It seems it’s always election season in Louisiana and this year is no different. Even though the Governor’s race is two years away (2023), there is already talk and posturing going on. There are a lot of “If’s” right now, but JT can see a domino effect taking place. That is if people give up their office to seek another one.
The big race of course is for Governor. John Bel Edwards is term limited at eight years so the big question is who is the Democratic candidate going to be? There are a lot of Republicans who want the job or are being encouraged to run, but we’re not hearing a lot of Democrats mentioned. The only one that has surfaced so far…although not officially… is Sen. Gary Smith of the New Orleans area. One surprise name mentioned as a potential candidate is Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain, R.
If he runs, that opens his seat. The same holds true for Attorney General Jeff Landry, R, Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser, R, and Treasurer John Schroder, R. Then you’ve got those that ran last time, like Jay Dardenne, R, who is Commission of Administration for Gov. Edwards. Time will tell if being the right hand man of a Democratic governor will help or hurt him. The only North Louisiana politician to be mentioned in the potential candidate list is Congressman Mike Johnson of Shreveport.
JT is going to be paying attention as to who starts grabbing headlines over the next year. Pretty sure they are seeking name recognition. As they say…talk is cheap. We really won’t know for sure until they have to plop down their fees at qualifying time.
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Don’t know about you, but JT was not a bit surprised that the COVID extension of unemployment benefits coincided with a huge jump in unemployment claims filed. JT ran into State Senator Louie Bernard the other day…a “masked” Louie, that the pandemic hasn’t appeared to slow down much.
Anyway, the senator said with all the stimulus money being handed out; he’s only had one person ask, “Who’s going to pay for this?” The US is already $27 trillion in debt, with $4.2 trillion of that coming from the first COVID response. Congress just recently passed another $900 billion stimulus package and now President-Elect Joe Biden has announced another $1.9 trillion COVID plan.
Government doesn’t normally cut services, so unless we discontinue a lot of handouts to pet projects and foreign governments, the working pubic and businesses will be the ones paying this debt.
The really important question is when do payments begin.
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