Political Horizons for May 24

• By MARK BALLARD
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: May 24, 2009

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For fans of irony, the best moment of Zen for this general session of the Louisiana Legislature — fast reaching its midpoint — came last week when House Speaker Jim Tucker backed an amendment, then turned to an aide and asked “What does the amendment do?”

The amendment, added by state Rep. Avon Honey, D-Baton Rouge, basically defied Gov. Bobby Jindal, an action most members of the Louisiana House have been avoiding at all costs during this session. But House members didn’t read the amendment, they didn’t ask any questions and many now say they unwittingly jaoined the 99-0 vote to add defiance to the administration’s House Bill 841.

One of Jindal’s advisers discovered the infraction, sending Jindal’s minions into the halls looking for Republicans to criticize Honey for following the rules: properly presenting an amendment, awaiting questions, asking for and then receiving their votes.

The next day, state Rep. Erich Ponti, the Republican who represents much of the southeastern portion of Baton Rouge, took the podium and denounced his north Baton Rouge colleague.

Somewhat less petulantly, a more-veteran state Rep. Bodi White, the Republican whose district takes in parts of Baker, much of Central and northern Livingston Parish, rolled his eyes and explained during an interview that the governor had sent a card saying he approved of HB841. While the amendment was available on the computer, it hadn’t been printed, so White said he just assumed Jindal also wanted the change and cast his vote without reading it first.

“He followed the rules,” White said of Honey, acknowledging that representatives holding minority views need to do what is necessary to further their position. “It’s what you do in that situation, it’s what I would have done,” White said with a shrug.

Honey is just one example of a handful of legislators who, to quote the popular song, “just keep chasing pavements, even if they lead nowhere.”

State Rep. Juan LaFonta, the New Orleans Democrat who engineered a late-Friday-afternoon vote that temporarily denied the governor’s ability to seek loans to fund construction projects, said this tilting at windmills is born of frustration at his colleagues’ willingness to do whatever Jindal wants.

For instance, Jindal is giving millions of taxpayer dollars to a Texas billionaire and to a California chicken company, even as he slashes state dollars from services for the poor, forces state parks to shut and threatens layoffs at institutions of higher learning. The tactics draw the attention of regular people who would become angry once they realize that Jindal’s economic policies mean taxpayers only benefit from what trickles down from favored special interests, LaFonta argues.

LaFonta and his colleagues say they learned their guerilla techniques from “Che” Tucker, who mastered the rules and set off little bombs as leader of the loyal opposition when state legislators kowtowed to then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco.

Tucker chuckled as he acknowledged the accuracy of LaFonta’s comparison.

“When we were in the minority and we disagreed, we did everything we could under the rules to make it work for our favor and that’s part of the process,” Tucker said. “You have to know how work the rules to your advantage.”

Tucker admits a little surprise that the majority of lawmakers haven’t pushed back more. But he says this session the Jindal administration’s lobbying efforts have been much better. Many of the problems legislators have with bills are worked out behind closed doors long before the issues are taken public, Tucker said.