Lawmakers cede their power to Jindal

A new term for lawmakers begins in January, but nothing much is changing or advancing in the ways of the Louisiana Legislature.

Unlike in other states, where officials exercise a true separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches, Louisiana’s lawmakers are more than willing to cede their authority to the governor.

They’re letting the governor once again choose their leaders, rather than going through a public debate about who might be best for the job, and best to lead the Legislature, rather than give bended knee to the governor.

Talk of legislative independence has largely been tossed aside, even though Gov. Bobby Jindal will be a lame duck governor and many of the members are new and not tied to the tradition of a governor’s meddling in legislative affairs.

After winning overwhelming re-election to a second term, Jindal shortly thereafter announced his picks for Senate president and House speaker: Sen. John Alario, R-Westwego, and Rep. Chuck Kleckley, R-Lake Charles.

The governor didn’t even wait until the full Legislature was chosen for the next term. Four Senate seats and 21 House seats remain undecided, until the Nov. 19 runoff.

Lawmakers will choose their leaders in a January organizational session, but the governor traditionally has a heavy hand in helping determine who gets the jobs. The House speaker and Senate president are regularly chosen without any opposition after getting a governor’s endorsement.

With Jindal’s announcements of his choices, most lawmakers seeking the positions withdrew their bids and said they were now backing Alario and Kleckley, refusing to challenge the governor or assert the constitutional power of the legislative branch of government.

“I would defer to the governor. If that’s who his choice is, I’m certainly not going to go buck the governor on it. I have nothing but respect for both of them (Jindal and Alario) and don’t intend to get into a contest with them,” said Sen. Danny Martiny, R-Kenner, the longest, continuous serving Republican lawmaker and a senator who had sought to be president.

“Everyone’s been waiting to see, as is tradition, who the governor would tap and he chose John, and I’m OK with that,” said Sen. Dan “Blade” Morrish, R-Jennings, who had been vying for the top job.

Alario and Kleckley both said they didn’t think they could reach the needed votes to win the legislative leadership jobs without the governor’s support.

Jindal says it’s appropriate for a governor to get involved in choosing legislative leaders to get his agenda passed. It’s certainly easier to get bills through both chambers when allies were leading the debates and steering the process.

Senators seem on track to elect Alario, a 40-year veteran of the Legislature, without a divided vote. But in the House, Lafayette Republican Joel Robideaux wants to force a vote on the matter, even though few seem to think Robideaux could cobble together the votes to resist Jindal’s influence.

Robideaux, currently the number two ranking official in the House, accused Jindal of pressuring lawmakers to support Kleckley, an accusation the Republican governor denies.

Robideaux said the governor is attempting to subvert the spirit of the Louisiana Constitution and the House rules for electing leadership. He said the Legislature shouldn’t simply be used as an extension of the executive branch, and he called the move a “shadowy, back room way of doing things.”

“This governor holds himself out to be transparent and the gold standard for ethics and doing things differently than we have in the past. I think we ought to have a different standard,” Robideaux said.

Should he really expect Jindal to refuse the power given to his gubernatorial predecessors, particularly when legislators are so inclined to go along?

Robideaux would have to persuade his colleagues to assert their own authority before he could expect a governor to give up what lawmakers seem so willing to hand over to him.