Rep. Julie Emerson (R-Carencro)
The author of Amendment 2 is speaking out following its defeat over the weekend.
Julie Emerson (R-Carencro) says the reason she authored the amendment as a broad rewrite of Article 7 of the state constitution is because there had been so many changes to it over the years, so she wanted to basically wipe the slate clean and start fresh.
“Over time, there’s been so much that has been added and cluttered and even some outdated on Article 7,” says Rep. Emerson, “and so that is why we were trying to do more of a broad stroke rewrite on that.”
Emerson says it was just a few details of the amendment that voters were concerned about, and that’s why it was ultimately defeated.
“I think about 85% of the amendment, many people agreed on,” Emerson says. “Certainly, I’ll concede that there is about 15% or so that caused a lot of confusion and brought out a lot of opposition.”
Emerson concedes that because there were so many components to the amendment, fellow lawmakers had trouble answering all the questions surrounding it.
“There were so many questions that legislators kind of individually all tried to address as they popped up with their constituents in their districts,” Emerson says. “But unfortunately, we just weren’t able to answer all of them and make people comfortable with it.”
Emerson says she’s looking forward to continuing the process in the upcoming legislative session.
“We absolutely learned a lot of lessons from it, and I think we’ve gotten a lot of really good feedback from constituents on it,” says Emerson. “I am excited to go into this next legislative session and (continuing) these conversations, because I think they’re all worth having.”
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