LOUISIANA COULD HAVE THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY!

Thursday, March 16^th, 2015

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

LOUISIANA COULD HAVE THE FIRST

PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY!

Louisiana is scheduled to have its presidential primary on March 5th of next year, but there is one little problem.  The state is broke and the Jindal administration has allocated no money for the legally required election.  So what happens next? Does Governor Jindal really want a primary? And is there a way to hold an election for free and get huge national coverage in the process?

Some cynics around the state capitol think Jindal purposely gutted funding for a primary so he would not have to be on the ballot in his home state.  The governor’s popularity has plummeted to an all time low at 27%, with few signs that it will improve before the spring election date.  Calling off the election would be a way for Jindal not to be humiliated by Louisiana voters.

Actually, there is no national requirement that a state has to hold a presidential primary.  A few states, including Colorado, Iowa and Nevada, hold caucuses where each party conducts regional meetings to discuss and vote on delegates who are pledged to a specific candidate. A similar system was in place in Louisiana for a number of years.

So how can Louisiana still have a presidential primary without spending any money? Just look at the election cycles.  The first selection of presidential delegates is set for January 5^th with the holding of the Iowa caucuses.  In fact, the national election season kicks off even earlier on August 8^th of this year when Iowa holds a non binding straw poll.  So why should Louisiana wait until March 5^th of next year?

Louisiana is the only state in the nation to have a statewide election close to the presidential primary elections.  The gubernatorial runoff date in Louisiana is set for November 31^st. Why not kick off the presidential election campaign right here in the Bayou State on this election date?  Along with the various state and local races, Louisiana should consider including on the ballot the nation’s first presidential primary.

Since the state is holding its regular election anyway, there will be no additional cost involved to the taxpayers. In fact, there would be the savings of $3.5 million. Pretty good chump change for a state that is facing major financial challenges.  All major candidates for president would certainly be expected to flock to Louisiana, spending a good deal of money trying to garner national attention at the state’s first presidential primary. And Louisiana voters would have a chance to highlight Louisiana issues. It would seem to be a win, win for the State.

Can you imagine the massive some of money that would be spent in Louisiana, as candidates run major media campaigns with the hopes of building momentum for the early spring round of elections? It would be the nation’s first indication of what voters were thinking, what issues were important, and what candidates were emerging as favorites. Finish sixth in Louisiana, and it undercuts any candidate’s effectiveness in raising campaign dollars and building major support as the next election primaries approach.

To prevent legal challenges by both national parties, the election would have to be non—binding. Party caucuses could take place later in the spring, at no cost to the state, to select delegates who will attend the national convention next summer. And even though the results would be non—binding, Louisiana would jump from the irrelevancy it is now, to the leader of the pack in selecting the next president.

The legislature, that begins meeting in a few weeks, could alleviate the cost of the required primary and put Louisiana front and center of the national presidential campaign by merely allow candidates for president to appear on this coming November’s election ballot.  That’s all it would take.

We’ve stood by for years and watch our Governor travel the nation in his quixotic quest for national office. Now’s the time to bring Jindal and the nation’s focus back home to the deepest of the deep southern states, where it should have been all along.

********

“Presidential primary debates are an important part of our political process. But the media has wrested complete control from the parties and candidates over everything, including the number, the format, the qualifications, and the moderators. And they've become a circus.”

Mark McKinnon

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com. You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9 am till 11:00 am, central time, on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

LOUISIANA GOVERNORS TRAVELING LOUISIANA.

Thursday, March 19^th, 2015

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

LOUISIANA GOVERNORS TRAVELING LOUISIANA.

We all know that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is a traveler.  He seems to be constantly crisscrossing the country in his unlikely and quixotic quest to obtain national office.  But now he says he is also the unrivaled champion of governors who travel all over the Bayou State.  In a recent interview to the Monroe News-Star, Jindal is quoted saying:  “I believe I’ve been to more places as governor than any other governor before me inside the state of Louisiana.”  All the governors I have known, going back to John McKeithen, would strongly disagree.

A spot check throughout the state turned up few Jindal sightings.  Calls to newspapers and officials in numerous parishes responded that there had been no sign of the Governor in their part of the state in years.  Yes, Jindal gets his traveling shoes on when there is a hurricane a churning.  But even his one visiting mainstay, north Louisiana evangelical churches, rarely see the governor any more.

Previous governors in recent years thrived on the “retail” aspects of speaking all over Louisiana.  Back when I served as state senator in the 70s, it was tradition that you always showed up when the governor was in your legislative district.  It seemed a month would not go by that Edwin Edwards was not somewhere in my part of the state, often for multiple visits.

When the legislature was in session and we were meeting in Baton Rouge, it was standard procedure for the governor to call and ask legislators in a district where he was speaking to tag along.  Edwards was a military pilot in Word War II, and often flew the plane himself with the state pilot along as co pilot.  The most harrowing flight I ever took was with EWE in the cockpit flying the plane.

I joined several legislators, including current Senator Francis Thompson, to attend a dedication by Edwards of a new parish hospital up in Tallulah.  (That’s northeast Louisiana along the Mississippi River for all you non-rednecks.)  We took off to return to Baton Rouge with the governor flying the plane when, I kid you not, the door of the aircraft fell open at 1500 feet.  Those of us aboard went from shear terror to cautious relief as EWE made a wobbly landing back at the Tallulah airstrip.

When I served as Secretary of State back in the early 80s, then Governor Dave Treen was also a consummate traveler and speaker statewide.  He often flew in a state helicopter, and public officials like myself were welcome to join him.  Treen was a vociferous reader; reviewing in detail every piece of proposed legislation being considered by the legislature. On a trip I took with him for a speech in New Iberia, he barely said a word, spending the time flying over and back studying one proposed law.  It was an understatement that he was a real stickler for detail.

Governor Mike Foster rarely left the state but traveled extensively for public appearances in Louisiana.  He hosted a weekly radio talk show heard statewide, and took any question that was called in.  Foster also aggressively courted legislators with invites to his Franklin plantation home and his fishing camp at Grand Isle.

John McKeithen was a two-term governor in the 1960s before I entered public office, and his presence was abundant all over Louisiana.  Big John was a civil war history buff, and would often make side trips to some historic battle site in the state.  I had a family connection to Davis Island, the home of Jefferson Davis, the first president of the confederacy.  At least once a year, the Governor would call to ask if he could travel up to the Island by helicopter, and walk the historic grounds.  He knew more Louisiana civil war history than anyone in the state.  And he talked about past civil war events in his speeches across Louisiana.

All these governors kept their sole major focus on Louisiana.  Yes, several of them, including McKeithen and Edwards, flirted with national office ambitions, but they always kept Louisiana first.  Bobby Jindal is not even close to these previous governors in relating, speaking and traveling the state, and connecting with voters. He has walked away from the job he used to boastfully say was “the only job he ever wanted.”  Jindal sightings in Louisiana are as rare as his chances of obtaining national office.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.  You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9 am till 11:00 am, central time, on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

E-MAIL SCANDALS-CLINTON AND JINDAL?

Thursday, March 12^th, l2015

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

E-MAIL SCANDALS-CLINTON AND JINDAL?

It’s going to take a lot more than old emails to derail Hillary Clinton’s grasp of the Democratic presidential nomination next year.  Few voters really care how she communicated with her staff while serving as Secretary of State.  Republicans think they are circling the wagons in major attack mode.  But if they look in their own backyard, a number of GOP presidential wannabes, including Louisiana’s fair haired quixotic candidate Bobby Jindal, have the same problem of not following the law when it comes to producing emails.

Clinton took office in 2009, when state department regulations affirmed that: “It is the Department’s general policy that normal day-to-day operations be conducted on an authorized Automated Information System.”  However, the internal rules list numerous exceptions, and the agency has stated that it had “no prohibition” on the use of private email for work purposes.  The only specific requirement for all employees was that any e-mail sent or received from a personal account had to be kept and maintained so as to be included in the State Department’s personal records. 

A number of Republican presidential candidates have maintained private e-mail accounts to carry on public business.  Former Florida governor Jeb Bush maintained his own server and released numerous emails he felt were required under state law.  But just like Clinton, how he determined what was “public” was left up to him.  Texas governor Rick Perry agrees that his emails on state business should be public, so but he simply wipes them out every thirty days.  So much for maintaining pubic records.

Minnesota Governor Scott Walker and his staff used private email accounts to carry on public business mingled with political campaigning that led to the conviction of several of his appointees.  And New Jersey governor Chris Christie is presently entangled in a number of lawsuits for ignoring his state’s public records law.

At one time, Louisiana had the strongest public records law in America.  I know a little about this as I was the author of Louisiana’s first public records act along with the state’s first open meetings law back in 1976 when I was in the State Senate.   But little by little, the intent of public transparency has been undermined.  Jindal, according to the Associated Press, uses a private email account to communicate with his staff, just like Clinton. Public records requests are generally ignored by Jindal and his staff, so the Governor will be long gone before his public business decisions through email are revealed.  That is, assuming he and his staff do not “scrub” their email servers.

I agree with a limited exclusion to the public records requirements for contract negotiations along with decisions on higher and firing of public employees.  But such exceptions should be narrowly interpreted and violations should be strongly enforced.  The test is simply one of content driven analysis in that if an action is done in the pursuit of the public interest, it becomes a public document. Unfortunately, Louisiana has gone from a state the led the nation in openness and transparency in public decisions, to a backward bastion of secrecy and unaccountability.

Should public officials carry on public business through private e-mail accounts?  Absolutely not.  It is so easy today to set up several email accounts on the same server.  If public activity is being undertaken, then use the public account.  If someone is conducting private business, they can easily switch over to a private account.  But a public official, who uses a sequestered email account that only he or she has access to, is violating both the spirit and the letter of the law in most states including Louisiana,

The public’s right to know is a basic premise for any democracy.  Communications that lead to public decisions by public officials need to be scrutinized.  That applies to Hillary Clinton who is presently on the email hot seat, as well as Bobby Jindal and all the other presidential aspirants.  It’s the right thing to do, the public deserves such openness, and it’s the law.

********

“A government by secrecy benefits no one. It breeds distrust, dampens the fervor of its citizens and mocks their loyalty.”

Louisiana Senator Russell Long

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.  You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9 am till 11:00 am, central time, on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

It’s going to take a lot more than old emails to derail Hillary Clinton’s grasp of the Democratic presidential nomination next year.  Few voters really care how she communicated with her staff while serving as Secretary of State.  Republicans think they are circling the wagons in major attack mode.  But if they look in their own backyard, a number of GOP presidential wannabes, including Louisiana’s fair haired quixotic candidate Bobby Jindal, have the same problem of not following the law when it comes to producing emails.

Clinton took office in 2009, when state department regulations affirmed that: “It is the Department’s general policy that normal day-to-day operations be conducted on an authorized Automated Information System.”  However, the internal rules list numerous exceptions, and the agency has stated that it had “no prohibition” on the use of private email for work purposes.  The only specific requirement for all employees was that any e-mail sent or received from a personal account had to be kept and maintained so as to be included in the State Department’s personal records. 

A number of Republican presidential candidates have maintained private e-mail accounts to carry on public business.  Former Florida governor Jeb Bush maintained his own server and released numerous emails he felt were required under state law.  But just like Clinton, how he determined what was “public” was left up to him.  Texas governor Rick Perry agrees that his emails on state business should be public, so but he simply wipes them out every thirty days.  So much for maintaining pubic records.

Minnesota Governor Scott Walker and his staff used private email accounts to carry on public business mingled with political campaigning that led to the conviction of several of his appointees.  And New Jersey governor Chris Christie is presently entangled in a number of lawsuits for ignoring his state’s public records law.

At one time, Louisiana had the strongest public records law in America.  I know a little about this as I was the author of Louisiana’s first public records act along with the state’s first open meetings law back in 1976 when I was in the State Senate.   But little by little, the intent of public transparency has been undermined.  Jindal, according to the Associated Press, uses a private email account to communicate with his staff, just like Clinton. Public records requests are generally ignored by Jindal and his staff, so the Governor will be long gone before his public business decisions through email are revealed.  That is, assuming he and his staff do not “scrub” their email servers.

I agree with a limited exclusion to the public records requirements for contract negotiations along with decisions on higher and firing of public employees.  But such exceptions should be narrowly interpreted and violations should be strongly enforced.  The test is simply one of content driven analysis in that if an action is done in the pursuit of the public interest, it becomes a public document. Unfortunately, Louisiana has gone from a state the led the nation in openness and transparency in public decisions, to a backward bastion of secrecy and unaccountability.

Should public officials carry on public business through private e-mail accounts?  Absolutely not.  It is so easy today to set up several email accounts on the same server.  If public activity is being undertaken, then use the public account.  If someone is conducting private business, they can easily switch over to a private account.  But a public official, who uses a sequestered email account that only he or she has access to, is violating both the spirit and the letter of the law in most states including Louisiana,

The public’s right to know is a basic premise for any democracy.  Communications that lead to public decisions by public officials need to be scrutinized.  That applies to Hillary Clinton who is presently on the email hot seat, as well as Bobby Jindal and all the other presidential aspirants.  It’s the right thing to do, the public deserves such openness, and it’s the law.

********

“A government by secrecy benefits no one. It breeds distrust, dampens the fervor of its citizens and mocks their loyalty.”

Louisiana Senator Russell Long

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.  You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9 am till 11:00 am, central time, on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.