La. politics mirroring Washington

With most steps in the handling of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s education bills, Louisiana politics has edged closer to the Washington model, largely wiping out the bipartisanship that elected officials once cited as a point of pride.

Majority and minority leaders work out timed political debates behind the scenes. Democratic and Republican leaders hold competing press conferences. And despite repeated talk of nonpartisanship, vote tallies line up regularly along party lines.

It’s a development lawmakers and Jindal have said they didn’t want as they praised Louisiana’s contrasts from the partisan politics of Washington – and it’s one that term-limited lawmakers warned about on their way out the door.

Perhaps it was inevitable, but after years of shifting in that direction, Louisiana’s Legislature is mirroring Congress this session.

The only difference is Republicans are in charge of the House, Senate and the governor’s mansion, so a GOP agenda led by Jindal is marching through the Capitol, rather than getting stuck in gridlock like in Washington.

Political analysts, Capitol watchers and lawmakers disagree about whether the partisan divide is damaging, beneficial or somewhere in between.

But the change was inevitable.

Some partisanship can be attributed to the growth of the state’s Republican Party.

Once upon a time in the Legislature, the GOP didn’t have enough strength to make many ripples. As the party’s ranks grew during Democratic former Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s term and with the dawn of term limits, Republicans were able to force discussions that often came with partisan tones.

Term-limits helped hasten the move to Washington-style politics, wiping out old-time lawmakers who had developed friendships across party lines over years and years spent together in committee hearings, floor debates and social events.

As legislators began saying their goodbyes in 2007 when the first round of term limits kicked in, one of the most frequent parting recommendations was to avoid the partisanship that colors debate in Washington and that was more regularly emerging in Baton Rouge. The advice didn’t stick.

Further hastening the change is Jindal, despite his repeated praise of Louisiana’s tradition of bipartisanship.

The governor has pursued a largely partisan agenda since taking office in 2008, aligning with a conservative Republican agenda that has garnered praise from GOP leaders around the country and could give him a future on the national political scene.

Supporters and critics disagree over whether Jindal’s agenda reflects genuine and heartfelt beliefs or his political ambitions.

During the current session of the Legislature, his push for a series of sweeping education changes – moving at a near record pace for the Legislature – has sharpened political divides and partisan rhetoric in Baton Rouge.

Among Jindal’s proposals are hot-button, often Republican-pushed items like creation of a statewide voucher program that would use taxpayer dollars to send children to private schools and the removal of job protections known as tenure for large numbers of public school teachers.

Between those ideas and Jindal’s proposal to remake the pension system for rank-and-file state workers, the governor sharpened partisan disputes before the three-month regular legislative session began, angering traditional Democratic allies such as teacher and employee unions while garnering praise from Republicans.

For the first time in memory, Democratic legislative leaders gave an official minority party response to the Republican governor’s opening speech to a joint House and Senate meeting on the session’s opening day. And Republican and Democratic party officials have been trading barbs and criticism since.

The House backed the voucher and teacher tenure bills on Thursday and into the early hours of Friday. While the votes didn’t divide entirely on party lines, Republicans tended to side with Jindal, while Democrats tended to vote against the measures. Next up, the Senate considers the ideas.

Lawmakers may move on from the education bills and into other debates of the legislative session, but there’s no expectation they’ll leave the partisanship behind them.