The little things

The Louisiana Democratic Party, such as it is, has spent much of the past month backslapping and high fiving over its last second muster to very narrowly reelect a conservative Governor. But if they're being honest, they have to admit the 2019 election was close to a total disaster. Republicans hold historically large majorities in the legislature (a "supermajority" in the Senate, in fact.) Their agenda is going to begin with limiting your right to sue if you are injured by corporate malfeasance. There will probably be another stab at tilting the ITEP rules back (further) in favor of big business. And, of course, there will never ever ever be a successful attempt by this legislature to raise the minimum wage above the federal standard.

So it could have been a lot worse if John Bel weren't going back up there to stand around and frown at the Republicans until they behave somewhat. But it's still going to be very bad.  In the meantime, it's the little wins that matter. And from the looks of things, today's election of Clay Schexnayder to the Speaker's chair above Sherman Mack is probably one of those little wins.

The speaker’s race pitted Republicans against one another, as Kennedy and Landry ran negative ads against lawmakers allied with Schexnayder and Baton Rouge businessman Richard Lipsey funded digital ads against Mack. Republican donor Lane Grigsby also pushed for Mack.

Hard to know what the long term consequences will be. But any time you can make John, Jeff, and Lane upset on the same day, has to be considered at least a little bit good.

Return of the Mack

The Republican caucus has voted to endorse Rep Sherman Mack to become the next Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives. That doesn't necessarily mean he will become Speaker, though. 39 Republicans voted to endorse him. But he will need 53 votes when the full House decides the matter in January. And there are other candidates.

Republicans came to Baton Rouge for a delegation meeting that was supposed to start at 9:30 a.m., but haggling over the endorsement vote delayed the start time. Mack and Schexnayder were among the candidates that gave presentations before a question-and-answer session, and Mack won 39 votes, which were cast by ballot. That was the exact number he needed to win the endorsement, as it required a two-thirds vote of those present. (Clay) Schexnayder won 17 votes, while Chalmette Republican Rep. Ray Garofalo won one vote.

“I would hope all the Republicans would get behind Sherman Mack now that he has been selected as the Republican delegation nominee,” said state Rep. Jack McFarland, of Jonesboro and one-time speaker candidate who got behind Mack in recent weeks. “That’s the purpose of having that vote.”

If Shexnayder retains his support that would mean the votes of Democratic House members will come into play. This week, John Kennedy and Jeff Landry have been urging the Republican members not to let this happen although it's difficult to imagine it will make much of a difference.  Should the speakership go to Mack or to Shexnayder or to Mack or to some compromise candidate in the event of a deadlock, the Republican agenda is pretty clear. And they all seem to be on the same page more or less. However it is worth noting that Mack is thought by the "Kingmaker" to be somewhat more on that page.

Mack, the preferred candidate of influential GOP donor Lane Grigsby, had emerged as one of two front-runners for the top post in the House, along with state Rep. Clay Schexnayder, of Gonzales. The two both offered up the exact same policy priority, tort reform, a long-held Republican priority that has recently evoked heated battles in the Legislature and in elections.

Pro-business groups and trial attorneys, who are on opposite sides of the issue, poured millions into the governor’s race and legislative elections this year. Business groups were generally successful in electing favorable lawmakers, while Edwards, a Democrat with big support from attorneys, won the governor’s race over Mack’s preferred candidate, Eddie Rispone.

Don't let John Bel's narrow escape fool you. This election was a major right wing landslide and the new legislature is going to reflect that. Whoever the new speaker is, that person's top priority will be "tort reform." Which means they will work to protect corporate entities such as polluting chemical companies or labor abusive contractors such as Citadel Builders from facing any consequences for their crimes.

Which points us to one more reason why Mack might have distinguished himself as the most Republican of this batch of Republicans. Recall that during the previous term, Mack was among the few holdouts agitating against and watering down the set of bipartisan criminal justice reforms the legislature eventually passed. So he's keen on seeing to it that the legal system punishes somebody.  But only certain somebodies.

Also they will be required to stand on one foot and sing the national anthem backwards

The latest in the set of prison anti-reforms to move through the legislature goes out of its way to make sure we keep old people in jail. This bill insists that candidates for parole jump through a number of irrelevant hoops simply for the purpose of having this all be harder than it needs to be.

Under the bill, people would only be able to qualify for geriatric parole if they also completed 100 hours of pre-release training, earned an equivalent of a high school diploma, got through substance abuse treatment if necessary and not had a disciplinary offense at the prison in the 12 months prior to coming to the parole board.

Other bills aimed at gutting last year's moderate criminal justice reforms are moving as well.

Sherman Mack's HB195 extending parole from 3 to 5 years  has passed the House.

Mack's HB168 limiting good time served credits has also passed the House.

Mack is carrying quite a few of these. (He is close with DAs.) Here is a a bill that jacks up restitution and fees imposed on convicts. It is also out of the House already.  Three bill with similar effects by Dan Claitor, Ronnie Johns, and Ryan Gatti are under consideration in the Senate this week.

Last year, Louisiana's habitual offender law which had been a favorite tool used by Orleans DA Leon Cannizzaro to bully people, was made slightly less onerous.  This year a bill by Tony Bacala would restore the old law as it applies to those already convicted ensuring they serve the extra long sentences the reform was meant to eliminate.

Suffice to say, our meager effort at being an ever so slightly less cruel state last year is already backsliding. Beyond that, though, I'm curious about the effect of all this on the budget. One selling point that helped boost last year's reforms had to do with the money they were going to save us.  This year, in fact, lawmakers are already squabbling over the best use of that presumed dividend. These rollbacks, though, are going to eat into it as well.  If anyone has an estimate as to how badly, I haven't seen it yet.

The policing racket

The various law enforcement agencies who do drug interdiction in Louisiana are a government backed crime syndicate.

A former narcotics officer pleaded guilty Thursday to federal drug charges, admitting he stole cash and cocaine while serving on a New Orleans-based U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration task force.

The officer, Johnny J. Domingue, a former Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office deputy, has emerged as a key witness in a misconduct investigation that has roiled the DEA's New Orleans field division and affected dozens of state and local drug cases.

The U.S. Justice Department has accused several members of the DEA task force of shaking down witnesses, dealing drugs and swiping cash during federal raids. Four former members of the group, which operated largely along the Interstate 12 corridor, face federal charges.

Here is where we refer you again to Ethan Brown's investigation into the exact same pattern in Jeff Davis Parish. Also see the general recurring pattern of abuse in Sheriff's departments all over the state. It's critical that people understand the scope of this. It's not just bad apples here and there. It's systemic and it's getting worse.

In Trump times, the sheriffs are all the more emboldened in using immigration and drug enforcement as a pretext to garner federal support for their various rackets.  They also receive a substantial amount of support from elected  rodeo clowns like John Kennedy.

During a hearing in the Judiciary Committee Thursday, Kennedy not only voted against a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill sponsored by fellow Republican Charles Grassley. He also took the opportunity to make several cynically misleading claims about a similar state effort, which was also bipartisan but was backed by Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, whom Kennedy may challenge next year.

Kennedy claimed Edwards pushed the laws without consulting Louisiana's sheriffs and district attorneys, even though there were prolonged negotiations with district attorneys and no governor has been closer to sheriffs than Edwards. For the record, both prosecutors and sheriffs were represented on the Louisiana Justice Reinvestment Task Force, the group that drafted the bills.

Yeah we all know John is probably running for Governor.  So let's not take his comments all that seriously.  Otherwise we'd have to ask if he remembers just how watered down last year's sentencing reforms ended up being in the first place.  There was a whole fight over it in the legislature when certain Republicans threw a fit.

But (State Rep Sherman) Mack said he intends to push for amendments that would remove the retroactivity from the bills, meaning they wouldn't apply to anyone currently in prison. He also said he wants to get rid of the changes that could shorten sentences for first-time inmates convicted of violent offenses.

"The victim was told they would do a certain amount of time," Mack said.

Oh yeah, Sherman Mack. Remember that guy? What's he up to now? Oh hey, here he is. Turns out he is the lawyer who just got that crooked Sheriff's deputy his plea deal.  Neat.

"Johnny wants to move on with his life," defense attorney Sherman Mack said outside of U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon's courtroom. "He is ready to have this behind him." 

Okay, Sherman, but please remember that the victims of the corrupt law enforcement apparatus were expecting the guy might do a certain amount of time.

Lone Ranger

So much work done on these criminal justice reforms. Might be derailed by just some guy who wants to be smug.

Rep. Sherman Mack, R-Albany, will be proposing significant changes to legislation meant to shorten criminal sentences that are the lynchpin of a larger bipartisan criminal justice package meant to reduce Louisiana's highest-in-the-country incarceration rate.

Mack is the chairman of the House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice, which has to approve the bills, and has influence over the fate of the legislation because of his position.

You'd think a guy in Mack's position would have gotten a little more hands-on with this high profile legislation a lot earlier in the process. But no.  

The criminal justice package that has been moving its way through the Legislature is a compromise struck by Gov. John Bel Edwards and and Louisiana's district attorneys after weeks of negotiations. Mack said he has not talked to the governor or district attorneys about his amendments yet.

"He hasn't really talked to anybody about his changes, which is the frustrating part," said Rep. Joseph Marino, of Gretna, who is carrying the three Senate bills in the House. Marino, a criminal defense lawyer, has been involved in many of the negotiations between the governor and the district attorneys. "The reason we've been having all the meetings to build consensus is to avoid people doing just this type of thing."

Mack wants to write out the retroactivity stipulations of the bills meaning non-violent and some first time violent offenders currently in prison will no longer have the possibility of seeing their sentences shortened. In addition to the plain cruelty there, Mack is jeopardizing hundreds of millions of dollars in budgetary savings.  Walt Leger's proposal to reinvest those savings into various crime prevention, re-entry programs, and victims' services just passed this afternoon. Why? Well, he has tried to run for DA in his district before. Maybe that's where he's headed next. But that isn't for a while. Maybe he just likes the attention.