Governor Landry Gets A Rejection Notice
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry needs to go see the Wiz. Take a short stroll down the yellow brick road is in order. Not in search of a heart, a brain, or courage, but he needs a spine. More like 28 of them. Not for himself, but for his fellow Republicans in the state senate. There he was on the cusp of remaking the state in his image. But his fellow Republicans had the audacity to let him down, on the last day of the legislative session at that. Man, what a letdown. Man, what a moment to LOL.
Surely, you’ve heard. No constitutional convention this year. Governor rebuked, told not today satan. Apparently, the devil wasn’t in the details. Because there were none. The number one answer senators gave when asked why they voted no to a constitutional convention was, we didn’t know what we would be doing it for.
Of course that was intentional, the secrecy. Why tip the public to the foolishness you’re about to pull off when you can do it in private. Landry’s problem was that he couldn’t convince enough senators to wink and nod.
Governor Landry Gets A Rejection Notice
Those same senators winked and nodded when they rejected most of his public records request bills. But senators signaled that they would only take the crazy train so far. And once the public and talk radio hosts started protesting, senators jumped off at the first stop. Suddenly Landry and his secret works were done. Mainly because he didn’t put in the work.
Rewriting a state constitution is, to quote president Biden, a big f-ing deal. So you can’t just walk into a legislative session claiming a big mandate and expect everyone else to fall in line. That was Landry’s mistake. He easily won the governor’s election. And he thought he could do whatever he wanted.
But what he didn’t do was make it clear why the constitution needed to be rewritten. There was no prevailing narrative. Instead, there were just a bunch of questions. The consensus around the state was a resounding WTF.
Governor Landry Still Accomplished Many Things
Still, Landry’s latest rejection doesn’t minimize all he accomplished this legislative session. For his first session he got most of what he wanted. However, Landry is politically immature. After ramming through two special sessions and attempting to change how primaries are done, he seemed not to sense that legislators were done. Just plain tired and ready to go home. They had been in Baton Rouge off and on since January. And they saw the wizard is not all powerful after all.
Holding a convention is a huge undertaking. And who knows what the consequences are. Thankfully, that’s something senators didn’t have the stomach, stamina, or the spine for.
So where does that leave Landry? Regrouping probably. Licking wounds. Plotting and strategizing on how to plan a convention next year. Or there’s a worst-case scenario where another special session is called. Then we watch him take us all down the wrong fork in the yellow brick road.
Great article. Hope is alive for Louisville.