Who wants to run for Sec of State?

The talk is there's a vacancy.

Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler, who has been embroiled in allegations that he sexually harassed an employee for several years, will resign from office next week.

"I leave the office with a heavy heart knowing I have disappointed the people in my life who care for me the most," Schedler said in a resignation letter effective May 8. "But I have also experienced from them the miraculous power of forgiveness and grace during the twilight of my career, and for that I am grateful."

First Assistant Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin will take over Schedler's duties  until a special election can be held this fall, likely Nov. 6. That will include running this year's mid-term Congressional elections.

I might be wrong about this but I believe the winner of the special election would have to run again in 2019 when Schedler's term is technically up.  If that's true it's still important since the winner would have the magic of Incumbency behind them next year. This is a statewide office and kind of an important one.  Schedler may be a creep, but at least he refused to cooperate with the Trumpist voter suppression effort last year.  There's no guarantee the next Sec of State will make a similar decision in the future.

As usual it's difficult to imagine the state Democratic party is on top of this. Last year, they completely ignored the race for State Treasurer until it was way past too late.  And look how that turned out.

Ridiculously miniscule

The election "rigging" is not going well.

Louisiana’s chief election officer, Secretary of State Tom Schedler, says voters don’t have to worry about a “rigged election,” and charges his party’s presidential standard bearer, Donald Trump, with “overplaying the fraud card.”

Trump repeatedly has warned of rampant voter fraud that could throw the Nov. 8 election to Hillary Clinton.

“I’m telling you, November 8 (Election Day), we better be careful, because that election is going to be rigged. And I hope the Republicans are watching closely, or it is going to be taken away from us,” Trump warned as early as August and has been focusing on that warning in the last week.

Schedler disagrees that voters need to be watching out for fraud when they vote.

“For (every) 10 complaints, we maybe get one thing of some substance, and usually it is something ridiculously minuscule,” Schedler said.

Voter suppression

Today was the last day to register for new voters looking to participate in November's elections in Louisiana. The Presidential race still isn't expected to be close here. (Which may explain why the major Republican Senate candidates, state GOP insiders, and Steve Scalise are all standing by Donald Trump even now.) But there are state and local elections to consider as well. 

So there's ample incentive to register. Unfortunately the Secretary of State's office is doing everything it can to discourage that.

Secretary of State Tom Schedler plans to give each voter a sticker of the famous “Blue Dog” saying "I voted."

Schedler and the family of George Rodrigue, the New Iberia artist of the "Blue Dog" paintings, unveiled the art for the sticker Monday at the Press Club of Baton Rouge.

“The 'Blue Dog' has become synonymous with Louisiana,” Schedler said.

Among the many Rodrigue works that include the iconic pooch is a painting President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, commissioned by the Democratic Party during their term in 1990s. Rodrigue's first "Blue Dog" was as part of a collection of ghost stories.

The Secretary of State’s Office printed about 4 million stickers, which should be enough for everyone who votes early, starting on October 25, or casts their ballot on November 8. The stickers cost $21,000 to print.

Louisiana had about 2.97 million registered voters at the end of September. Registration for the upcoming election closes Tuesday at 11:59 p.m.

Jindaled

Sec of State's office is laying off 24 people and cutting back hours at several state museums.

The remaining $119,000 cut involves the museums, forcing the layoffs and reduced hours. Schedler expects the cut to be carried over into next year, when the state has even deeper budget problems.

Local communities trying to keep the museums open are being encouraged to offer ideas.

“Anyone or any group that has a specific interest in assisting our museums or outreach efforts in any way should step forward now,” Schedler said.

Sounds like there's about to be a shitload of bake sales. 

Which one is the white guy?

This morning's T-P looks at the race for Louisiana Secretary of State between incumbent Tom Schedler who inherited the office when Jay Dardenne became Lieutenant Governor in 2010 and Louisiana House Speaker Jim Tucker. Like most of what appears on this fall's statewide ballot, it's a dismal race. Both men are Republicans although it's worth noting that Tucker is on Senator David Vitter's slate of endorsed candidates.

The Vitty ticket also includes Billy Nungesser in the Lt. Governor's race as well as Attorney General Buddy Caldwell and Gov. Jindal, although Jindal and Vitter enjoy an uneasy relationship at best. The generally agreed upon point is that Vitter will be using his endorsements as well as his PAC money in this year's elections to both purge the state of insufficiently conservative so-called "RINOs" and, of course, beef up his own power within the LA GOP.

Beyond that, there isn't much substantive disagreement between these two candidates. Tucker criticizes Schedler for being too unhappy with the state's already shoestring museum budget. Schedler attacks Tucker for the now three year old non-issue of legislative pay raises. You'll forgive us if we pause to yawn.

The good news is, thanks to Schedler's (for the moment) Secretary of State website's Candidate Database, voters should have no difficulty discovering the race or gender of any of the candidates in this fall's elections as that information is prominently displayed.