, which computes the state\u2019s cash flow and decides how much money the government can spend.\u00a0The REC meets in mid-January. Although they know it\u2019s unlikely, state officials would prefer the panel find a huge spike in revenue.<\/p>\n After two special sessions and a regular session that resulted in a slew of temporary tax changes, lawmakers were hopeful they had solved the challenges facing this fiscal year. But those tax increases, some of which are now passing out of existence, failed to bring in as much money as forecasted.<\/p>\n Legislators were hopeful that another special session wouldn\u2019t be needed in 2017 \u2014 especially after a record-breaking number of continuous days served in session in 2016.<\/p>\n Refinery Tax Vetted<\/strong><\/p>\n With some lawmakers already getting cold feet over the idea of a personal income tax change in 2017, a small circle of political players is starting to look at a concept that\u2019s being described as a refinery tax.<\/p>\n It\u2019s relatively new to ongoing tax conversations, but sources with the Edwards Administration say the Revenue Department is \u201cvetting the idea,\u201d while not actually taking a firm stance on it.<\/p>\n One of the working concepts involves a swap for the elimination or reduction of the severance tax. But nothing is concrete at this point.<\/p>\n The tax would certainly be a non-starter with the business lobby unless there are some gigantic sweeteners \u2014 and even then it\u2019s a long shot.<\/p>\n \u201cIt may or may not even happen,\u201d said state Rep. Kenny Havard, R-St. Francisville, who\u2019s working on the concept. \u201cI\u2019m still looking at all the numbers. It\u2019s not a shot at our refineries, and I don\u2019t want to put them at a disadvantage. I want to make it a win-win.\u201d<\/p>\n Changes In Lobbyists\u2019 Ranks<\/strong><\/p>\n The last few months have seen a wave of new leaders taking over a handful of the Capitol\u2019s best-known lobbying associations. The changes have created a new political dynamic in Baton Rouge; they\u2019re part of a larger changeover that\u2019s somewhat generational.<\/p>\n Groups that represent car dealers, chemical plant workers, nursing home operators and municipal level officials before the Legislature have seen the most recent changes.<\/p>\n Joe Donchess is retiring at the end of the month as the executive director of the Louisiana Nursing Home Assoc., and John Gallagher was hired two weeks ago as the new head of the Louisiana Municipal Assoc.<\/p>\n Bob Israel completed his final session directing the Louisiana Automobile Dealers Assoc. this year; he has been replaced by Will Green. And Greg Bowser is the new president of the Louisiana Chemical Assoc. and the Louisiana Chemical Industry Alliance, taking the place of Dan Born\u00e9.<\/p>\n There is a new environment that now requires association directors to lean from the front, embrace social media, expand missions and put an added emphasis on publicity.<\/p>\n Political History: Oldest Governors<\/strong><\/p>\n At 89, Edwin Washington Edwards is Louisiana\u2019s oldest living former governor, followed by Mike Foster, 86; Kathleen Blanco, 74; Buddy Roemer, 73; and Bobby Jindal, 45.<\/p>\n Edwards, though, still has some time to put in if he wants to become the state\u2019s longest-living former governor.\u00a0That distinction belongs to Louisiana\u2019s singing governor, Jimmie Davis, who lived to be 101 years old before dying in 2000.<\/p>\n But the matter isn\u2019t clear-cut. It\u2019s still not known when Davis was actually born. His sharecropper parents couldn\u2019t remember his birthday, Davis told The New York Times. They thought it happened some time between 1899 and 1903.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s James Madison Wells, who lived to the age of 91. An active Whig and a former sheriff who took office in 1865, his critics called him \u201cMad Wells.\u201d He was eventually removed from office for failing to calm the violence and riots related to a constitutional convention.<\/p>\n Three other governors lived until they were 86: Joshua Baker, James A. Noe and Robert F. Kennon. Another three made it to 81: Sam Jones, John McKeithen and Dave Treen.<\/p>\n Political History: The First Creole Governor<\/strong><\/p>\n When Jacques Phillippe Viller\u00e9 was sworn in as the second governor of Louisiana 200 years ago, he was both the first Louisiana native to be elected to the post and the first Creole to serve in the position.<\/p>\n Viller\u00e9 was born in the present location of Kenner. He governed during a time when Louisiana\u2019s economy was booming and its population as a new state was on the rise. Open trade along the Mississippi River was key to Viller\u00e9\u2019s success on both these fronts.<\/p>\n During Viller\u00e9\u2019s four-year term, disputes between Anglo-Americans and native Creoles were starting to take root. The Legislature even waded into the clash of cultures by publishing all laws in French and English. It was a divide that dominated state politics for many of the years that followed.<\/p>\n From a policy perspective, you have Viller\u00e9 to thank for dueling-related deaths being classified as a capital offense. But that is certainly not his greatest policy accomplishment. Before he was Louisiana\u2019s second governor, Viller\u00e9 helped draft the state\u2019s first Constitution. He ran to become the first governor in 1812, but lost in a landslide to William C. C. Claiborne.<\/p>\n Viller\u00e9 ran again for governor in 1824 and lost again. He was preparing to make a bid yet again in 1830 in a special election, but died on his St. Bernard Parish plantation before that campaign got underway.<\/p>\n Pro-JBE PAC Releases Poll<\/strong><\/p>\n Rebuild Louisiana, the political action committee supporting the efforts of Gov. John Bel Edwards, has a new poll in hand from Washington-based Anzalone Liszt Grove that tests not only the governor but also some of his key issues.<\/p>\n The poll was conducted with 617 likely voters in Louisiana between Nov. 28 and Dec. 1. The margin of sampling error is +\/-3.9 percent.<\/p>\n The data suggest that Edwards\u2019 positive job rating has reached 66 percent. The most recent poll from Southern Media and Opinion Research, based in Baton Rouge, had it at 62 percent.<\/p>\n Edwards also got high marks \u2014 74 percent \u2014 for his handling of this year\u2019s floods in the Anzalone poll.<\/p>\n Likely to cause at least a minor dust-up for the warring factions involved are the numbers that show 61 percent to 62 percent of the respondents were in favor of Edwards\u2019 position on a lawsuit against oil and gas companies and his executive order to ban discrimination against LGBT citizens.<\/p>\n On the latest budget shortfall, 54 percent of poll participants blamed \u201ctoo many tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy\u201d and 37 percent cited \u201cnot enough spending cuts.\u201d<\/p>\n Race To Replace Genovese<\/strong><\/p>\n Now that Jimmy Genovese is headed to the Louisiana Supreme Court, the race to claim his seat on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal can begin. The special election has been called for March 25.<\/p>\n The first candidate out of the gate is Candyce Perret, a Lafayette attorney and small business owner who already has a campaign structure.<\/p>\n Former state Sen. Mike Michot will serve as her campaign chair; Marie Centanni has been tapped as campaign manager; Jared Arsement is handling media; and Nicole DesOrmeaux is in charge of fundraising.<\/p>\n Briggs Still Recovering<\/strong><\/p>\n Louisiana Oil and Gas Assoc. president Don Briggs has been relocated to an inpatient rehabilitation facility in Houston after sustaining a serious head injury while he was on vacation in North Carolina in October.<\/p>\n \u201cAccording to his physicians, his health is progressing daily and the prognosis is good for recovery,\u201d said LOGA vice president Gifford Briggs, who is serving as the association\u2019s interim president pending Don Briggs\u2019 return.<\/p>\n Political History: Pinckney Pinchback<\/strong><\/p>\n On Dec. 9, 1872, Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback took his oath of office in Louisiana to become the first politician of African descent to serve as a U.S. governor.<\/p>\n P.B.S. Pinchback, a Republican, was the Bayou State\u2019s 24th governor. He served for only 35 days during the impeachment trial of Henry Clay Warmoth. While Warmoth stepped aside as governor during this period, he was never convicted of charges that he fraudulently certified the 1872 gubernatorial election.<\/p>\n That 1872 race certainly goes down as one of Louisiana\u2019s strangest elections for governor, with John McEnery and William Pitt Kellogg both declaring victory and both holding inaugurations. McEnery served in office for roughly four months before President Ulysses S. Grant certified Kellogg as governor and offered him federal protection during the state\u2019s Reconstruction era.<\/p>\n While it\u2019s well known that Louisiana had the first African-American governor in the nation, it\u2019s often overlooked that Pinchback was also among the youngest. He was just 35 when he was sworn in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With U.S. Sen.-elect John Kennedy preparing for a move to Washington, the list of those who might replace him as treasurer in Louisiana seems to grow with each passing day. Kennedy took 69 percent of the vote over Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell on the state\u2019s pre-Christmas run-off ballot. That means a special election for [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2376,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[95,1356,1357,63,794,32,1355],"yoast_head":"\n