Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.
Senator John Kennedy and Attorney General Jeff Landry warn Republicans not to allow Democrats any influence in the selection of the next Speaker of the Louisiana House.
The letter says the move is aimed at guaranteeing a more conservative Speaker takes office January 13th when the election is held. ULM Poli Sci Professor Joshua Stockley says it’s a highly partisan demand.
“The state of Louisiana has entered a new era of state politics, and it is foreboding in the type of politics the state is about to see,” Stockley.
The Senate Presidency is reportedly close to being wrapped up, with Lafayette’s Page Cortez the favorite.
Stockley says such a demand bucks decades of bipartisan precedent and erodes the Governor’s Legislative influence, a shift that began to take shape in 2015, but Stockley says it may not just be about securing more power for the conservative wing of the Legislature.
“I don’t think this is strictly a partisan maneuver. This could be a maneuver on the part of one of these two individuals to set up their gubernatorial campaign three years from now,” says Stockley.
Stockley says the order places a lot of pressure on the caucus’s freshman and moderate representatives.
“Recrimination could come in the form of losing either committee leadership, or a committee position altogether,” says Stockley.
The Kennedy/Landry coalition had a lot of success in the last elections, even knocking off moderate Republicans in favor of conservatives.
