To undo the catastrophe of former Gov. Bobby Jindal’s terms, Gov. John Bel Edwards needs all the Democratic votes he can get to push his agenda forward in a heavily Republican state legislature.
Funding higher education, raising the minimum wage and guaranteeing equal pay for women isn’t going to pass with solely Republican votes. Higher taxes to fund many of Louisiana’s priorities from transportation to health care will be tough to pass with a red blockade in the Legislature.
This climate makes it even more important for Democrats to stick together against this Republican firewall. In close votes that can determine the success of Edwards’ agenda, Democrats and moderate Republicans could be the deciding votes.
This makes it even more puzzling why Rep. Neil Abramson, D-New Orleans, abandoned his party by voting for a Republican candidate for House of Representatives’ speaker.
For months, the race for Speaker of the House was framed as a contest between Democratic Rep. Walt Leger of New Orleans — Edwards’ choice — and Republican Rep. Cameron Henry of Metairie. But on the day of the vote, Abramson inexplicably joined the race.
Democrats needed 53 votes to elect a speaker. With votes for Abramson and Leger combined, Democrats still would have fallen two votes short.
However, The Advocate noted in the eyes of party activists and officials Abramson’s run for speaker “supported a Republican narrative that Democrats were fractured and contributed to the unprecedented defeat of the governor’s chosen candidate.”
In the second round of voting, Abramson didn’t bother voting for his Democratic colleague one district over in New Orleans. He voted for Rep. Taylor Barras, R-New Iberia.
For Abramson to stab his colleague in the back in the Speaker of the House race is bad news for Edwards’ agenda. If Democrats can be peeled off as easily as Abramson, how will the Edwards administration convince moderate Republicans to support their priorities?
Let us not forget what caused our state to be in disrepair for so long: Jindal and a complacent legislature unwilling to challenge his conservative social engineering. President Barack Obama noted this challenge when he visited Baton Rouge last week: Edwards is coming into office much like he did, having to clean up a mess a Republican predecessor left for him.
The only problem is Edwards won’t have a Democratic supermajority to push his agenda in the Legislature like Obama briefly had in Congress.
Our governor may be a Democrat, but the interests helping to ensure this conservative social engineering on our state’s hospital system, education and many other issues are still present in the legislature.
It will take every Democratic vote in that Legislature to undo the damage. The good news for Edwards is much of the supermajority in the Legislature stems from former Democrats who now identify as Republicans.
Maybe Abramson will think twice and not vote against the Edwards’ agenda that will fix our state.
For any Democrat in the legislature, one vote means more when the future of our state is in jeopardy.
Michael Beyer is a 22-year-old political science senior from New Orleans, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter @michbeyer.