In Louisiana It’s Politics As Usual
I think a lot of people associate corrupt politicians with Louisiana from the days of Huey Long and maybe beyond that.
When Governor Blanco was encouraged not to run for re-election by the state Democrat party, the party approached former Sen. John Breaux, a fine man, to run for the governorship.
Mr. Breaux had a problem though, because by now he was a legal resident of the state of Maryland and claimed to be so. He said he wanted a ruling from the state Attorney General as to whether or not he was eligible to run because the state constitution requires the candidate to be a resident of the state for the preceding five years.
From this California Conservative post the Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles Foti (also a Democrat), has passed the decision on to the courts to decide.
Since he’s a Maryland resident, that ends that. He isn’t a Louisiana resident now, which is clearly within the 5 year window mandated for Breaux to be eligible for next year’s election. I’m no lawyer but I’d have to think that there’s some legal remedy to this insanity. If the Louisiana state Constitution says something explicitly, that should be the final word.
You don’t need the court’s assistance to figure that out.
This just means that the political fix is in. AG Foti will claim that his hands are clean, that he simply stands by the court’s ruling. Let’s just hope that the RNC will jump all over this. Let’s hope that the RNC will show the hypocrisy of the DNC by showing them arguing against taking Tom DeLay off the ballot after he’d moved to Virginia but then turning around to say that John Breaux, a Maryland resident, should be allowed to run for governor, contrary to the Louisiana Constitution.
We remember well that Sen. Lautenberg was allowed to get on the ticket to replace former Sen. Torrecelli in New Jersey after the legal time limit to be listed on the ticket had expired, because the Democratic party went to the State Supreme Court to get a ruling, which was also clearly against the state constitution.
Now, I’m not just picking on Democrats, so if someone can point out an instance where a Republican has done the same thing I will be glad to see it.
The whole point of this is political corruption. The Democrats in Louisiana know without Breaux as a candidate they have no chance of beating Bobby Jindal.
Again, by all accounts, Mr. Breaux is a very good man who just wants to serve the people of his home state again if it is legally possible. The problem to this non-lawyer is it isn’t legally possible, but from what we’ve seen in the past it is probable.
Written by ~J~
smh10 Says:
April 14th, 2007 at 1:15 amVisit smh10
I had read somewhere tonight (if I can find it I will post the link) that John Breaux had accepted the decision by the Attorney General and had no intention of taking this matter to court. As usual it will be wait and see I suppose..we know no more than the media that’s for sure.
smh10 Says:
April 14th, 2007 at 1:18 amVisit smh10
Jeanette:
Here is that story. I do hope he stands by his word:
http://blog.nola.com/times-picayune/2007/04/breaux_says_he_wont_run.html
~J~ Says:
April 14th, 2007 at 2:59 amVisit ~J~
I’ve said he’s a decent man and this just goes to prove it. For the complete opinion of the AG go here.
It kind of puts the post from Cali Conservative in perspective.