Speaker of the House Clay Schexnayder’s election has Democrats celebrating, and conservative Republicans lamenting what it might mean at the State Capitol for the next four years.
Schexnayder defeated Sherman Mack in a 60-45 vote, over half of Schexnayder’s votes came from Democrats. House GOP Caucus Chairman Blake Miguez says it’s disappointing to see a Republican court Democrats for power.
“The people that elected him into the office, the Republican party ship, those are the exact people who are expecting him to do that right thing and not blow the Republican Legislature that we have,” says Miguez.
68 of the 105 members in the House are Republicans and a majority the House Republican delegation supported Mack. The Republicans who broke rank are considered to be more moderate than the rest of the caucus.
The election is thought to give Governor Edwards a surprising amount of legislative influence despite a recent election where Republicans cleared out many former Democratic strongholds.
“It would be a very sad day for the state of Louisiana and the people of that voted in a near supermajority in the House if we are going to let the Governor and the Democrats dictate policy,” says Miguez.
Legislative Black Caucus Chairman Randall Gaines celebrated the coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats who voted in Schexnayder. He says the other option, Sherman Mack, was too extreme.
“Sherman was backed by a majority of the Republicans, extreme far-right conservative Republicans who in many ways were opposed to our agenda,” says Gaines.
And Gaines says Schexnayder agreed to give Democrats access to certain Legislative positions that Mack would have likely frozen them out of.
“Clay, of course, was going to not only give us the opportunity to have fair leaderships and represent our districts but to also fairly configure committees,” says Gaines.