LOCALS MAINTAIN EDGE IN STATE GOP ... Two of Lafayette’s best known Republicans have retained their upper-echelon status with the state GOP. At last Saturday’s GOP State Central Committee meeting in Baton Rouge, Charlie Buckels was elected vice-chairman of the party. Buckels, who was defeated by Democrat Dale Bayard in a 2007 run for District 7 BESE representative, was previously treasurer.
Local banker Ross Little Jr., meanwhile, was re-elected national committeeman. It’s a coveted title that means Little is one of three Louisianians (along with the party’s chairman and national committeewoman) who will represent the state’s interests at the two annual meetings held by the Republican National Committee.
In political terms, Little’s position also brings with it a fund-raising element, so he’s one of the folks to know if you need conservative cash.
Together, Buckels and Little likewise hold seats on the state party’s executive committee, where controversial decisions and endorsements are often made.
Party Chairman Roger Villere also sailed to re-election this weekend, while former Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle was selected as the new treasurer.
SURPRISE, SURPRISE, REGENTS WANTS CLAUSEN ... Hell, Gomer Pyle wouldn’t even be been surprised by this one. We called it last May: UL System President Sally Clausen supports Commissioner of Higher Education T-Joe Savoie for the UL presidency, and then she gets his job. Like clockwork, last week the Board of Regents’ committee charged with finding a new commissioner of higher education voted unanimously to recommend Clausen to the full board. There won’t even be a search. In a press release, this is what the Board of Regents had to say about its potential new boss (who was commissioner of higher education in 1988):
“Last December, the committee began deliberately and carefully to evaluate the pros and cons of conducting a national search, even to the point of seeking out a highly-respected national consultant, but everything we’ve looked at confirms that we already have one of the best candidates we could hope to find right here in our midst,” said search committee chairman Roland Toups. “Based on the direct experience many on our board have had working closely with Dr. Clausen over the years, coupled with Dr. Clausen’s stellar national reputation and strong recommendations by a range of national higher ed experts that she be considered, it became clear that there was no compelling reason to look beyond Sally Clausen. I am convinced that she gives us the best chance of maintaining the momentum Louisiana postsecondary education has developed over the past decade under Commissioner Savoie.”
All that remains for our conspiracy theory to be complete is for Jimmy Clarke, Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s former chief of staff, to get Sally’s old job. Unless, of course, Gov. Bobby Jindal decides enough is enough.
IS MCCOLLISTER’S SACRIFICE A POLITICAL DONATION? ... During a sometimes-touchy hearing last week, a Senate committee surmised that a bill co-sponsored by lawmakers from Thibodaux and New Orleans had everything and nothing to do with Gov. Bobby Jindal. House Bill 89 would only allow the individuals who have been charged with violating campaign finance or ethics laws to pay the related fines. On paper, it was just another ethics reform bill for the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee, but the political back story may have played a role in its defeat.
After Jindal’s campaign failed to timely report an $118,000 donation from the Louisiana Republican Party last year, Baton Rouge Business Report publisher and Jindal campaign treasurer Rolfe McCollister Jr. offered to personally pay the pending fine, which could reach as high as $2,500. Under the proposed legislation by independent Rep. Jerome “Dee” Richard and Democrat Karen Carter Peterson, such third-party payments would be prohibited.
New wrinkles surfaced during the debate about whether McCollister’s payment of Jindal’s fine would constitute a political donation. If it would, then McCollister might be prohibited from paying the fine if it exceeds the personal donor cap in state law, says Sen. Mike Walsworth, a Republican from West Monroe. A review of Jindal’s campaign finance records indicates that McCollister, at least personally, would be in the clear under these circumstances.
Still, one question remains: Is it a donation? Richard Sherburne, administrator of the state Ethics Board, said his office would take the check regardless, but he wasn’t sure if the money would count as a donation and would have to be reported as such. “I think the board would have to take a closer look at that,” he says.
While Jindal appears to be at the heart of the issue, speaker pro tem of the House Peterson disagrees. She says she was “incredibly offended” by media reports suggesting that the governor was the primary target of her efforts. “There have been accusations made that this is an attempt to embarrass someone or to make someone look bad,” Peterson says. “That’s not how I operate.”
The bill’s still alive in some respects. Peterson also amended three other bills moving through the special session with her proposal, meaning the issue could potentially reach the Senate floor without another committee hearing.
LFT PREPS LEGISLATIVE AGENDA ... One of Louisiana’s biggest unions, the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, is girding up to have its legislative agenda ready for the start of the March 31 regular session of the Louisiana Legislature. LFT has launched a six-week online survey of its 18,000-plus members and compiled the first week’s results.
The results cite inadequate teacher salaries, overemphasis on standardizing testing and more as barriers to teacher recruiting and retention. (LFT asked members to pick three out of eight multiple-choice answers, with “inadequate compensation” one of the options.)
While LFT’s legislative agenda is still being hammered out, the issue of teacher pay will always be a top priority. “Instead of saying we want X amount of dollars, we want people to do what politicians have been saying for years: we have to dedicate a constant stream of revenue so we can predict what teacher raises will be down the line,” says LFT spokesman Les Landon. “It’s ridiculous that teachers have to have a demonstration every few years at the Capitol to draw attention to the issue.”
Contributors: Jeremy Alford, Scott Jordan and Leslie Turk
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
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