Julie O’Donoghue, Louisiana Illuminator

Two members of the Louisiana Public Defender Oversight Board have resigned just 14 months into what were supposed to be four-year terms on the new governing body Gov. Jeff Landry created.

Freddie Pitcher Jr., a former state appellate judge in Baton Rouge who also ran Southern University’s law school, and Shreveport attorney Ted Hernandez are leaving the board. Their decisions to step down come shortly before the board expects to have a contentious vote Monday about the dismissal of five attorneys who run local public defender offices.

Pitcher, who Landry appointed to the board, said he is leaving because he is having personal issues that have been exacerbated by the board having “too much drama.” Hernandez, who was Senate President Cameron Henry’s appointee, sent a short resignation letter to Landry at the end of last month.

“Serving on the board has been a learning experience,” wrote Hernandez, who could not be reached Wednesday by phone or email for additional comment.

The nine-member board helps supervise Louisiana’s sprawling public defense system with 37 local offices and approximately 850 attorneys. Public defenders represent 146,000 people annually and 88% of all criminal defendants in Louisiana.

Last year, Landry pushed through a controversial change in state law that dissolved the previous state public defender board and replaced it with the current, weaker version over which the governor has more influence.

State Public Defender Rémy Starns lobbied Landry for the new board after clashing over policy with the previous one. Starns has been the leader of the public defender system since former Gov. John Bel Edwards appointed him in 2020. Landry and the newly-formed board agreed last year to keep him in the position.

Yet the new board and Starns have had some of the same disagreements he had with the old board.

The new board has voted down Starns’ proposals to reduce the pay of most chief public defenders who run local offices and incentivize some to operate part-time, private law practices on top of their state responsibilities. He also wanted to offer additional money to chiefs who agreed to represent more clients personally in court.

In February, Starns caused controversy when he told five chief public defenders who run local offices they would be losing their jobs on July 1 after their state contracts expire. The attorneys have appealed those terminations to the board, which is expected to decide Monday whether they will be terminated.

The chief public defenders affected are Michelle AndrePont in Caddo Parish, Brett Brunson in Natchitoches Parish, Deirdre Fuller in Rapides Parish, Trisha Ward of Evangeline Parish and John Hogue, who works in Tensas, Madison and East Carroll parishes.

All five have been among the most critical of Starns’ policies in public. Over the past few years, they have testified at legislative hearings and public defender board meetings to oppose Starns’ efforts to remake the public defender board and curb their pay. They argue Starns targeted them for dismissal because they have spoken out against him.

“If in fact these terminations are due in whole or in part to the participation of these District Defenders in the legislative process or Board meetings, then it is beyond question that the independence of the indigent defense function is under attack,” wrote Stephen Haedicke, an attorney representing the lawyers.

Starns did not respond to phone calls and text messages asking for comment Wednesday.

A special subcommittee of the public defender board has recommended the board uphold Starns’ decision to fire the attorneys. It concluded Starns had the authority not to renew the public defender chiefs’ one-year contracts.

“Mr. Starns had no obligation to enter into new contracts with these defenders,” Paul deMahy, a retired state court judge and board member who chaired the subcommittee, wrote in a memo last month.

Pitcher also sat on the subcommittee and said his perspective was more nuanced. He agreed with deMahy that Starns had the legal authority to dismiss the five attorneys, but he wanted to recommend that the governor keep them in their jobs anyway.

“He has a technical win there. But from a moral standpoint, they should have their jobs back,” Pitcher said Wednesday.

The attorneys are also challenging the subcommittee’s recommendation by saying an April hearing on the dismissals violated the state’s public notice and open meetings laws for government entities.

While the review of the attorneys’ terminations was taking place over the last two months, Starns had also asked the Louisiana Legislature to approve two more bills that would have increased his authority further. The legislation stalled, however, after state lawmakers expressed concern Starns was trying to work around the new public defender board set up just last year.

Starns is also asking the 30-plus remaining chief public defenders who run local offices to waive their rights to challenge their dismissal and compensation if they want to keep their jobs, according to a copy of the contract provided by a public defender, who asked not to be named because of fear of retaliation.

The new one-year contracts Starns has sent to chief public defenders require the attorneys to forgo the compensation plan the public defender oversight board set for one Starns has implemented. He would also be able to fire them at any time without cause with 30 days notice, and the attorneys would no longer be able to appeal to the board for a reversal of that decision.

The agreements kick in on July 1.

An influential Louisiana lawmaker will push for minors to be sent to adult prison for a slew of new crimes such as fentanyl distribution and robbery without a weapon if voters approve a state constitutional amendment next month.

State Rep. Debbie Villio, R-Kenner, is a former prosecutor and one of the most powerful members of the Louisiana Legislature when it comes to criminal justice policy. She is also a close ally of Gov. Jeff Landry and helped him change laws last year to significantly lengthen prison sentences.

This year, Villio hopes to dramatically extend the time behind bars 15- and 16-year-olds could experience if convicted for certain offenses. Should she get her way, minors who are currently guaranteed release at age 21 could see their time behind bars extend until they are into middle age.

Before Villio’s proposal can move forward however, voters need to approve a state constitutional amendment in the March 29 election. It would lift the state’s restrictions on what crimes can land teens under 17 in adult lockup.

As currently written, the Louisiana Constitution limits the types of offenses for which teenagers under 17 can be sent to adult prison to the state’s 14 most serious crimes. They include murder, rape, kidnapping and armed robbery.

If the amendment passes, legislators would be able to add any felony crime to that list with a two-thirds vote of each chamber.

Child advocates oppose the amendment, citing studies and criminal data showing that harsher sentences for minors don’t improve public safety or stop them from committing crimes.

Teenagers, whose brains haven’t fully developed, don’t have the same reasoning ability as adults and don’t understand the consequences of criminal behavior, said Mary Livers, who ran the Louisiana Office of Juvenile Justice for former Gov. Bobby Jindal.

“That’s why you have a whole juvenile justice system,” Livers said. “They don’t respond the same way to adult-type expectations.”

Teens could face decades more of prison time

Last year, Villio filed legislation that proposed more crimes for which teens could be punished as adults. It was never brought up for discussion, but the bill provides some indication about the offenses she might include in this year’s version.

In an interview this week, Villio said she is still drafting this year’s proposal and that some crimes from last year’s bill might not be included.

For example, her previous legislation would have allowed for 15- and 16-year-olds to be sent to adult prison for heroin distribution or purse snatching. Villio said this week heroin distribution wouldn’t be a focus for the new bill. Purse snatching, which carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years, was “not necessarily on [her] list at this time,” she added.

Fentanyl distribution will be included, she said, though likely only for quantities of 250 grams or more. But if adopted, it would cause one of the most dramatic upswings in sentence lengths for minors.

With an adult sentence for a first-time conviction, a 15- or 16-year-old convicted of distributing these larger amounts of fentanyl could go to adult prison for life with no possibility of release for 25 years. The sentence would be at least five times longer than the maximum incarceration of five years they currently face in the juvenile justice system.

Other offenses on Villio’s list include domestic battery with strangulation (3-50 years in prison) and attempted armed robbery (5-50 years). This would increase the maximum sentence a 15-year-old would face to 10 times the six years they can receive now.

In general, Villio will be targeting crimes that could result in “serious bodily injury,” a legal term that includes everything from a victim temporarily losing consciousness to sustaining a permanent loss of body function or disfigurement.

At least two crimes she would seek to add can be carried out without a weapon.

Minors as young as 15 can already go to adult prison for an armed robbery, including armed carjacking. Villio would like to add carjacking “by the use of force or intimidation” – without a weapon. It comes with a sentence range of five to 20 years for one violation, a maximum sentence four times longer than current guidelines for minors.

She said she would also include first-degree robbery, during which victims “reasonably believe” the perpetrator has a weapon, even if the perpetrator isn’t armed. The sentence range for this crime would be three to 40 years.

Hector Linares, who oversees the youth justice section of the law clinic at Loyola University College of Law, said robberies are some of the most prevalent offenses that bring children into juvenile court. It makes it likely that many more teenagers could wind up in adult court if Villio’s proposal is adopted, he said.

“Prosecuting a child as an adult is actually a very big deal,” Linares said.

How long is too long

Tony Clayton, district attorney for Iberville, Pointe Coupee and West Baton Rouge parishes, said the threat of additional prison time is necessary to get underage crime under control.

A Black Democrat, Clayton is nevertheless a close ally of Villio and the Republican governor when it comes to pushing for longer criminal sentences, especially for teenagers. He said younger teens are used to sell fentanyl because drug dealers known minors won’t face the same penalties people over 17 will.

When asked whether they were concerned about minors facing potentially decades-long prison sentences, both Clayton and Villio said the public needs to trust their elected officials to have good judgment.

Villio’s proposal will give district attorneys the discretion to charge 15- and 16-year-olds in either adult or juvenile court for added offenses. The public needs to trust that district attorneys will use their judgement about where youth should be sent, Clayton said.

“DAs need to be compassionate – and they are,” he said.

Villio also said people should have faith in judges to hand an appropriate length of sentence to an underage person. If judges are acting too harshly, voters will have the opportunity to vote them out of office, she said.

“I trust the legal system and I trust judges to sentence appropriately.”

Louisiana State Police bought a small passenger plane for $5.5 million in September that Gov. Jeff Landry has been using to travel around the state.

The 2019 model Pilatus PC-12 single-engine turboprop plane was purchased secondhand, according to a Sept. 18 state government receipt from the sale. Federal Aviation Administration records show the state certified it for flight on Oct. 15.

Designed by a Swiss company, the aircraft can be used for cargo transport, medical assistance or search and rescue operations, but it is mostly marketed as a “business” plane that can comfortably seat between six and nine passengers.

“It is truly an executive transport kind of aircraft,” said Thomas Anthony, director of the aviation and security program at the University of Southern California.

Publicly available flight logs show the plane traveling between Baton Rouge and Lafayette, near where the governor lives, and from Lafayette to New Orleans multiple times during the early days of January. Landry spent a lot of time in New Orleans at the beginning of the year following the New Year’s Day terrorist attack on Bourbon Street.

In addition to the governor’s travel, the plane will be used for extraditing prisoners, transporting state police subject matter experts and bringing the state police command staff to emergency meetings, Louisiana State Police spokesman Capt. Nick Manale said in an email.

Manale said state police bought the airplane instead of replacing its two 20-year-old “executive” helicopters the three governors before Landry used to travel within Louisiana. The helicopters have been grounded because they have become difficult to maintain, he said.

“[T]he aircraft are so old and some avionics manufacturers no longer support the model,” Manale said.

Using a plane for the governor’s travel should also save the state money, according to Landry’s office.

“This created both an immediate and long-term savings as the operational cost of the aircraft is significantly lower than operating two helicopters,” Landry spokeswoman Kate Kelly said in a written statement.

Helicopters, which have more moving parts than a plane, tend to break down more often and can be expensive to repair, said Anthony, the aviation expert.

“[The Pilatus] is not down for maintenance as much as a helicopter would be,” he said. “For executive transport, it would be cheaper to use the plane. It’s faster. It can go higher. Frankly, it’s more comfortable.”

Other aircraft purchased

In addition to the plane, Louisiana State Police also bought two new helicopters last spring from Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. in Texas for $6.5 million each.

The Bell 407GXi helicopters arrived in Baton Rouge and were federally certified for flight in August, just a month before state police also purchased the new plane, according to federal and state records.

Lane Evans, managing director for Bell North America, said the new helicopters “further expand” the state police fleet, according to an August press release from the company.

Manale said the helicopters were not meant to replace the older, more expensive ones that governors before Landry used.

Bell markets its 407GXi to law enforcement, emphasizing its efficiency in search and rescue missions. Louisiana State Police, which owns nine Bell aircraft total, performs more than 1,000 public safety missions with its planes and helicopters every year, Manale said.

Louisiana State Police has acquired a 2019 Pilatus PC-12 aircraft, similar to the plane pictured here. The plane was purchased for $5.5 million as the primary aircraft for Gov. Jeff Landry in-state and regional travels, replacing two helicopters that previous governors had used for 20 years. (Photo courtesy Pilatus Aircraft Ltd.)

Yet the new Bell helicopters the state police purchased are also suitable for executive transportation and can seat six passengers.

For most of the past 30 years, Louisiana’s governors have relied almost exclusively on state police helicopters for their in-state travel.

Seven people who were aides to the previous four governors – Republicans Mike Foster and Bobby Jindal and Democrats Kathleen Blanco and John Bel Edwards – don’t recall their old bosses ever flying on a plane owned by state police.

Gubernatorial plane trips were typically on commercial flights or private aircraft that political donors provided, they said. Helicopters handled almost all of the official state trips within Louisiana.

When Foster was in his second term as governor, from 2000-04, Louisiana State Police bought a Beechcraft King Air, similar to a Pilatus, from a military surplus sale. But Foster didn’t use it for himself, said Terry Landry, a former State Police superintendent under Foster who later became a Democratic state representative. Terry Landry is not related to Gov. Jeff Landry.

“I can’t remember ever using that plane for a governor. But then again, Mike Foster didn’t travel a whole lot,” Terry Landry said.

Foster preferred to be ferried around in one of two Bell 407 helicopters, an earlier version of the 407GXi helicopters state police bought this year, Terry Landry said. The governor from Franklin famously talked his State Police pilot into giving him lessons on how to fly this helicopter while he was governor.

Still, plans have been in motion to replace the helicopters, and possibly to purchase the new Pilatus plane, since before Jeff Landry became governor last year.

During Edwards’ final year in office in 2023, he and the Louisiana Legislature budgeted $13 million “for the replacement of one helicopter.”

Edwards’ budget chief, Jay Dardenne, said there was also discussion about requesting money to purchase a plane at that time, but the funding never made it into the budget plan.

In the next cycle, Landry and the Legislature added $8 million for a “replacement aircraft and associated upfitting and training costs” – covering the purchase of the Pilatus.

Money for the helicopters came from the state’s general fund, which can be used for any government purpose. Dollars for the new plane came from the state’s Riverboat Gaming Enforcement Fund, which is supported by gambling companies’ licenses and fees.

Political turbulence

Taxpayer-sponsored plane travel can be controversial.

The purchase of an $8 million plane to shuttle around Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and other state officials raised eyebrows earlier this year. Mississippi’s Republican Gov. Tate Reeves’ taxpayer-funded flights to political events have also been criticized.

Landry has encountered his own scandal with air travel. The Republican failed to report multiple flights he’s taken on political donors’ private planes while doing official state business when he was attorney general.

The Louisiana Board of Ethics charged Landry with violating state transparency laws in one such incident in 2021. Landry did not disclose that he had flown on a political donor’s plane to and from Hawaii to appear at a states’ attorneys general conference.

The Pilatus is not designed to fly all the way to Hawaii, or even to the West Coast, without stopping for fuel. Anthony said the plane, which he estimates has a range of about 1,500 miles with a full fuel supply, is best used for regional travel, not cross-country or international trips.

Louisiana State Police has purchased two Bell 407GXi helicopters, similar to the model pictured here. (Courtesy Bell Textron Inc.)

It could make Landry less likely to use the private planes of his friends and political donors — and easier for him to keep his whereabouts private.

Landry and lawmakers passed a new law last year that could make it harder to access his travel records with a state police plane.

The governor is now allowed to keep his schedule confidential indefinitely if releasing the information is perceived to pose a security risk to him or his family, Nevertheless, the new law is not supposed to prevent the release of “all records” related to the governor’s transportation.

BENTON – When Mike Johnson first ascended to become U.S. House speaker, his profile was so low that senators and foreign dignitaries had to turn to Google to figure out who he was.

A year later, however, Johnson has grown into much more of the public figure the speaker is expected to be. The Louisiana congressman makes the rounds of Sunday political talk shows and is quoted regularly by the country’s biggest news outlets. Elite magazines published lengthy profiles on him last spring.

What was already known in Louisiana, but has become apparent to the rest of the world in recent months, is Johnson’s long history of evangelical activism. The congressman isn’t just a conservative Republican. He is first and foremost a conservative Christian, specifically a Southern Baptist.

As an attorney, Johnson dedicated himself to fighting legal battles on behalf of those on the religious right. Before joining Congress in 2017, he defended Louisiana’s ban on same-sex marriage twice in court, sued a Baton Rouge abortion clinic and challenged state laws that would have expanded liquor sales in north Louisiana, among other conservative causes.

“Mike is the real deal; he’s not a Christian because he is a politician,” said Rick Edmonds, a Republican Louisiana state senator who also served as Johnson’s pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Shreveport.

Johnson’s perspective on certain social mores is out of step with the majority Americans’ views today — over 60% of Americans approve of both same-sex marriage and abortionin recent polls — but not necessarily with his north Louisiana community.

He’s popular enough that Johnson didn’t draw a serious opponent in his congressional race this year. He’ll appear on the November ballot with just one other minor candidate, who listed an Arkansas address when qualifying.

Louisiana is already more socially conservative than the country, particularly when it comes to issues such as abortion and LGBTQ rights, and Johnson’s homebase of Bossier Parish leans to the right of this right-leaning state.

In the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump beat President Joe Biden in Louisiana with 58% of the vote. But in Bossier Parish, where Johnson lives, Trump beat Biden with 70% of the vote despite losing the national election that year.

“We are one of the most conservative parishes in the state,” Bossier Parish Clerk of Court Jill Sessions said in an interview this week.

Bossier and Caddo, where Shreveport is located, are the two most populous parishes in Johnson’s sprawling district that is centered around northwest Louisiana.The Republicans who make up Johnson’s base aren’t just conservative but religiously so – like Johnson himself. “The Republicans up here might be redder than in other parts of the state,” said Alan Seabaugh, a Republican state senator from Caddo who used to share a law practice with Johnson.

“I’ve heard Mike refer to [Caddo and Bossier] as the buckle of the Bible belt,” he added. “We do churches in a very big way here.”

Bossier and Caddo defy common tropes about Louisiana’s Cajun and Creole cultures in south Louisiana that are based in Catholicism and a laissez-faire outlook on life. The greater Shreveport attitude is akin to what you might experience in east Texas or southern Arkansas. There is far less of a French influence.

“It’s much more of a Deep South type of environment. It’s Protestant in nature,” Edmonds said. “It was not the gumbo capital of the world.”

Republican political consultant Lionel Rainey said the differences in culture make north Louisiana conservatives more strident than their counterparts in south Louisiana. Catholic conservatives, he said, tend to be more flexible.

In Bossier, for example, hard liquor can’t be sold on Sundays in bars or retail stores. Compare that to fellow conservative House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s home parish of Jefferson, where daiquiris are sold through drive-through windows seven days per week.

“It’s the difference between a Baptist and a Catholic,” Rainey said in comparing north and south Louisiana conservatives. “That’s the best comparison I can make.”

A central figure in Louisiana’s evangelical Christian community for years, Johnson was never shy about his conservative views. In a 2004 opinion column for The Shreveport Times, he urged voters to ban same-sex marriages through an upcoming constitutional amendment, referring to those unions as “counterfeit legal arrangements.”

“Homosexual relationships are inherently unnatural and, the studies clearly show, are ultimately harmful and costly for everyone,” he wrote at the time. “Society cannot give its stamp of approval to such a dangerous lifestyle.”

The amendment passed, but the U.S. Supreme Court tossed it and similar provisions in other states in 2015. That ruling made legal marriage available to same-sex couples in Louisiana almost 10 years ago.

In response, Johnson drafted state legislation as a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives in 2016 aimed at shielding religious employers from having to participate or provide services for same-sex marriages. It failed to pass the Senate, but another Johnson bill to restrict abortion did make it into law.

Since Johnson left for Congress, other Bossier Parish legislators have pushed similar bills in Louisiana.

Republican Rep. Raymond Crews, who took Johnson’s seat in the Louisiana House, successfully passed legislation to prohibit transgender children from using pronouns and names that align with their gender while in public schools.

Another Bossier Parish Republican, Rep. Dodie Horton, gained approval for bills that ban the discussion of sexuality in public schools and require the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

Rep. Danny McCormick and Sen. Thomas Pressly, both Republicans from Caddo, have introduced bills in recent years to further criminalize abortion. McCormick’s legislation, which failed to pass in 2023, would have allowed women who had abortions to be charged with murder. Pressly’s bill classifies drugs used to carry out abortions as controlled dangerous substances, which makes them harder to access.

Even local government officials in Bossier have taken up for conservative religious causes.

Bossier Sheriff Julian Whittington first met Johnson when he hired the congressman as an attorney to represent him in a dispute over Whittington’s use of public prayer, the sheriff said in an interview this week.

In 2013, Whittington said the federal government was refusing to release government funding to him for youth programs because the children and teenagers participating were asked to pray. As a form of protest, the sheriff then started holding prayer rallies on public property.

Whittington had the support of Johnson and the local community, though the American Civil Liberties Union expressed concern about what he was doing.

Ryan Gatti, a former Republican state senator who lives in Bossier Parish, said in an interview this week Johnson is embraced for his religious roots within his district. While the congressman’s world view might stand in contrast to others in the country, it’s commonplace in northwest Louisiana.

“Up here, we don’t have a lot of atheists,” Gatti said.

Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com. Follow Louisiana Illuminator on Facebook and X.

While no hospitals have fully closed for Hurricane Francine, four medical centers near the Louisiana coast moved patients out of their facilities to ensure they will have enough capacity to treat people when the storm passes.

Lady of the Sea General Hospital in Cut Off has preemptively discharged five people, transferred one patient and limited services to the emergency room only, according to documents provided by Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph Abraham Wednesday.

Three other hospitals moved a small number of people from their intensive care, behavioral health and other units to medical facilities expected to see less impact from Hurricane Francine.

“Those hospitals are still fully operational,” Abraham said. “They’re just getting a little proactive. I commend them for that.”

Those transferring patients include Ochsner St. Mary in Morgan City, Ochsner St. Anne in Raceland and Leonard Chabert Medical Center in Houma, which is also run by Ochsner Health.

“In an abundance of caution with anticipation of severe weather from Hurricane Francine, we proactively facilitated the safe transfer of more than 60 patients from our hospitals in the Bayou region to other Ochsner Health locations yesterday,” said Dr. Jeffrey Kuo, Ochsner’s system medical director of emergency management and security.

“We continue to coordinate with all hospitals across south Louisiana and beyond, accepting transfers from other facilities to help ensure every patient receives the level of care they need, when they need it,” Kuo said.

Two nursing homes near the coast have had partial evacuations as well. One in Vermillion Parish moved eight residents to another nursing home in DeSoto Parish. A facility in Luling transferred residents to a Metairie nursing facility, Abraham said.

Ahead of the hurricane, Gov. Jeff Landry issued an executive order Tuesday allowing nursing homes to take in more patients than state restrictions normally allow through Oct. 10.

Francine made landfall near Morgan City as a Category 2 hurricane Wednesday afternoon, with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph.

Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com. Follow Louisiana Illuminator on Facebook and X.

Gov. Jeff Landry has asked the Louisiana Board of Ethics to waive a $100 fine for filing his 2023 annual campaign finance report late by one day in February.

The request comes a few months after the governor, who has been at odds with the ethics board for years, signed a law that gives him more control over picking ethics board members.

Landry’s spokeswoman in the governor’s office, Kate Kelly, said his campaign submitted the report in question on time, but it failed to transmit. When the ethics staff sent a notice the following day saying it had not been filed, the campaign submitted it again.

State law requires the ethics board to automatically fine candidates for major political offices $100 per day when they turn in campaign reports late. Landry is disputing that he missed the initial deadline.

“I hope one day the Illuminator can report on stories that actually matter to the people of Louisiana,” Kelly responded in a text message to questions about the fine.

Earlier this year, Landry signed a new law to reduce a similar late fee for local government candidates and legislators when they miss campaign finance report deadlines. The law change wouldn’t affect the penalties Landry faces as governor but lessens overall collections for this type of violation.

The $100 fine is also just the latest in a string of conflicts Landry has had with the ethics board.

The governor is in an ongoing legal dispute with the board over whether flights he took as attorney general on a political donor’s plane should have been publicly disclosed. In 2022, the board also reprimanded Landry for using his campaign funds to pay his car loan.

Another new law that gives the governor more freedom to appoint who he wants to the ethics board will take effect in January.

The current board is scheduled to vote Friday on whether to waive Landry’s $100 fee.

Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com. Follow Louisiana Illuminator on Facebook and X.

A new law to reduce the number of commercial truck permits the state requires might benefit the family business of the state lawmaker who pushed the measure.

Sen. Heather Cloud, R-Turkey Creek, authored Senate Bill 260 even though her husband Jody owns a commercial trucking company that could gain from the bill. Her legislation allows truckers to purchase fewer $2,500 annual state permits for hauling heavy equipment. It takes effect Aug. 1.

Cloud said her husband’s company only has one truck that hauls heavy equipment and won’t be affected much by the new law.

“It’s probably 5% of our business,” she said in an interview. “To say it would be a big benefit for me? It would not.”

When describing her legislation during a public hearing earlier this year, Cloud repeatedly referenced her family’s trucking company to explain why the new law would be beneficial. She told lawmakers the measure would resolve challenges her family’s business faced.

“We have trucks and this is what we do,” Cloud said at a Louisiana Senate transportation committee hearing earlier this year.

Under the current system, Louisiana’s Department of Transportation and Development typically allows the transfer of a heavy haul equipment permit from one truck to another within the same company only once per year. Cloud’s new law will allow that type of transfer to happen four times per year before a new $2,500 permit would have to be purchased.

“Like for us, we have one designated truck. We have six to eight trucks in our fleet right now, and one designated truck that’s doing the oversized, overweight hauling,” Cloud said at the Senate hearing in March when she introduced the legislation. “If that one truck goes down, and we need to replace it with another truck in our fleet, this would allow us to be able to do that.”

In 2022, Jody Cloud Trucking LLC had a contract worth more than $500,000 with the Evangeline Parish Police Jury as well as more modest deals worth a few hundred to a few thousand dollars with Evangeline Parish Solid Waste, the Allen Parish Police Jury and the Village of Turkey Creek, where Heather Cloud previously served as mayor, according to state financial disclosure paperwork.

Her law will likely mean fewer expenses for truckers but also less money for the state. Last year, the transportation department generated $3.8 million selling more than 1,500 of heavy equipment haul permits. The money goes into the state’s transportation trust fund, which pays for road and bridge projects, according to a fiscal analysis of the bill.

Kimberly Fruge, a state financial analyst, wrote in a review of the bill that the proposed law will likely result in a decrease in revenue for the transportation trust fund.

Fruge couldn’t predict how many trucking companies would take advantage of the standards. In the unlikely event that every single eligible business did, it could reduce funding for the transportation trust fund by a maximum $1.9 million, she said.

That’s a small amount for the state transportation trust that was expected to collect over $600 million this year, but the truck permits serve a purpose other than generating money. They help the state track potential damage to local roads and bridges that comes from heavier loads and larger vehicles.

“Yes, in general heavier loads cause more damage to the roadway,” transportation department spokesman Rodney Mallett said in response to questions sent by a reporter. “The concept is that the cost of the permit offsets the cost of the damage to some degree.”

Cloud said many of her legislative proposals, not just the trucking permit law, result from her own personal experiences and what she hears from constituents.

“Much of my legislation comes from having conversations with people in the trenches,” she said.

The legislation also had a few large business community backers including Entergy Louisiana, the Louisiana Loggers Association and the Louisiana Motor Transport Association, which represents trucking companies.

Cloud was a speaker at a Louisiana Motor Transport Association meeting on the Alabama Gulf Coast in July of last year. The organization covered her $1,000 hotel bill at The Lodge of Gulf State Park in exchange for her appearance.

Renee Amar, the trucking group’s executive director, said it’s only fair that Cloud, a person with expertise in trucking, be able to file legislation related to her family’s business like legislators who are attorneys can.

The trucking industry is currently in a battle with the state’s trial attorneys over lawsuit legislation. It often accuses the legislators who are lawyers of scuttling legislation to limit lawsuit awards, a measure they say is necessary to bring down trucking insurance costs.

“I’d love to see lawyers recuse themselves for every lawyer bill that comes up on the floor,” Amar said.

Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com. Follow Louisiana Illuminator on Facebook and X.

The Louisiana House voted 55-46 this week to ban the use of the word “free” when referring to government benefits, products or services, though similar descriptions such as “ provided at no cost” or “complimentary” would still be permissible.

“It’s a bill that I’ve nicknamed my ‘Don’t Say Free’ bill,” said Rep. Beryl Amedée, R-Schriever, sponsor of legislation, in a hearing earlier this month. “If we’re going to move forward in society and have people not be dependent on the government for everything, then we need to begin to change the vocabulary.”

“The use of the word free is rather insulting to all taxpayers because it’s not free,” she said. “It’s been paid for by all of us.”

House Bill 265 would prohibit state and local government entities from using “free” when the word “refers to a benefit, product or service financed with public funds.”

Amedée held up marketing campaigns for free food from food banks, free blood pressure screenings at health clinics and free counseling for alcohol dependency as examples of when she thought the word “free” was used inappropriately.

She also doesn’t approve of using “free” in the description of public suicide prevention services, vaccines, ultrasounds and over-the-counter overdose treatments when they have been paid for with public money.

“No government program is actually free. The taxpayer always pays,” said Amedée, one of the leaders of the Louisiana House Freedom Caucus. “We should be honest and use appropriate language.”

“It could say: ‘At no cost to you’ for example,” she said.

Democratic legislators balked at the bill.

“I don’t like this bill,” Rep. Ed Larvadain, D-Alexandria, said during the committee hearing. “I don’t want us controlling language. I don’t like us telling people what words to use.”

“Out of all the bills, this is the most peculiar bill I read,” he said.

“What is the difference between ‘free’ and ‘at no cost?’” House Democratic Caucus Chairman Matthew Willard of New Orleans during the House debate on the bill.

“By moving away from the use of the word ‘free,’ it brings awareness that someone is paying for this for you,” Amedée said.

Amedée’s legislation could cost public money to implement. Government agencies might have to change websites, branding and printed marketing products to remove the word “free” and replace it with similar language. There has been no estimate about what those public might be yet.

The Pelican Institute, a conservative Louisiana think tank, supports the legislation.

A few conservative Republican legislators suggested the bill might cut down on public waste.

“People will go pick up a free lunch and never eat it, just because it is free,” Rep. Les Farnum, R-Sulphur, said.

The Louisiana Senate needs to approve the legislation before it can become law.

Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com. Follow Louisiana Illuminator on Facebook and Twitter.

Outgoing Gov. John Bel Edwards is a conservative, Southern Democrat who some have speculated might have been better served if he had been willing to switch parties.

Edwards angered many Democrats when he signed one of the strictest state abortion bans in the country. He’s also typically been wary of gun restrictions and opposes the legalization of recreational marijuana.

But the Louisiana governor doesn’t have plans to join the more conservative GOP anytime soon.

“I don’t think it’s any secret that there have been times that the Democratic Party at the national level hasn’t been very happy with me, and sometimes, me not happy with the party,” Edwards said in an interview Thursday.

“But it is also true that I have never been less inclined to be a Republican than today.”

The governor may have right-leaning views on abortion, but he embraces many Democratic Party solutions, particularly when it comes to economic policy. One of his earliest acts as governor was to adopt Medicaid expansion in Louisiana. As of last month, 718,000 people were enrolled in that government-backed health insurance program.

The governor also said the GOP has lost its way and lacks “core principles” in the present day.

“This is a personality cult,” he said, alluding to the party’s allegiance to former President Donald Trump.

In 2018, when Trump was still in office, he encouraged Edwards personally to join the Republican Party. Edwards was one of a handful of governors attending an event with Trump at a Trump-owned golf course in New Jersey at the time.

“He just let me know that he would like me to become a Republican and, if I did, I would have his support, and if I didn’t, I wouldn’t,” Edwards said.

The governor declined, and in 2019, when Edwards was running for reelection, Trump campaigned for his GOP opponent, businessman Eddie Rispone. Then, Edwards ended up beating Rispone 51% to 49% in November of that year.

Edwards continues to think political centrists – which is how he describes himself – are the best hope for moving the country and Louisiana forward.

“I still believe the vast majority of the American people are clustered somewhere around the center philosophically, but we have a system of politics, especially through the [partisan] primary process, that affords an undue advantage to people at the extremes,” he said.

“That’s not serving us well,” Edwards said.

Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com. Follow Louisiana Illuminator on Facebook and Twitter.

Landry was not the only person with a surprising election victory this weekend.

A handful of ultraconservative Louisiana Senate candidates also won their races outright and avoided November runoff elections.

State Reps. Rick Edmonds of Baton Rouge, Valarie Hodges of Denham Springs, Blake Miguez of Erath and Alan Seabaugh of Shreveport each claimed open Senate seats in the Legislature Saturday over fellow Republicans who are more moderate. Incumbent Sen. Stewart Cathey, R-Monroe, also beat a GOP challenger who was perceived to be more middle-of-the-road.

Hodges, Miguez and Seabaugh are among the most conservative members of the Louisiana House and have often challenged Republican legislative leadership on spending issues. They were among the 19 legislators who wanted the state to spend hundreds of millions of dollars less on roads and other infrastructure projects this year in order to limit government spending.

Republicans advancing to the runoff stages of the attorney general and treasurer races — Liz Murrill and John Fleming, respectively — were also the more conservative options in their primary races. They beat out other, more middle-of-the-road GOP candidates to head into the next stage of the election against Democrats on Nov. 18.

The right turn in the state Senate should make life easier for Landry as governor. An ultraconservative himself, he should have fewer disputes with lawmakers overall because more of them will be aligned with his political ideology.

Women rising

Louisiana has not had a woman in statewide office since early 2015, when former U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu left office after losing her reelection to Bill Cassidy.

But in 2024, women will hold at least two of Louisiana’s nine elected statewide offices no matter what happens in the runoffs.

Murrill and Democrat Lindsey Cheek have made it into the runoff for attorney general, and Republican Nancy Landry and Democrat Gwen Collins-Greenup will face each other in the secretary of state’s runoff.

Murrill and Nancy Landry, as Republicans, are considered the favorites to win the races, even though Louisiana has never had two Republican women serving in statewide office at the same time.

The last time Louisiana had two women in statewide office at all was the beginning of 2008, right before former Gov. Kathleen Blanco stepped down and Landrieu was still in Congress.

Low voter turnout

Voter turnout was even lower than political experts and outgoing Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin predicted it would be for this election cycle.

Unofficial returns indicated statewide turnout of registered voters in the governor’s race was 35.8%. Ardoin’s office predicted between 42% and 46%, and political consultant and pollster John Couvillon thought it would come in between 38% and 40%.

Registered voter turnout dropped by 10 points from the last gubernatorial primary election in 2019, when it was 45.9%. Gov. John Bel Edwards received 625,970 votes in that election, but only 47% of the overall vote. By comparison, Jeff Landry won the governor’s race Saturday with 547,828 votes and 52% of the overall vote.

The decrease was more dramatic in Democratic and Black voter strongholds. Orleans Parish voter turnout was nearly 12 points higher, 38.7% in 2019 compared with 27% this weekend. East Baton Rouge Parish voter turnout dropped even more dramatically, by about 13 points from 48% in 2019 to 34.9%.

Low Democratic voter turnout is thought to have benefitted Landry and other conservative candidates, since those constituents are the least likely to vote for far-right Republicans.

Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com. Follow Louisiana Illuminator on Facebook and Twitter.