31 July 2021

Regular legislative session-plus scores, 2021

With everything dealt with, the Louisiana Legislature Log presents its 2021 Louisiana Legislature scorecard. In a first, it actually will combine both Regular and Veto Session votes to compile this since the latter really acted as an appendage to the former.

Seventeen bills were selected and weighed for computation. These were chosen mainly from the watch list compiled throughout the session. For a bill’s vote(s) to be selected, in one chamber there had to be more than one legislator not voting for the winning or losing side.

Being that passage of bills depends upon the seated membership of a body, not voting is counted as a negative vote. However, if a legislator had a leave of absence granted for that day, his absent votes weren’t counted for bills voted on that day and the score adjusted to take that into account. In the case of constitutional amendments, the governor’s score is adjusted similarly.

In the cases of SB 118, SB 156, SB 220, and SB 224, rather than the final votes for passage the votes for their veto overrides were used if they took place. Democrat state Sen. Gary Carter served in the House during the regular session but moved over to the Senate for the veto session; the latter are used with his House record for computation and he is reported as a senator, with his House district left unfilled. After the session, no party state Rep. Malinda White shed her Democrat label, but she is reported as a Democrat for statistical purposes.

Here are the bills with votes for final passage in every case except for the above on which the scorecard was computed, with the conservative/reform position and the weighing indicated, beginning with the regular session:

 

HB 7 – would add a needless sales tax exemption; a vote against connotes a conservative/reform preference (5 percent).

 

HB 20 – would make more difficult private interests interfering with elections; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (5 percent).

 

HB 103 – would reduce discrimination on the basis of coronavirus vaccine reception; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (5 percent).

 

HB 149 – would clarify emergency declaration powers; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (5 percent).

 

HB 256 – would end privileging of teacher unions under law; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (5 percent).

 

HB 278 – would broaden and flatten non-corporate income taxation; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (5 percent).

 

HB 378 – would make too trivial the procedures allowing a felon to earn back the privilege of voting; a vote against connotes a conservative/reform preference (5 percent).

 

HB 391 – would encourage abuse of marijuana under the guise of medical practice; a vote against connotes a conservative/reform preference (5 percent).

 

HB 423 – would provide better data for policy-making concerning abortion; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (5 percent).

 

HB 498 – would prohibit the state from permitting use of potentially discriminatory medical information; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (5 percent).

 

HB 704 – would strengthen ballot integrity; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (5 percent).

 

SB 118 – would reduce bureaucracy regarding the ability to carry a concealed firearm; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (5 percent).

 

SB 156 – would secure fairness in school sports competition; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (10 percent).

 

SB 159 – would amend the Constitution to broaden and flatten non-corporate income taxation; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (10 percent).

 

SB 161 – would extend the exemption to having to pay the counterproductive franchise tax; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (10 percent).

 

SB 220 – would strengthen ballot integrity; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (5 percent).

 

SB 224 – would strengthen ballot integrity; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (5 percent).

 

House members registered scores as follows:

 

Bacala

100

Republican

Crews

100

Republican

Edmonds

100

Republican

Firment

100

Republican

Frieman

100

Republican

Horton

100

Republican

Mack

100

Republican

Seabaugh

100

Republican

Amedee

95

Republican

Beaullieu

95

Republican

DuBuisson

95

Republican

Gadberry

95

Republican

Garafalo

95

Republican

Illg

95

Republican

Ivey

95

Republican

Owen, C

95

Republican

Pressly

95

Republican

Riser

95

Republican

Romero

95

Republican

Tarver, P

95

Republican

Thomas

95

Republican

Miguez

95

Republican

Bagley

90

Republican

Bishop

90

Republican

Borriaque

90

Republican

Deshotel

90

Republican

DeVillier

90

Republican

Echols

90

Republican

Emerson

90

Republican

Farnum

90

Republican

Fontenot

90

Republican

Goudeau

90

Republican

Harris, L

90

Republican

Hodges

90

Republican

Johnson, M

90

Republican

McCormick

90

Republican

McFarland

90

Republican

McMahen

90

Republican

Miller, G

90

Republican

Mincey

90

Republican

Muscarello

90

Republican

Nelson

90

Republican

Schamerhorn

90

Republican

Stefanski

90

Republican

Villio

90

Republican

Wheat

90

Republican

Zeringue

90

Republican

Edmonston

89

Republican

Butler

85

Republican

Coussan

85

Republican

Davis

85

Republican

Geymann

85

Republican

Huval

85

Republican

Kerner

85

Republican

McKnight

85

Republican

Orgeron

85

Republican

Owen, R

85

Republican

Schlegel

85

Republican

St. Blanc

85

Republican

Turner

85

Republican

Wright

85

Republican

Carrier

80

Republican

Freiberg

80

Republican

Magee

80

Republican

Schexnayder

80

Republican

Hilferty

75

Republican

Hollis

75

Republican

Thompson

75

Democrat

Adams

65

Independent

Stagni

65

Republican

White

50

Democrat

Brown

45

Democrat

Johnson, T

45

Democrat

LaCombe

45

Democrat

Marino

44

Independent

Bryant

40

Democrat

Moore

40

Democrat

Carpenter

37

Democrat

Brass

35

Democrat

Duplessis

35

Democrat

Freeman

35

Democrat

Gaines

35

Democrat

Green

35

Democrat

Hughes

35

Democrat

Jefferson

35

Democrat

Jenkins

35

Democrat

Lavardain

35

Democrat

Lyons

35

Democrat

Pierre

35

Democrat

Selders

35

Democrat

Cormier

25

Democrat

Cox

25

Democrat

James

25

Democrat

Jordan

25

Democrat

Miller, D

25

Democrat

Newell

25

Democrat

Willard

25

Democrat

Carter, R

20

Democrat

Jones

20

Democrat

Phelps

20

Democrat

Carter, W

15

Democrat

Glover

15

Democrat

Landry

15

Democrat

Marcelle

15

Democrat

 

Initially notable is the part sorting a feature of the last few years has continued almost to its logical extreme. Only one Democrat ranked just higher than the lowest Republican, who tied with a no party member. The other no party member ranked just below four Democrats, one of whom (White) switched to no party right after the session (whose score comes up higher than it likely would have been had she not ducked the veto session). Underscoring the racial divide among Democrats, of the five highest scorers, four were white, while of the other 29 party members below 25 were black, with the three of the four lowest-scoring whites located in the New Orleans metropolitan area and the other in Edwards’ former district.

 

The House average score of 70.29 was just below that of last year, but masked continued polarization. The House GOP membership increased to 89.84 and House Democrats fell to 32.11, creating the second-largest partisan gap since the scorecard began in 2004 (off the highest by a fraction of a point). The two no party members registered 54.50 (also boosted artificially by state Rep. Joe Marino like White ditching the veto session with an excused absence).

 

The Senate looked like this:

 

Peacock

100

Republican

Fesi

95

Republican

Hewitt

95

Republican

Abraham

90

Republican

Cloud

90

Republican

Henry

90

Republican

Mills, R

90

Republican

Talbot

90

Republican

White, B

90

Republican

Womack

90

Republican

Johns

87

Republican

Cathey

85

Republican

Cortez

85

Republican

Mizell

85

Republican

Pope

85

Republican

Reese

85

Republican

Hensgens

80

Republican

McMath

80

Republican

Morris

80

Republican

Allain

75

Republican

Bernard

75

Republican

Foil

75

Republican

Milligan

75

Republican

Mills, F

75

Republican

Lambert

70

Republican

Ward

65

Republican

Connick

45

Republican

Barrow

40

Democrat

Boudreaux

40

Democrat

Price

40

Democrat

Tarver, G

40

Democrat

Bouie

35

Democrat

Fields

35

Democrat

Harris, J

35

Democrat

Jackson

35

Democrat

Luneau

35

Democrat

Smith

35

Democrat

Carter, G.

30

Democrat

Peterson

20

Democrat

 

The partisan sorting here is even more pronounced. Were it not for the Democrat-like voting pattern of GOP state Sen. Patrick Connick, 25 points would have separated the lowest scoring Republican from the highest scoring Democrat. But as he dragged down the GOP average, Republican former state Sen. Ronnie Johns exaggerated it. Prior to the veto session, he pledged not to attend it, thus counting as an automatic negative vote against overrides, and right after the session’s end he accepted a high-paying Edwards appointment and resigned from the Senate. Had his absences actually counted as nays, he would have scored just above Connick.

 

The Senate average score of 67.86 dropped a couple of points from last year, with the GOP average of 82.47 barely below last year’s, while Democrats lost over six points to fall to 35 (the two whites scored about the same as the remaining ten blacks). This produced, barely, the largest partisan gap since the scorecard began to be computed.

 

This left the Legislature as a whole with the largest partisan gap in this period, of nearly 55 points. The 69.63 average was just below last year’s all-time high. While in Edwards’ first term the gap just reached an all-time high in average across the four years of just over 32, in the first two years of his last term it has ballooned to nearly 50.

 

Finally, Edwards scored a new low at 22, lower that his party’s chamber averages and lower than all but eight of its legislators. Just as in his first term where his first year actually ended above 60, his second year plunged. Whereas his first term ended just under 50 on average, hie second term average now is several points below that.


This ends Log coverage perhaps for the year, as the reapportionment special session may not occur until 2022. 

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