In a caucus of 68 members, there are probably seven or eight different political parties among Republicans in the Louisiana House.
There are Republican members who act like old-fashioned “silk stocking” Democrats from urban areas. Members who behave like traditional populists, often from rural areas. Hardcore party activists, with agendas in policy that can vary considerably from other caucus members. Regional ties divide further the political landscape in the ornate chamber.
Despite all this, remarkably, Speaker Clay Schexnayder of Gonzales held his caucus together in a 72-31 override of Gov. John Bel Edwards’ veto of a new map for Louisiana congressional districts. The Senate followed suit, 27-11.
It was only the third override of a governor’s veto since adoption of the 1974 Louisiana Constitution. One of those was an uncontroversial decision about a 1993 bill that Gov. Edwin W. Edwards vetoed but then reconsidered, so he was technically overridden, but without political drama.
But there was enormous, and emotional, political drama in 1991, when Gov. Buddy Roemer’s veto of an anti-abortion bill was overridden.
In today’s case, maybe less emotion and more party politics, as the second Gov. Edwards more or less had to veto a new congressional map that protected the 5-1 Republican advantage in the state’s U.S. House delegation. That was the party position for Edwards, a Democrat. Republicans were just as committed the other way.
But a two-thirds vote in the House, 70 of 105 members, can be hard to achieve under the best of circumstances. Schexnayder’s caucus was joined by several no-party members and one Democrat, veteran Francis Thompson of Delhi, who wanted to keep intact the political interests of his region’s member of Congress, Julia Letlow.
In unpacking all the events, the mini-party of GOP hardliners in the House crowed.
“It’s probably just the first veto override,” state Rep. Alan Seabaugh, R-Shreveport, said afterward. “We tried last year and failed. This time we broke down the door. He better be careful.”
We don’t quite see it that way. The GOP blocs in House and Senate held together on a highly party-oriented issue, and further one where influential members of Congress wanted state lawmakers to approve their favored districts.
Does this mean that on an issue involving state policies the party line will result in frequent efforts to override a popular governor in his last two years in office? We won’t say it’s impossible for Seabaugh’s prediction to come true, but we wonder if that’s the lasting effect of events Wednesday.
Other votes may well be different, as in the veto session last year, when all of Edwards’ vetoes were upheld against a full-court press by Schexnayder and Senate President Page Cortez, R-Lafayette.
Edwards portrayed his redistricting veto as the right thing to do, aimed at landing a second majority-Black district of the six. Louisiana’s Black population is about a third of the total.
The question of whether the new map is legal will be settled in federal court, where civil rights groups filed suit Wednesday.
New battles on state issues, not federal district lines, may come up during 2023, a state election year. A lame-duck Edwards may find his influence more conspicuously waning soon.
Still, we don’t think Seabaugh’s take reflects the overall judgment at the State Capitol. Many of the mini-parties in the GOP majority don’t necessarily want conflicts with the governor.
But we know that Edwards is a man who doesn’t like to lose. And he did.
