LA: Republican Tucker to Lead Dem-Majority House
By Vladimir Posted in 2007 | Bobby Jindal | legislature | Louisiana — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Louisiana is just, well, different from most places. The State Legislature is less partisan than you'd think, in spite of the fact that the GOP was all but extinct just 30 years ago.
Jindal Taps House Republican Leader to Become Speaker
In a not-too-surprising twist, Governor-elect Bobby Jindal (R) has thrown his support for the office of Speaker of the House to Rep. Jim Tucker (R) of Terrytown, a New Orleans suburb, making Tucker's selection by the House a formality.
The Dems will have a narrow 53-50-2 majority when the new House forms in January.
Leading Democratic challenger for the post, Democratic Rep. Don Cazayoux of New Roads, acknowledged Tucker's apparent victory: "We know what the governor's involvement does. We know the reality. That's just too much pressure when the governor gets involved to vote against the governor's choice for speaker."
Jindal has also given his support to Sen. Joel Chaisson (D) of Destrehan, for the office of President of the Senate, which the Dems control with a clear majority.
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The Senate president and House speaker choose legislative committee chairmen and construct the makeup of each committee, giving them significant control over the fate and movement of bills in the Legislature. They control the organization of staff in each chamber, and they have seats on key money panels that estimate the state's income and that sign off on state borrowing.
The Jindal team is making sure that they control the key jobs. Go, Bobby, go!
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I just read that in the Advocate this morning. Yes, the times they are a'changin'.
Also, Sen. Chaisson has indicated that R's will be represented among Senate committee leadership. Smart money is on Sen. Mike Michot (R) of Lafayette to head the Finance Committee. Michot was challenging Chaisson for President, then dropped the bid and supported Chaisson.
As I said above, politics within the state are a lot less about partisanship than about constituency. Many of the R's used to be D's, and many of the D's are pro-business, pragmatic politicians who would not be comfortable carrying the water of the national party.
There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life. - Frank Zappa
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CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.