Lege Watch

Well, one of our (NOT SO) illustrious state senators had a very bad weekend.

State Sen. Derrick Shepherd was released early Sunday morning after being arrested Saturday night, accused of punching his ex-girlfriend and stealing her cellular phone and $100, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office reported. (link)

Oh my.

Ask, and you shall receive. I wished that Governor Jindal would break out his veto pen, and he finally did:

He thusly axed 258 items to the tune of $16 million (and said indirect savings were $27 million more), over ten times what he excised from the supplemental bill and about double the number from the last 12 budget bills combined. This in and of itself perhaps tells us there hasn’t been a lot of good prioritizing in past budgets.

It’s amusing to watch leges flip out over the loss of their pet projects. Or it would be, if it weren’t sad that so many worthy projects are now unfunded. But the core problem here is not that Jindal has vetoed them. It’s that the legislature, and whoever runs these projects, did not see to it that they were appropriately funded to begin with.

While Mary Landrieu issues press releases bragging about picking Federal taxpayer pockets for an ethanol project which is obviously a state issue, the Louisiana lege does the exact same thing on a smaller scale. Continue Reading »

The veto session is held 40 days after the session ended.  So by my count, NOON on the Fortieth day is Saturday August 2nd, 2008.

The declaration from each legislator that such a session is not needed must be received before Monday, July 28th.

On another subject, Louisiana will be hosting the National Conference of State Legislators in New Orleans at the Morial center from July 22, 2008 to July 26th, 2008.  So we can probably find most of our legislators partying down there on the week before the session starts should they hold one.

N.

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WOW !!! AMAZING !!! MAGNIFICENT !!!

A very long message from the Governor of the State of Louisiana on ONE very simple issue - Responsible spending.

Those greedy gator legislators were busy this session. Very busy. Here is the Gov’s reply to them. Will they call a veto session and try to overide?

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On the last post, a member asked,

How do I find out Election Statistics about my legislator?

Well, don’t know that I know much about this subject, so if I get this wrong, y’all feel free to edumucate me on this. Continue Reading »

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Yesterday, we marched in the Kenilworth Parade to CELBEBRATE GOVERNOR JINDAL’s VETO of the greedy legislatures excessive and unethical pay raises.

Marched?  Continue Reading »

Missed your chance to order your Greedy Gator Legislator shirt? I’ve had quite a few emails and phone calls from people who are wearing their shirts and keep getting asked where they got them. We sold out of our first big batch but I’ve made arrangements with F&D Sales to continue making the shirts - we just need to order them in batches of at least 36.

So if you would like to pre-order, just email me at admin@legewatch.com with your contact info, along with the sizes and number of shirts you want. click here.

The tee shirts are Gildan 100% preshrunk 6.1 oz. heavyweight cotton, seamless collar, double needle stitched, taped shoulder to shoulder. The cost is $16.95 (for all sizes - Small, Medium, Large, XL, 2XL, 3XL) including taxes. DO NOT EMAIL ME YOUR BILLING INFO. When we’ve got enough shirts for an order, I’ll contact you and tell you where to make a payment online and place the order. Thanks!

I was amused to notice two comments from the same IP address, submitted within 5 minutes of one another, with different names; both very sarcastic, vitriolic defenses of the pay raise. I’m not going to allow those comments to be posted where they were submitted because that sort of thing is often enough disingenuously referenced to “prove” that they are representative of us all. Since one includes a call to violence - sarcastic or not - they can’t go unremarked.

The first, allegedly from one Sandy Martin:

Hooray! We won! I can’t believe those idiots thought they could stand up to the people. They won’t ask for a raise now for another 28 years. I think they should work for free or even pay us for the privilege of serving us. I see my legislator in the grocery store and I always go up and give him an earful of what’s on my mind. I don’t care what he’s in the middle of. One time I saw him at my neighbor’s funeral and I bent his ear plenty. I wanted to get my son a job with the state. I think these legislators are stupid because they didn’t know that they aren’t supposed to get paid for their time. They’re supposed to steal enough to make it worth their while. I say we hang them all. I hate all public officials. They are a worthless bunch of ungrateful scumbags who don’t do anything for us. I get little teeny raises and they try to get huge raises that would make them rich. Rich people make money like $60,000 a year. Like that Stephen Moret guy. That’s rich.

Let the fisking begin:

They won’t ask for a raise now for another 28 years. I think they should work for free or even pay us for the privilege of serving us.

In the last 28 years, the mileage and per diem has been raised repeatedly, and overall compensation is considerably higher than the base pay would seem to indicate. It’s comparable with what other hybrid legislatures in the south make right now, and leges also enjoy numerous benefits and perqs. Additionally, no one in the lege now has been stuck at this pay rate for 28 years because they have not been in office that long. The terms under which they work now are the exact same terms they spent tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of man hours to work under - often enough engaging, like my Representative, in some very dishonest and dirty campaigning. To complain now that they were tricked into taking them is specious. Continue Reading »

A lot of folks were disappointed that Steve canceled the rally and wanted to do something to

a) celebrate the victory!
b) promote their recall efforts

Good news - you still can!

We’re still participating in the Kenilworth parade tomorrow, Thursday, July 3.  Some legislators, especially Duplessis, have been openly saying how wrong voters are for being enraged about this attempted pay raise.  Others are trying to change the narrative so that the issue is not the pay raise, but the amount and the manner in which they attempted to get it.  LegeWatch rejects both arguments.

First, voters are absolutely entitled to be part of the decision making process where our tax dollars are being spent, especially when it comes to the compensation of our representatives.  Second, take a look at Louisiana’s misery index, courtesy of Forgotston, and tell me if these people deserve a raise at all.  Consider the amount of time they waste on Sazeracs, fleur de lis, and redundant legislation - while claiming it’s a full time job - and decide whether Louisiana deserves a citizen legislature who will prioritize on what’s really important, or if we need over 2,000 bills filed per session by people who aspire to be a full time political class.  For an example of the quality of the legislation they have already passed, consider the fact that due to sloppy ethics legislation, they triggered the resignations of over 200 people and had to pass yet another bill, SB 718, to try to correct the error.

So tomorrow you can declare your independence from a full time legislature, celebrate the pay raise victory, let them know we’re still watching, and promote your recall effort. Legewatchers are meeting at Monjuni’s restaurant between 3 and 4pm. (map)  This is a family event so keep your signs appropriate - and if you don’t want to make a sign, come on out and second-line with us!  The parade route begins and ends at the Kenilworth Middle School located on Boone Drive in Kenilworth. Please arrive by 5:45 p.m. for set up – you’ll recognize us by our Greedy Gator tee shirts!  (Tee shirt sales end at 5pm today; last chance to get them here.)   The parade begins 6:30p.m. and will last about an hour.   If you’re coming, let us know by posting in the comments.

And finally, we’re a little early with it but this should be our last email until next week, so -
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

This is a brief update to follow up on We did it! Where do we go from here?

One of the website changes I’ve made is to set up a proper mailing list, rather than me just emailing you from my Outlook account. Please add admin@legewatch.com to your address book to ensure you keep receiving these emails if you want to receive them - and if you don’t, there is now an unsubscribe link at the bottom of each message we send out. [Added - we will normally only send out one digest email per week - sorry to hit you with two today; this original post and now the correction.]

I’ve just spoken to the folks at F&D Sales who graciously took on this last minute project and did a great job with it. Of course now that the veto has been issued there isn’t going to be much call for these shirts. If you’d like one as a souvenir or to wear while you work on recall efforts, you have until 5pm tomorrow - Thursday WEDNESDAY, July 2, 2008 - to order. Continue Reading »

In the last two weeks this grass roots effort has sprung up out of nowhere - we got a website, connected, and somehow got things done. Legewatchers coordinated all sorts of things from participation in the Kenilworth parade to transport to the rally to call and email campaigns and promotion in local media. We told our friends and family and spread the word however we could. Behind the scenes, we researched the lege and learned even more reasons to be frustrated and angry with their arbitrary pay raise. Robert Davis became our spokesperson, G8trgirl helped with research and posting, Monica set up a march in the Kenilworth parade, DeWayne got us some press in Monroe and Cindy was on Sean Hannity’s radio show. Liz has been instrumental in a number of ways especially research and tips and Tsivam did the legwork and helped get the permit for our rally (which we later canceled in favor of the one scheduled for 7/7.) Denise, Robert, Bev and Bill, Brad, and many others including the attorney who checked to see if our future use of House and Senate video is going to get us hauled to court, and the retired lege who advised and encouraged us… it’s simply amazing how most of us didn’t know each other but we all pitched in where we could and were instrumental in this huge success. All the website participation, emails, comments, tips and posts in the forum helped keep this going - there are too many people to name, but I can’t thank you all enough. We joined Bayou Buzz, Moon Griffon, Ringside Politics, bloggers of all stripes and countless others in expressing our outrage and between us all - WE DID IT!

[Added - I can't believe I forgot to mention John Roberts of Recall Pay Raise Tucker / Taxpayers Union of Louisiana who obviously was an integral part of getting the word out and motivating people to act on all this - the checklist that is proving so helpful to people organizing recalls was his plan. - Laura]

But we’re not finished. The people spoke and the Governor (finally) listened. We’re all - the whole state - taking a much deserved victory lap. But when we’re finished, we need to consider where we go from here at LegeWatch. Two sentences of Governor Jindal’s statement deserve particular attention:

“I know that some of the legislators are going to be upset that I broke my word to them to stay out of their business. But I am asking them to take out their anger on me – not on the people of Louisiana.”

They reflect a profound misunderstanding of what we expect from our state government and what the relationship between the legislature and those of us who granted them the privilege of representing us should be. Granting a pay raise is not the legislator’s “business.” It is the business of all taxpayers and we should not have been excluded from the decision making process. And if the legislators are angry, they have only themselves to thank for not approaching this more appropriately - namely, going to the voters, getting feedback on their job performance and asking for - not arbitrarily taking - a pay raise.

Unfortunately, that view can be considered Utopian and the likelihood in today’s political scene is that the legislature will, in fact, try to avenge itself on the Governor by stopping or stalling legislation he wants passed. It’s up to us to ensure that our representatives deal with prospective laws in a fair and honest manner. If they’re stopping or slowing legislation, it MUST be because it is the will of the people that the legislation not be enacted and not petty politics. But the only way we can ensure that is the case is to watch them and call them to account for their actions - or lack of action.

Additionally, a good deal of the lege’s justification for this pay raise is that they claim the work has become a full time job. Legewatchers can make a difference on two fronts. While it is true that the lege cannot control if the governor calls them into a special session, they can control how much work they make for themselves the rest of the time. The over 2,000 bills filed last session was simply too much. We don’t need that many new laws. They’re making work for themselves and they need to be held accountable for it; we want a citizen legislature, not a full time political elite. A good goal is to see the number of bills submitted reduced by half and public scrutiny will accomplish that. If the lege stops wasting so much time in regular sessions, there will not be so much of a need for the governor to call them into special sessions - and we can additionally pressure the governor to find other ways of working with the lege instead of calling special sessions - he is part of the problem too.

There will be a few changes in the website over the next week, and we’re still getting organized for the long term but among the immediate goals for Legewatch we need to start building dossiers on each and every lege who supported this pay raise. Even if we can’t get them recalled, we can certainly start planning for the next election. So please keep an eye on the site, stay in touch with us, and remain involved with holding our representatives accountable for what they do.