Political analyst Clancy DuBos says politically Governor Edwards has terrific momentum heading into the fall governor’s election after a successful legislative session.
Dubos says the 1,000-dollar teacher pay raise, the 39 million in new education spending, and tens of millions of dollars in new infrastructure funds for New Orleans may win Edwards a second term.
“Those victories play into key constituencies for him going into the elections. Teachers, public school administrators, and the City of New Orleans.”
Education saw a 140-million-dollar total increase in new funding, while New Orleans will get a 50-million-dollar funding injection, with an additional 27 million a year from redirected revenue generated by the hospitality industry.
But Edwards is taking some hits from his left flank as many pro-choice Democrats fume over his signing of one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion bans. DuBos suspects those voters will still turn out for the Democrat in October.
“Faced with a choice between John Bel Edwards and Republicans, who are going to be very conservative, I think even the Democrats who are pro-choice are going to support John Bel Edwards.”
Edwards’ Republican opponents have indicated they plan on continuing to slam the Governor over tax increases he pushed in his first term, but DuBos says voters seem to be aware that those increases were needed to fix the budget chaos left by the previous administration.
“It’s really going to be in some ways another referendum on Bobby Jindal’s administration, as well as Governor Edwards’ administration.”
Edwards is running against Republicans Eddie Rispone and Congressman Ralph Abraham.
