Redstate

Posted at 11:33pm on Jul. 5, 2008 LA-2008: Rundown on Senate and House Races

By Vladimir

Landrieu-Kennedy Senate battle tops fall political lineup

This article provides a decent rundown of this fall's elections, the first regular election in recent history to feature party primaries. The three-day qualifying period opens Wednesday.

The two [Senatorial] candidates both plan three-day tours of the state this week to launch a contest that features atypical juxtapositions.

Posted in 2008 | Louisiana — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:56pm on Jun. 30, 2008 BREAKING: Bobby Jindal vetoes pay raise.

By Erick

From a gubernatorial press release:

“I have opposed this pay raise at every turn and from the very beginning. A doubling of legislative pay is clearly excessive and it takes effect prior to the next election, which I believe is bad policy,” Governor Jindal said. “This bill would also have set up a system to give legislators automatic pay raises in the future without additional legislative votes - which is a lack of accountability that we cannot accept.”

The Governor had previously said he would not veto the pay raise to allow the legislature to conduct its own internal affairs. “I clearly made a mistake by telling the legislature that I would allow them to handle their own affairs,” Jindal said. “As with all mistakes, you can either correct them or compound them - I am choosing to correct my mistake now.

“I have said that I was not going to stop legislators from more than doubling their own pay by vetoing this because I did not want to give them any excuse to slow down the momentum of our reform movement here in Louisiana. It turns out this is an unsustainable position. I have come to realize that the reforms I have been fighting for are simply incompatible with this legislative pay raise.

“I was trying to preserve our reform agenda and our momentum by tolerating this legislative pay raise that I knew was completely excessive. But the two cannot coexist.

“The bottom line is that allowing this excessive legislative pay raise to become law would so significantly undercut our reform agenda, and so significantly diminish the people’s confidence in their own government, that I cannot let it become law. So, I have vetoed the bill.”

The Governor continued to say that, “The sideshow over massive legislative pay raises has already taken up far too much time. It’s time to get back to doing the people’s business. There is a tremendous amount of work to be done in our state…there are roads to build, jobs to create, business to open, and kids to educate.”

Posted in Bobby Jindal | Louisiana | State Politics — Comments (29)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:23pm on Jun. 29, 2008 Jindal's Legislative Director Resigns

By Vladimir

...and don't let the door hit you in the backside on the way out.

Jindal's legislative director resigns

Gov. Bobby Jindal's legislative director has resigned after serving fewer than six months with the new administration, which is embroiled in a controversy over the Legislature's large pay raise.

Tommy Williams, 65, said Sunday the decision to leave was his and that he left on good terms. He did not offer reasons for his departure, but said he plans to return to his career as a professional lobbyist.

Posted in Bobby Jindal | Louisiana | State Politics — Comments (5) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:02pm on Jun. 29, 2008 Club for Growth is not gunning for Governor Jindal

By Neil Stevens

Whilst the leftosphere borders on Civil War over the failure of Democratic leaders, Senator Obama included, to defeat the President's wishes on FISA and war funding, we on the right have had our own debate over our own rising star's first real conflict.

Yes, of course, I mean Governor Jindal and the legislative pay hike. Some on the right are up in arms, angry that given the opportunity to draw the line, gather the people behind him, and face down the intransigent legislators, he's turned it down, deciding it wasn't the fight to take.

Personally it doesn't bother me but then again, I'm not all that opposed to professional legislators, being an opponent of term limits as well. If all that Jindal had to trade off to get sweeping ethical reform in Louisiana, was a clean pay raise for the lowest paid legislators in the country, then I thought that was reasonable. So I was shocked to hear that there's actually a recall effort starting against the Governor.

Club for Growth was less shocked, though, and therein lay a controversy here at Red State.

Read on...

Posted in Bobby Jindal | Club for Growth | Louisiana | State Politics — Comments (70)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 5:43pm on Jun. 27, 2008 BREAKING: Recall Petition Filed Against Bobby Jindal

By Vladimir

Recall petition filed against Jindal

What a joke. What a sad, pitiful joke.

Some in th elocal media have been stoking this fire for a week and a half.

Two Jefferson Parish residents have filed a recall petition against Gov. Bobby Jindal.
...

The two would have to collect and then have verified signatures from at least one-third of the registered voters in the state.

Posted in Bobby Jindal | Louisiana | State Politics — Comments (17) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 5:44pm on Jun. 25, 2008 Gov. Bobby Jindal Signs Bill to Chemically Castrate Sex Offenders

Not Even Slightly Veiled Translation: Hey SCOTUS, Suck It

By Ben Domenech

On the heels of today's SCOTUS decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana barring the death penalty for sex offenders, Gov. Bobby Jindal released a statement calling the ruling an "affront to the people of Louisiana" - and what's more, vowing to do whatever possible to amend the state’s laws in order to maintain the death penalty for child rape.

But that's not all he did.

Today, Gov. Jindal signed the "Sex Offender Chemical Castration Bill," authorizing the castration of convicted sex offenders. They get a choice: physical or chemical. Oh, and they don't just get castrated and leave - they still have to serve out their sentence.

More below the fold:

Posted in Bobby Jindal | Breaking News | Crime | Death Penalty | Louisiana | scotus — Comments (51)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:50pm on Jun. 24, 2008 Jindal: "I've Learned My Lesson"

By Vladimir

WBRZ's video coverage (Baton Rouge ABC affiliate):
Jindal speaks about legislative session

The Times-Picayune's coverage:
Jindal admits mistake in not stopping pay raise for lawmakers

In a press conference today, Gov. Bobby Jindal said he "learned his lesson" about dealing with the legislature, meaning he gave them too much leeway. Look for a more activist Gov. Jindal in the future.

Posted in Bobby Jindal | Louisiana | State Politics — Comments (8) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 6:38pm on Jun. 19, 2008 Clinton-Appointed Judge Recommended for Impeachment

By Vladimir

The Judicial Conference of the United States has recommended impeachment proceedings against U.S. District Judge Thomas Porteous of Metairie (suburban New Orleans). Porteous was a 1994 appointee of President Bill Clinton.

It is now up to the House Judiciary Comittee, chaired by Rep. John Conyers Jr., (D-MI), to decide whether to initiate impeachment proceedings against Porteous.

A panel of the nation's top judges, including Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, determined that there was "substantial evidence" to find that Porteous repeatedly committed perjury, concealed financial relationships with litigants in his courtroom, and solicited and accepted cash and other things of value from lawyers, among other misdeeds.

Posted in Louisiana | The Courts — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:33am on Jun. 13, 2008 Shame on the Louisiana Legislature

By Erick

The Louisiana Legislature has held Governor Jindal's reformist agenda hostage.

The legislators, who are only part time legislators, want pay increases from $16,800.00 a year to $50,790.00 and they want an annual increase in their salaries after that -- for their part time job.

Sadly, the legislators have been fairly united. More than two-thirds in each house have told Governor Jindal that they will kill every one of his legislative proposals unless he goes along with this salary increase.

He has no choice but to agree to the ransom.

On the bright side, this is probably a response to Governor Jindal's ethics reforms. Now that the legislators cannot take bribes as easily, they need the extra income.

Nonetheless, it is shameful.

Speaker Jim Tucker's phone number is 225-342-7263. The vote will happen today.

Whether you live in Louisiana or not, you should call the Speaker and tell him how very shameful the legislature's conduct is.

Posted in Bobby Jindal | Louisiana | State Politics — Comments (10)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:45am on Jun. 13, 2008 The School Choice Revolution In Louisiana

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Here's a good account of what is going on in the Bayou State. It is most heartening; while there remains a lot that needs to be accomplished, Governor Jindal and his allies in the Louisiana State Legislature are light years ahead of many of their contemporaries in working to bring genuine school choice to their constituents. They should be applauded for that and we should look forward to the day when such accomplishments are no longer considered as unbelievably extraordinary as they are these days.

Posted at 7:14pm on May 22, 2008 Bobby Jindal: Isolated?

By Ben Domenech

Quin Hilyer raises a criticism of Bobby Jindal that I think ought to be addressed. Here it is, in part:

I have lots of sources in Louisiana, of course, and from a wide variety of unrelated sources, I am hearing the same thing: Bobby Jindal so far is what MORE than one source, completely independent of each other, described in identical words: "the most isolated governor I have ever seen." The word is that his bright young staffers are also his arrogant young staffers. They are so sure of themselves that they aggregate power to themselves by acting as if their gatekeeper role is not just to keep too many people at once from going through the gate to see the Guv, but to keep the gate almost entirely shut. Even the friendly media is complaining -- and most LA media right now wants to be friendly, because their desperate desire for reform overcomes any ideological predispositions to the left right now; I have had quite liberal media folks down there tell me how excited they were that Bobby won the election. But now reporters feel shunned -- and the LSU student press has been terribly ill treated, which is really dumb by the Jindal team because the student press could easily be inspired by Jindal's reformist nature.

A few things, first off: I think Quin may be a bit too generous in evaluating the motives of his friends in the Louisiana press corps.

The attitude I saw displayed both on election night and at multiple press conferences was not one of shared optimism, but rather a combination of befuddlement and chagrin: they just don't know what to think of this cleancut policy wonk, and they're determined to find his hidden flaws, or invent ones if they find none. The fact that the whip-smart Jindal staff - as I've said before, they'd be a crack outfit for a President of the United States - is none too thrilled to deal with media organizations who listed the schools where the Jindal staff's kids attend on the front page should not come as a surprise. And a lot of the media in Louisiana, including the LSU paper, hate Gov. Jindal because of the hospital issue - an issue on which he is completely correct.

Of course Gov. Jindal needs to be encouraged to engage the right people, yes. And not everyone will be happy when a new governor comes to town, and the old sources dry up. But the Governor has been far from isolated. He's been so open, in fact, he's invited bloggers to interview him the Governor's Mansion - something that I hope will be a sign of just how innovative he's going to be when it comes to communications.

I happen to know that Quin was invited to that event, but he chose not to come. In the future, I'd encourage him to sit down with the Governor and ask this question himself. In my experience, he's been one of the most willing politicians I've ever seen when it comes to answering questions from all comers.

Posted at 10:47pm on May 3, 2008 LA-1 & LA-6 Results

By Vladimir

Updated by Neil at 10:39 Central Time: It's over. With all precincts in, Don Cazayoux has defeated Woody Jenkins 49-46, with 3.68% going to one Ashley Casey, who ran on an anti-corruption, anti-pork, anti-lobbyist, anti-tax platform. Hopefully in November we can pick those votes back up.

Updated by Neil at 9:54 Central Time: Scalise is running away it in District 1, leading Reed 75-22, with 480 of 505 precincts reporting.

Jenkins is in trouble in District 6, down 46,282 (46.22%) to Cazayoux's 49,312 (49.24%) with 508 of 512 reporting.

Louisiana 6 was represented by the retiring Richard Baker, a Republican. Louisiana 1 was represented by Governor Jindal.

At 8:50 CDT, Scalise leads Gilda Reed 72% to 26% with 18% of precincts reporting.

In LA-6, Jenkins leads 51% to 46% over Cazayoux, with 18% reporting.

Let's hope these results hold.

Posted in 2008 | Louisiana — Comments (123) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 4:42pm on Apr. 28, 2008 LA Gov. Jindal on Jay Leno TONIGHT

By Vladimir

"NBC's public relations team... is billing the governor as 'possibly being the vice presidential candidate on the Republican ticket' in November's election - a notion Jindal has denied."

We love you, Governor Jindal, but please don't even think about leaving until 2011, at the earliest: 1) There's important work here to do, now; 2) you're off to a great start, and 3) if you left, we'd have both a Senator Landrieu (D) and a Governor Landrieu (D)!

Posted at 10:21am on Apr. 25, 2008 John McCain in New Orleans

The Responsible Anti-Bush Message

By Ben Domenech

More than a year ago, a conversation among RS editors ended with this point being made, and solidly: that whoever the nominee was (at that point, Rudy Giuliani seemed likeliest), he would have to steadily and respectfully run against the record of George W. Bush.

The chief debate among the Republican base during the primary season concerned a central disagreement about which part of that Bush record deserves running against. The fiscal conservatives argued that a break from Bush’s fatigue-inducing economic policy is what’s needed. Anti-immigration Republicans pointed to Bush’s stalled border policies and yelled. The libertarians argued – in an odd break from fact-based analysis for otherwise rational people – that Bush’s Christianity-tinged pro-life and pro-marriage domestic policies overreached, and should be rebuked to attain some portion of the solidly Democrat atheist, agnostic, and mainline church demographic. Still other GOPers said the moment demanded only a break of stylistic points – claiming Bush’s policies were in large part correct, but they were sold to the public with about as much grace as the New Coke campaign.

This always seemed a bit too complex to me. In my view, the next candidate needed to run a campaign that respectfully rebuked the President on the two major overarching issues for his unpopularity – two areas that did far more damage to his brand outside the beltway than any steel tariffs or faith-based funding: The mismanagement of the war in Iraq, and the failure to respond to the disaster of Katrina.

Read on.

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