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.