Jul 04 2008
Kenilworth Parade March
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?
Well, okay, it was a bit more like swimming than marching. The heavens opened up and poured buckets of water down upon us. The parade was delayed and then cut short to a single loop due to the excessive rain and lightning.
The inclement weather trimmed our numbers, but a dedicated few remained and splashed their way through the one block loop of the parade to celebrate our victory.
Our new bright yellow “Greedy Gator Legis Lator” T-shirts looked great. Thank you very much Laura for leading and organizing this effort. We know you put a lot of time into this effort over the past two weeks. It was amazing how everyone pulled together and pitched in to help.
The “leges” are still defiant and angry. They still don’t get what they did wrong. They are still trying to put the blame off on other people instead of looking in the mirror and accepting that they were the ones who did wrong. It is the sort of behavior I expect from a spoiled two year old rather than from an (alleged) dedicated public servant. For example, Senator Duplessis said,
“The only thing you have around here is your word”
Well, that is very true. They, the legislature, certainly did not keep their word to us the people. Not at all. Not in the slightest degree. That is why we are angry with them. We simply can not trust them to take the correct action. They need to rebuild their word with us.
So what promise are we talking about?
Why the promise, that they committed to law in the first special session of this year - Act 8 of 2008.
Previously, by state law, the legislators could vote on an issue in which they had a conflict of interest (R.S. 42:1120) provided they wrote out a statement documenting their conflict of interest and swore how they could put this conflict aside and vote in a fair, true and impartial manner on the issue. They had to file this document with the legislature and then with the ethics board.
Well, with Act 8 of 2008, the legislature closed this loop hole.
No longer would they be able to vote on any issue with which they had a conflict of interest. By law they are OBLIGATED to recuse themselves.
Well, on May 5th, 2008, the Senate Finance Committee heard testimony on the pay raise bill (SB672) by Senator Duplessis. Link to the video {Note: Please cue the video to 29:00 to see the testimony on this bill.}
The first question asked of Senator Duplessis was by Senator Walsworth at 33:00 into the recording, Senator Walsworth asks:
Senator, have you, uh, ah, I guess, one thing that has been brought up over the last week that I have heard is with the new ethics changes, (slight pause) Can we vote on a pay raise for ourselves? Have you asked ethics for a…uh ?”
Here is Senator Duplessis’s answer to that question:
Uh, I think we, uh, that has been brought up and we did make some inquiries on that, I have not gotten a formal ethics opinion.
Um But it appears that I am, we are not voting on something thats got specific, I am not specifically I guess, for my personal only benefit, it is for the universe and so
I was told it was not an ethics issue.
Sigh. This answer is wrong in just so many different ways. She had to be TOLD?
She has 21 years of experience in the banking industry. She knows what a ‘Conflict of Interest’ is and is not.
She knows that she has a personal financial interest in the outcome of this vote. She also knows that she has a competing interest in managing the purse strings of the State. She knows that with regard to this vote, it will be difficult to perform her duties impartially because of the great financial benefit that this vote will bring to her. She does not need the ethics board or anybody else for that matter to tell her that she has a serious conflict of interest with regard to this bill.
By law (R.S. 42:1120), a law which she herself sponsored just a few months earlier, she was obligated to recuse herself from voting on this bill.
Senator Duplessis did not keep her word.
Loading ...
Wow, the pomposity and arrogance of Ann Duplessis! I just listened to her full response to the veto over on forgotson.com and it’s incredible that she doesn’t acknowledge that we people have spoken, choosing instead to blame her raise denial on a radio talk show host. I thank those hosts for everything they’ve done but I admit I did not listen to any talk radio. I, like thousands of others, spent time writing our leges and the governor, every day, and it paid off. I believe it was the overwhelming outcry that the governor could no longer ignore. Maybe he needed that wake up call - he just vetoed the 67.5% increase for the PSC. Hooray legewatch! I don’t know why those who fall under Duplessis’ representation have not begun a recall against her but I hope they see fit to throw her out on her deluded can!
The leges that are not getting it are only opening mouth and inserting foot. You can bet everything the say is being clipped and filed away by their future opponent, and it will appear in their first brochure and campaign commercials.
On Recalling Duplessis.
You might think that Duplessis would be easy to recall, given that she had a tough election.
She only won the 2nd Senatorial District of 75 precincts by a vote of 4,398 to 4,050 (52.06% to 47.94%). So you might think that a person in such a close election would be easy to upend.
Unfortunately, to recall Duplessis, the recall petition needs 1/3 of the registered voters.
In the last election, there were officially 57,701 voters on the roles. So the recall petition would need 19,234 signatures.
However, only 21.6% of the electorate was even active. There were only 11,330 votes in the last election - 1,612 for Dupaty; 5,608 for Duplessis; and 4,110 for Johnson.
So the recall petition would need to get signatures from every single active voter in the last election PLUS an additional 7,904 signatures from inactive voters.
If a voter does not care enough to vote in an election, how are we going to get them to care enough to sign a recall petition. That is, assuming that they still exist. If they do exist, they are most likely in another city.
Perhaps the effort needs to be made anyway and perhaps it needs to be coupled with a purge of missing voters.
The best precinct in the last election was Ward 9 Precint 45. They turned out 47.1% of their voters. The next best was Ward 9 Precint 44N turning out 38.3%. All the other precincts could not even turn out more than 33.7% of the vote.
The worst turnout was in Ward 9 Precinct 43H. They only turned out 2.6% of their allegedly 615 voters.
N: Thank you for the analysis and facts about DuPlessis. Regretfully, the portrait painted by these facts isn’t pretty..certainly not optimistic for a potential recall..let alone a successful recall. If only there was someone in her district who was disgusted enough with her, a recall attempt MIGHT
send her a message that she is not totally immune from a recall or even an attempt…
Where do you research to find out the vote counts. I want to check out the exact vote counts on the rep and sen of the district where I reside.
Thanks!
Reps’ ratings: Louisiana Lesgilature Log.com
Raises for Economic Secretary/deputy and asst. secty. for Public Health: I heard Badon say: Jindal vetoed leg. pay raise, but we voted for raises for eco/phealth people. Will JIndal veto the these raise to “sooth the tail feathers” of legislators?
WDSU ch. 6/veto topic/10/10:30/july 6/tonight
I think it is time for it to rain on the legislators parade!
Louisiana Lesgilature Log.com is at
http://laleglog.blogspot.com/
N: I read that Legislative 2008 wrapup. Did you locate your
rep’s rating?
Interesting reading: go to legis.state.la.us and search for SB672…read Jindal’s letter to Secretary of State Koepp regarding veto of SB672…Jindal states: voters should be able
to ratify or reject pay raise at the ballot box!!
Yep. Pretty low for a Republican.