Posted on 11/24/2015 4:09:08 PM PST by abb
Governor-elect John Bel Edwards told Republican House leaders Tuesday afternoon that he backed New Orleans Rep. Walt Leger III, a fellow Democrat as Speaker of the House, Majority Leader Lance Harris said.
The Republican majority in the Louisiana House would prefer one its members in the top leadership role and passed a resolution to that effect during a meeting in the State Capitol.
The 61 GOP representatives in the 105-member Louisiana House met for several hours behind closed doors to discuss how to handle the incoming administration of a Democratic Party governor. Traditionally, Louisiana governors choose the leaders of each chamber, approve the choice of committee chairmen and sometimes the individual legislators assigned to key committees. It’s a power unusual in other states that also have a constitution requiring co-equal branches of government.
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ping
http://www.thetowntalk.com/story/news/2015/11/24/edwards-supports-leger-speaker/76341286/
Edwards supports Leger for speaker
http://thehayride.com/2015/11/john-bel-edwards-gave-his-first-post-election-speech-yesterday-what-did-he-say/
John Bel Edwards Gave His First Post Election Speech Yesterday, What Did He Say?
Screw “tradition”. The D’s today do all the time. If the chamber is 61/40 R to D, it would be a betrayal to allow a D to have power in that chamber. But, being Rs, they will obediently get on board with Edwards.
Of course he does.
Which is what I told all the “experts” on Louisiana politics here at FRee Republic who said the GOP House and Senate majority could stop Edwards.
Our Legislature is infested with RINOs.
They need to do what Virginia’s legislature has done to Terry McAuliffe, essentially run the state through the legislature and cut him out of the loop.
GOP will lick their boots................
Tell the Governor Elect to: STFU!
Having the Governor select the leadership of the legislature should be ended. It’s an egregious violation of separation of powers.
You’re right. I had no idea this was SOP.
I agree, but it’s “customary,” since the governor is so powerful. In my lifetime, IIRC, it has been that way.
It’s well past time for change, especially given a 3 to 2 Republican House majority.
Easier said than done. It’s what I spend just about all my waking hours on these days - trying to convince good people to run for office and then help them get elected. All the while fighting a rearguard action against the enemy.
All politics begins on your own street, or coffee shop, or barber shop, or Sunday School class, or wherever.
Without that, no lasting change can be made.
Extremely homosexual, it’s not in the state constitution is it? Can they defy him?
One thing I don’t like, which unfortunately the 3 states of AL, LA & MS all share, are 4-year terms for both Senators and House members, and the elections all occur with statewide elections. There’s no way to have a midterm repudiation of an unpopular incumbent Governor. Although all 3 states have now moved to GOP legislative majorities, the members still should be held accountable.
House members especially should not be serving 4-year terms. That body is supposed to reflect the will of the people, and 4 years is an eternity in politics. Having it equal to the Senate makes having two bodies utterly pointless as a result of such long terms.
Many states used to have yearly elections for their legislatures. While that’s too frequent, 2 years is just right in my estimation.
Sure it can be done, theoretically. But you have to have this thing called “independent leadership” to do it. And as the Governor has line-item budget veto power, he has the ability to punish legislators with the temerity to exhibit too much independence.
No road projects in your district, Senator Foghorn. And so forth.
Huey Long is looking up from hell and cheering.
Conservatives in Louisiana should make a stink about this. The voters of Louisiana may have elected Edwards (unwisely imo) but the same voters also elected huge Republican majorities in both houses of the legislature (not to mention electing GOP candidates in EVERY other statewide office).
A Dem will be Speaker: it’s tradition, and many Republicans will cheerfully go along. They don’t want to be called “obstructionists”.
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