One of Jeff Landry’s first acts as governor is calling lawmakers to the state capitol for a redistricting session. Jeff Palermo has the story…
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A statewide poll of 650 likely voters finds car and home insurance rates are the number one issue for Louisianans. Teiko Foxx has more…
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Governor Jeff Landry has issued the call for a redistricting special session. It will begin Monday and legislators will have until January 23rd at 6 PM to finish their work. Senate President Cameron Henry says legislators will redraw the Congressional and Supreme Court map and debating a move to a closed primary elections…
Moving from open primary elections to closed primaries would be a major change in how we elect our officials. Henry says the special session is at least giving legislators the ability to debate this issue and can vote on it at a later time…
Currently all of the candidates are placed on a primary ballot, regardless of party and the top two vote getters head into a runoff, unless one of the candidates has a majority of the vote. A closed party primary system would have Republicans and Democrats holding their own primaries and the winners facing each other in a general election.
Henry says a closed party primary election would end the December run-off in Congressional elections, which hurts newly elected U-S Representatives and Senators when it comes to seniority…
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A JMC Analytics poll reveals 26 percent of Louisianans believe the cost of homeowner and car insurance is the biggest issue in the Bayou State. Legislation addressing the state’s high insurance premiums will be discussed in the regular session that begins in the spring and Pollster John Couvillon says residents will be paying attention to what lawmakers are going to do.
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Homeowners in Louisiana pay on average about two thousand dollars every year for insurance. And Louisiana ranked second to Florida for the highest car insurance rates.
The poll of 650 likely voters indicates crime is the third top issue right behind education and healthcare. Couvillon says a new legislature will tackle crime in a special session next month. With Louisiana ranked one of the most dangerous state in the country in 2023, he says it’s not shocking that crime is an issue for Louisianans.
Taxes and spending ranked fourth, inflation ranked fifth, and social issues like abortion ranked sixth.
During the regular session, Couvillon says Governor Jeff Landry and the new legislature will have to solve issues that are important to residents across the state.
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Among Governor Landry’s first actions in office was overturning the appeals process for high school seniors who fail the LEAP exam. Council for a Better Louisiana President Barry Erwin says Landry mentioned early on that he was against this particular proposal for waving those graduation requirements…
Erwin says if the governor hadn’t issued the executive order, he believes incoming BESE members would have overturned the appeal process that was at the center of controversy…
Erwin also points out that the governor makes three appointments to BESE.
Louisiana is the only state in the country that does not have an appeals process. Erwin says the debate highlighted two issues… one that the process was for students who were not fluent in English, and two that this particular process was implemented at the end of Edward’s term.
The first BESE Board meeting for 2024 is scheduled for January 17th.