LaPolitics Notebook

Term limits were approved by Louisiana voters in 1995 by a vote of 76 percent, but they didn’t go into effect until roughly eight years ago.
With just three terms allowed, amounting to 12 years, that means lawmakers and everyone else are still getting used to the revised timeline.
But reality will soon again set in, as 60 percent of the current membership of the Louisiana Legislature will be barred from running for re-election over the next four years.
Right now, 14 members of the House and seven from the Senate are term limited, making for 21 lawmakers on the do-not-run list. But in 2019, there will be 66 overall, including 47 from the House and 19 from the upper chamber.
Of course, the numbers will dip and spin as House members look to upgrade to the Senate and, surely, some senators look to hold on by moving down a notch to the lower chamber.
Either way, it’s a loss of institutional knowledge. The Legislature, however, has been there before.
In 2007 the House had 59 new members elected to their first term of service, with one senator, Noble Ellington, being re-elected to the House after 12 years in the other chamber.
So the 14 members the House loses this year won’t compare, but orienting as many as 47 new members following the next term could be a big job for staff.
House Clerk Butch Speer, who has survived everything from a constitutional convention to a few rounds of redistricting, said the 2007 turnover required a nearly four-day orientation process preceded by the training of 14 small groups of lawmakers between qualifying and Thanksgiving.
From pure percentages, though, the biggest hit could be in the Senate, which may lose 26 of its 39 members by 2019, or 66 percent of the body. In the House, 58 percent may be lost by 2019, or 61 representatives from the 105-member body.
Landry has $1 million
in AG war chest
In his quest to become the next attorney general, former Congressman Jeff Landry will soon report to the state Ethics Administration that his campaign has more than $1 million in the bank. No word yet how much was actually raised in 2014.
“Despite donors being engaged in the very contested congressional races last year, our campaign has received overwhelming support from Louisiana residents and businesses who want their families, freedoms and the rule of law protected,” said campaign manager Millard Mule.
Aside from incumbent Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, also announced are prosecutor Marty Maley and attorney Ike Jackson.
Candidates for governor
firming up teams
We already know what most of the candidates running for governor this fall raised in 2014, but we’re only beginning to learn what they’re spending it on, starting with their campaign teams.
Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle, a Republican from Breaux Bridge, is already spending cash on what he describes as an “energetic team.” Baton Rouge consultant Roy Fletcher will remain his media guru, while Ryan Cross, most recently a senior hand in 5th Congressional District campaigns, has been selected as manager and press handler.
Allie Bausch, a prolific GOP fundraiser, is on the finance side for Angelle and McLaughlin and Associates of New York will be the campaign’s polling firm.
Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne, a Baton Rouge Republican, said his campaign has hired Dave Carney of New Hampshire, a former White House political affairs director, to serve as manager. Old hand George Kennedy remains on board as general consultant.
Wilson Perkins Allen Opinion Research has been hired for Dardenne’s polling and Targeted Victory is overseeing analytics management and other digital efforts.
State Rep. John Bel Edwards of Amite, the only declared Democratic candidate, has been working with a local firm in Hammond on his media and web presence. But the newest addition to his team is Jared Arsement of Lafayette, who has taken on communications.
Edwards’ biggest move of late, though, was purchasing a billboard near the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans. Edwards said it was a “good opportunity that just came up,” but it’s difficult to miss the significance of the Amite lawmaker’s move into the backyard of Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who has yet to rule out running for governor.
The support structure for U.S. Sen. David Vitter, a Metairie Republican, is a bit more complicated.
Vitter’s campaign is not legally allowed to coordinate with the super PAC supporting the senator’s run, but the campaign will have one of its own inside the Fund for Louisiana’s Future this election cycle. Joel DiGrado, Vitter’s former communications director who was loaned out to run U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy’s 2014 campaign, will help steer the FFLF super PAC this year.
No full-time manager has been hired as of yet, but longtime chief of staff Kyle Ruckert, who ran Vitter’s 2010 re-election, is directing traffic at the moment. Courtney Guastella, who has also worked with the FFLF super PAC in the past, is serving as Vitter’s finance director. Already analyzing the data is Gene Ulm of Public Opinion Strategies in Virginia.
Strain picks
up challenger
For his re-election bid this year, Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain so far has one announced opponent.
Horticulturist Jamie LaBranche, a Democrat from LaPlace, is running on a platform of medical agriculture. That includes finding ways to develop a cannabis industry and new uses for certain varieties of poppy. LaBranche ran in 2011, receiving 27 percent to Strain’s 66 percent.
They Said It
“Even his fried chicken comes from Washington.”
-Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne reacting to a planned Popeyes fundraiser in Washington, D.C. for U.S. Sen. David Vitter’s gubernatorial campaign
For more Louisiana political news, visit www.LaPolitics.com or follow Jeremy Alford on Twitter @LaPoliticsNow.