Governor John Bel Edwards’ two terms in office ends Monday, ULM political science professor Pearson Cross says the Democrat from Tangiaphoa Parish constantly battled with a Republican-controlled Legislature. He says the battle started on his first day in office when the House rejected the governor’s choice for House Speaker.
“He started already knowing that he would not have many of the powers that the governor traditionally exercises in Louisiana. He also started with an enormous budget deficit left to him by his predecessor,” said Cross.
Edwards and the Legislature had to address a two-billion dollar budget deficit in his first year in office. It took a sales tax increase and other budgetary moves to get the state out of the red.
Edwards’ first executive order was expanding Medicaid coverage to some 400,000 Louisianans. In 2017, Edwards pushed criminal justice reform measures aimed at reducing the state’s prison population and taking the savings to fund programs to cut down on recidivism.
In 2020, the governor had to impose Covid restrictions that many Republicans thought went too far.
“And he faced the COVID crisis with expertise and applause. He acquitted himself quite well there although he ran into some problems of course,” said Cross.
During his eight years, Cross says the Edwards administration navigated multiple natural disasters and civil unrest in 2016 following the Baton Rouge police shooting of Alton Sterling.
Cross says Edwards’tenure will be marred most notably by the death of Black motorist Ronald Greene while in State Police custody. He says the governor and State Police were accused of covering up what happened in Union Parish in 2019
“It would appear that he had not been entirely transparent with the public about what he knew and when he knew it, leading to suggestions that he was trying to sweep the Ronald Greene issue under the carpet,” said Cross.
Cross believes Edwards will also be tarnished by the deaths of three toddlers whose endangerment had been reported to the Department of Children and Family Services in 2022, but the state agency didn’t act quick enough. Edwards supported DCFS Secretary Marketa Garner Walters until she resigned.
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