Louisiana Political News Service

ADVOCATE

Politics
Insurance ballot gets 75,869 fewer votes
By CAPITOL BUREAU

"A Republican lawmaker is wondering whether it’s proper to run ads using public funds to publicize “Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s Road Home program.” Bruneau asked Foti, the state’s chief legal adviser, to determine if the governor may use her name “as this being ‘her program’?”“I have never seen a public service announcement this blatantly partisan and political,” Bruneau said in a letter to Foti."

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/4337227.html

GOP says Blanco felt insurance threat
Legislators looked to call session over insurance bailout
By MICHELLE MILLHOLLON

“As usual, when she smelled that we were hot on her tail, she acquiesced to it,” said Sen. Tom Schedler, R-Mandeville."

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/politics/4333942.html

Katrina still costing Louisiana
By JOHN LAPLANTE
Capitol News Bureau

"Enter Blanco, who, after months of prodding, gradually acknowledged the problem, held meetings and promised to do what she could. Finally, she has promised a large — but unspecified — payment from an expected budget surplus to head off future surcharges." But don’t spend it yet. The post-Katrina economy might not be finished robbing your pocketbook."

http://www.2theadvocate.com/opinion/4336292.html

Midterm outlook swinging both ways
By GERARD SHIELDS
Washington bureau

"U.S. Rep. Jim McCrery, R-Shreveport, is the odds-on favorite to be the next chairman of the powerful House, Ways and Means Committee, which writes the nation’s tax laws. In addition, U.S. Rep. Richard Baker, R-Baton Rouge, is expected to be handed the gavel of the House Financial Services Committee if the GOP can hold on."

http://www.2theadvocate.com/opinion/4336297.html


TIMES PICAYUNE

BRIEFING BOOK
News and views from the Louisiana Capitol

"Jennifer Marusak said the office's practice is to list amendments with the greatest statewide interest at the top of the ballot and those that deal mainly with local issues toward the bottom. That is why the merger of the assessors and the creation of a school system for the East Baton Rouge Parish community of Central are the last two on the ballot, she said. "

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/capital/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1160292087143460.xml&coll=1

News from the Louisiana delegation in the nation's capital
By Bruce Alpert and Bill Walsh

"Former Sen. John Breaux of Louisiana has been out of office almost two years, but has remained in the political mix partly by giving $199,500 from his old campaign fund to candidates. Breaux, now a Washington lobbyist at Patton Boggs, has made 59 contributions in 2005, according to the Internet data service PoliticalMoneyLine. There are few restrictions on election spending, even for former members, and at the end of June, Breaux still had $86,399 in his campaign account."

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/washington/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1160291309143460.xml&coll=1

For the record: Vote dodge exposed
James Gill

"It is perfectly normal in the state House of Representatives to be slippery, mealy-mouthed, two-faced and self-serving.

And nobody need feel out of place for being a bit of an idiot.

But there are limits. Members are not expected to be so dumb that they come right out and admit being slippery, mealy-mouthed, two-faced and self-serving."

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/gill/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1160287839322150.xml&coll=1&thispage=1

Nagin keeps his word -- to another pol
Stephanie Grace

"I've told the congressman that since he supported me during the mayor's race, that I would reciprocate," Nagin explained this week.

Just like that. Tit for tat, quid pro quo, you scratch my back and I scratch yours. It's just the way things are done in politics, and it would be naive to think otherwise."

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/grace/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1160286982322150.xml&coll=1

NEW ORLEANS POLITICS
Campaign spending questions remain
By Gordon Russell

Back in May, Edwards said he had raised his money to support Nagin from dozens of family members. Yet the report he filed with the state lists just one contribution, of $269,250, from Benjamin Edwards.

Likewise, Edwards said in May that he had paid for billboards in Atlanta and Houston, along with radio ads in Memphis, Tenn. But his reports list only three expenditures: $250 for "screening" -- presumably, converting a Nagin bumper sticker into a billboard -- and payments of $73,000 and $196,000, both to CBS Outdoors in Atlanta.

Edwards was paged several times for comment but did not respond.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/neworleans/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1160205190253020.xml&coll=1


GANNETT NEWS

SHREVEPORT TIMES EDITORIAL
Leave negativity, race out of Shreveport mayoral runoff campaign

"The percentage of votes that separated the two men "" Jerry Jones with 39 percent and Cedric Glover with 32 percent "" means no one can go into a hunker-down position. Both will now be expected to sharpen and clarify their positions on topics ranging from fiscal matters to public works.

Race undeniably looms large in a campaign that could see the election of the city's first black mayor. But neither candidates nor voters do Shreveport any favors by allowing this election to rest on skin color."

Insurance hikes, charges anger owners
Mike Hasten
mhasten@gannett.com

BATON ROUGE - Not every insurance policyholder feels as strongly about the rate hikes, surcharges and canceled coverage as Joey Songne of Abbeville.

"As far as I'm concerned, insurance companies are the devil," he said.

But there are many upset policy holders, especially those like Songne who didn't have any storm damage in 2005 but who saw their policies canceled or rates skyrocket. Many of them wonder why it took Gov. Kathleen Blanco so long to begin to tackle the issue.

http://www.acadiananow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061008/NEWS01/610080328


ASSOCIATED PRESS

What happens if you hold an election and no one shows up?
By MELINDA DESLATTE

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Football games, hunting and fishing, the sunny weather, it all seemed to attract more interest than Louisiana's latest statewide election. Or maybe voters didn't need an incentive to skip the polls because they simply didn't care about the campaigns.

Either way, it's a significant commentary that in the aftermath of back-to-back blows from the most devastating hurricanes in Louisiana's history, the bulk of the state's voters didn't think casting a ballot really mattered.

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-28/1160321379105130.xml&storylist=louisiana&thispage=1