By Jeff Thomas
New Louisiana Attorney General, Jeff Landry, is out of control. Drunk with power and prestige and legitimacy, Landry seems hellbent on embedding right wing ideology into state government policies. After soundly defeating former AG Billy Caldwell, a former Democrat who switched parties to maintain political solvency in Louisiana, the right wing extremist immediately started his crusade.
Landry fight with Edwards
Louisiana has seen this charade before. With disastrous results, past governor Bobby Jindal created policies and a budget based upon his desire to seek higher office. So rather than make decisions best for the citizens of Louisiana, Jindal made decisions that would appease a right wing extremist constituency that he hoped would back him for the Presidency. Not only did Jindal’s presidential aspirations go down in flames, the state was left with a budget morass that required the highest tax increases in state history to solve.
Now Landry, with an eye on the governor’s mansion, is calling plays from the Jindal playbook. In an attempt to illuminate the clear schism between himself and the current governor, Landry is trying to push discrimination and hate into state contracts. As America continues to evolve and grow, ideologues like Landry are promoting a closed society that seek to push people to the fringes of society.
Louisiana governor, John Bel Edwards, issued an executive order last spring requiring language be included in all state contracts to protect LGBT people from firing and harassment. Similar language preventing discrimination based on race, religious creed or political affiliation is also included in all contracts. But Landry’s office has rejected all contracts that include this language. Reminiscent of the federal government shutdowns caused by Landry’s ideological compadres, state services are being curtailed by Landry’s obstructionist actions.
DC Grandstanding
But worse is the embarrassing spectacle Landry made of himself and the state last week in DC. Landry lied, distorted facts and acted in a way totally unbecoming of an attorney, much less the Attorney General of the state of Louisiana. Landry falsely described New Orleans as a “sanctuary city” and claimed that a tragic crash that claimed the life of a beloved fire chief and two men from Mississippi would not have happened if NOLA were not a so called “sanctuary city.”
The driver that caused the crash did not live in NOLA and worked for a company that was not based in NOLA. Furthermore, NOLA Mayor Mitch Landrieu insists that the city is not a “sanctuary city” and that the city prosecutes undocumented people who break the law. Yet Landry continues to insist that the driver of the vehicle that plowed into the unsuspecting victims was living and working in NOLA because he was able to commit crimes and roam freely. Neither is true and Landry knows it.
His ploy to create an ideological gulf between himself and the governor only hurts the citizens of this state. His government shutdown tactics do nothing to serve the state and have nothing to do with his responsibilities as AG.
Black Vote Propelled Him to Victory
And his miscalculation of African American support is fueling his outlandish tactics. In his race against Buddy Caldwell, African Americans viewed Landry as the lesser of two evils. At the behest of Geri Baloney and political operatives in NOLA, Blacks were informed of racist remarks and a racist attitude espoused by Caldwell and hugely supported Landry. In one of the strangest bedfellow alignments in Louisiana political history, the African American community in NOLA and around the state left Caldwell, a former Democrat, and gave a right wing Tea Party ideologue the support he needed to win the AG seat.
But Landry’s chances of keeping the African American vote are about as strong as Jindal’s presidential campaign was. If he wants to be more than a one term AG, Landry should do his job, like members of the legislature urge.
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of Executive Appraisers Louisiana, an MBE-certified real estate appraisal firm, and EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu
Publisher — Black Source Media
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of Executive Appraisers Louisiana, an MBE-certified real estate appraisal firm, and EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu