Legislators show independent streak

• By WILL SENTELL
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Jun 24, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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New faces in the Legislature brought on by term limits initially helped Gov. Bobby Jindal, but lawmakers later showed more independence, political analysts said.

“What we are seeing now is what you might expect from a Legislature that has been around a year or two,” Pearson Cross, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, said in the waning days of the session that ended Monday.

“They are working on bills that are not Jindal’s favorites,” Cross added. “They are sending things to his desk that he does not want to sign, or won’t sign.”

A huge legislative pay raise, which turned into the most explosive issue of the session, tops that list.

Louisiana’s nearly three-month legislative session ended Monday evening. Jindal won approval for much of his legislative and budget agenda, which analysts attributed in part to the state’s history of strong chief executives.

The backdrop was a Legislature that began with 59 new members in the 105-member House. The 39-member Senate included four new faces and 18 who were in their first term, many of whom were veterans of the House.

The turnover stemmed from a 1995 constitutional amendment that voters hoped would inject new blood in the State Capitol. The amendment limits lawmakers to three consecutive terms, which is 12 years per chamber.

The heavy dose of new faces that took office in January made it easier for Jindal to win lopsided support for his special session agendas in February and March, analysts said.

“They were hit with a lot all at once,” said Jim Brandt, president of the Public Affairs Research Council, which studies state government issues.

“The governor was pretty much able to have his way in virtually everything,” Brandt added.

Jindal proposals aimed at improving state ethics laws, strengthening lobbyist laws and speeding business tax breaks won overwhelming approval.

“A weird mentality took over, and I really believe they would have followed him wherever he went,” Elliott Stonecipher, a Shreveport demographer and political analyst, said of some of the Legislature’s earlier support for the governor.

But two bills approved in the regular session — a $359 million state income tax cut and the legislative pay raise — showed a new legislative willingness to take on the governor, analysts said.