Meanwhile, down in Louisiana, real education reform continues apace … Jindal wants to create America’s largest school voucher program, broadest parental choice system, and toughest teacher accountability regime—all in one legislative session. Any one of those would be a big win, but all three could make the state the first to effectively dismantle a public education monopoly. Keep reading this post . . .
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Could the GOP Nominee Tout a Jindal-Style Education Plan?
Quin Hillyer kindly commends my profile on Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal and wishes for a last-minute presidential bid: Jindal already has endorsed Rick Perry for president. Party leaders still looking to recruit another candidate might want to consider convincing him to renege on that endorsement. This nomination battle is still volatile enough for one more candidate to blow into the race with hurricane force tailwinds. Keep reading this post . . .
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Why We Shouldn’t Expect Any Last-Minute Presidential Bids . . .
The news is unsurprising, but welcome all the same: Louisiana will enjoy another four years of Bobby Jindal as governor.
For a good portion of next week, I’ll be in Louisiana, working on an article for the magazine on Louisana Gov. Bobby Jindal and the accomplishments of his first term. Besides his policy successes, Jindal has already surprised the state by making the Louisiana Democrat Party a virtual nonentity in this year’s gubernatorial race: Campaign reports filed last week with the state Board of Ethics showed just how big a financing disparity exists between Gov.
Down in Louisiana, it is an election year, and the firm JMC Enterprises is out with a new survey, looking at the outlook for that state’s legislative elections. The results can be found here ; they conclude: If you were to allocate all of the African-American undecideds to the Democratic column and split the white and “other” undecideds equally between Democrats and Republicans, you’d be looking at a 52-48% preference for GOP legislative candidates. What does this 52% GOP preference mean in terms of the likely size of the GOP legislative delegation after the fall elections? If we look only at the raw numbers (Note: we’re not considering the quality of the candidates or “game changing” events that would impact the results), even though John Kennedy received 46% of the vote in his 2008 race against Mary Landrieu, he received absolute majorities in 70 out of 144 legislative districts (51 in the House and 19 in the Senate). When David Vitter was re-elected with 57% of the statewide vote last year, he carried 99 legislative districts (72 in the House and 27 in the Senate). Given these numbers, a 52% GOP statewide vote roughly equates to the GOP winning 63 House seats (a pickup of 8 seats) and 23 Senate seats (a pickup of 1 seat). JMC lays out a bit about their sampling: For this poll, we chose a sample of 19,324 likely Louisiana households for an automated poll, and 489 responded to one or more of three poll questions. We chose a “likely voter” model because we believe this will best approximate the 2011 electorate.The survey was conducted June 28-July 2. The margin of error, with a 95% confidence interval, was 4.38%. The racial breakdown of the electorate was 71-28% white. This demographic breakdown closely approximates the 2010 electorate (27% African-American), and we believe it is the most reasonable model to use for this year’s electorate. Of course, all of the standard caveats apply – it’s early, party loyalty is sometimes weaker in state legislative elections, quality of candidates matters, etc. In other Louisiana news, the Democrats have now found a candidate to run against Gov. Bobby Jindal: Tara Hollis , a public school teacher from Haynesville, Louisiana.
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Early Outlook Positive for Louisiana GOP
Reuters – Texas Governor Rick Perry looked and sounded like a White House contender on Saturday, delivering a fiery condemnation of President Barack Obama and Washington to a crowd of Republican activists chanting “Run, Rick, Run.”
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Rick Perry sounds like a 2012 candidate in New Orleans
(Reuters)
The Louisiana Supreme Court is expected to hear a novel argument Monday in the long-standing debate over the legacy of the Confederate flag: Is it so prejudicial that its presence at the courthouse justifies overturning a murder conviction?
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Murder Appeal Raises Confederate Flag Issue
AP – BP marked the first anniversary of the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill by filing lawsuits claiming its business partners caused the disaster, as Gulf residents held somber vigils and relatives flew over the waters where 11 oil rig workers died.
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BP sues partners as Gulf marks year since spill
(AP)
