Louisiana Village Idiot and Sleeping Giants

Yesterday’s veto by Governor Bobby Jindal of a bill that would have more than doubled the salaries of Louisiana legislators sent shock waves throughout the state. After reiterating for weeks that he would not veto the measure despite mounting criticism of his leadership, the governor on Monday radically changed course. In his veto message, Governor Jindal admitted that he had made a mistake by promising legislators that he would allow the pay raise to become law. The proposed raises, Jindal continued, are “inconsistent” with the reform agenda he intends to bring to Louisiana and cause the people of our state to “lose faith” in their government. Thus, his veto closes a chapter in a spiraling controversy that had become the defining issue of the recently concluded legislative session..

What a difference a month makes. This time last month, there was still a lot of political buzz in the air about Bobby Jindal being invited to John McCain’s Memorial Day weekend barbecue and “hangout.” His name appeared on the so-called “short list” of potential vice presidential running mates for Senator McCain, at least according to some political prognosticators. National Republicans spoke of Jindal as a rising star within Republican ranks. National media outlets lauded Jindal for enacting “historic, sweeping ethics reforms” in Louisiana to clean up its corrupt image. He was practically walking on water - he could do no wrong.

Then all of a sudden, the controversy over legislative pay raises began to dominate the news. At this point, Bobby Jindal, the whiz-kid turned governor, did not seem to be nearly as bright in the minds of many Louisiana citizens. After promising to veto a legislative pay raise during his campaign for governor, Jindal now seemed prepared to break that very promise. What was worse, the governor offered a barrage of very bizarre justifications that only served to dig his political hole even deeper. For example, he referred to the legislature as a “separate branch of government” and he did not want to interfere with an “internal matter” in another branch of state government. To this lame argument, his critics said in essence, “Thanks for the civic lesson. governor. But we also learned in civics about the principle of “checks and balances” whereby the executive has the power to veto bad bills enacted by the legislature.” The governor even intimated that his “reforms” might be jeopardized if he vetoed the pay raise, generating speculation that some backroom deal had been cut between Jindal and lawmakers. When asked directly if such a deal had been made, Jindal gave a number of evasive and, quite frankly, idiotic responses to legitimate media queries. As late as Friday of last week, the governor was still calling on legislators to “change course” - a truly strange argument given the fact that the measure had already passed, the session was over, and most legislators were out of town. The governor’s bizarre behavior only stoked public anger against him (much of it from people who considered themselves Jindal supporters) that culminated in a recall petition drive against him and a planned rally on July 7 to protest the legislative pay raises. As the mounting pressure on the governor reached critical mass, Jindal finally reversed himself and vetoed the raises.

Looking back, it is plainly evident that both the Governor and legislators badly miscalculated. Legislators, quite frankly, thought that voters simply were not paying attention and therefore, they could raise their own salaries and no one would notice. The governor, for his part, paid a political price for his belief in “legislative independence.” Had he indicated early on in the legislative session that he would veto any pay raise measure that reached his desk, the controversy would not have escalated to the levels of absurdity that they reached. Instead, he allowed the issue to gain momentum until it became a freight train that could only be stopped by an eyeball to eyeball confrontation between the governor and the legislature. The governor also thought he could make this “minor compromise” with the legislature - after all, his “major reforms” were all that really mattered.

What Jindal and legislators failed to appreciate is that in politics, perception is often reality. All “issues” are not created equal. Why some issues receive a lot of public and media attention and others do not is rarely a function of an objective assessment of the facts and a careful weighing of an issue’s importance relative to other concerns. Often, seemingly insignificant issues gain traction if they feed into larger narratives - and this was the case with the legislative pay raises. On the surface of it, the total cost of the raises (about $5 million a year) is inconsequential in the context of a $30 billion state budget. But the pay raise issue fit into a larger narrative: in the minds of Louisiana voters, the state’s political class can be counted on - when “push comes to shove” - to put their own self-interest ahead of the best interests of the state. Whether it is getting scholarships for their children to Tulane University not available to average citizens, or getting contracts to work for the state, or “cutting in line” to get LSU BCS football tickets, the average citizen sees Louisiana legislators as self-interested and privileged, not as servants of the people. For this reason, the argument continues, Louisiana ranks at or near the bottom of almost every conceivable measure of economic and social well being. Many of these same voters would say that they voted for change in 2007. Instead, what they got was a legislature which votes to raise its own salaries BEFORE it can show any tangible evidence in the lives of average citizens that the “reforms” that it recently enacted are actually addressing the real problems that the state faces.

Now, the attention turns to the fallout from this episode. The governor’s veto in all likelihood takes the steam out of the recall drive which, at any rate, faced daunting odds (getting the signatures of one-third of the state’s registered voters in 180 days is no small feat). This probably will deflate the recall efforts against some legislators as well; though, the lawmakers who pushed this legislation should not necessarily assume they are in the clear from voters. Whether any of the recalls materialize, one can easily visualize political commercials being run in 2011 against lawmakers up for reelection who voted for the raise. To be sure, three years is an eternity in politics, and any number of issues can intervene to change the political landscape. However, legislators cannot take for granted that there will not be long-term consequences of this vote.

As for as Governor Jindal is concerned, he has squandered a considerable amount of his political capital on this legislative pay raise issue. He hopes the voters will forgive him and quickly forget this episode. However, some Louisianians may not be so forgiving. Many will wonder what took a Harvard-educated governor so long to arrive at what most people believe is simply a common sense position to veto the pay raises. Note the irony: as a candidate for governor, Jindal called his opponents “corrupt” (He never actually provided any actual evidence that either Foster Campbell, Walter Boasso, or John Georges had ever done anything “corrupt.”). Yet, Governor Jindal appeared prepared to make a corrupt bargain with the legislature in the name of “reform.” He did the “right thing,“ they might add, only after he was forced to, making his veto look more “political“ than principled.. Whenever a politician portrays himself to be a “white knight,” subsequent actions which make him or her look like “a typical politician” are far more damaging than they might be to other political leaders. The fact that Governor Jindal’s political honeymoon is now over is a wild understatement of reality. He must now work to repair his image, particularly with his political base which placed so much stock in his intelligence and the so-called fresh approach he would bring to state government.

Legislators may or may not be willing to let Governor Jindal off the hook. He did, after all, promise not to veto the measure only to change his mind. They may feel “thrown to the wolves” by a governor interested primarily in saving his own skin. Lawmakers might wonder: if the governor changes his mind on this issue, how can they be sure he will keep his word about other matters in the future? The governor may have sown some ill will with state lawmakers which could imperil his legislative agenda in subsequent sessions. Legislators might be smarting over the fact that the governor vetoed their raises at the same time officials within the executive branch were receiving substantial salary hikes. However, legislators have to be careful: they cannot be seen as blocking the governor’s agenda in future years because he vetoed their pay raises. It will be interesting to see if and how the controversy over this issue changes the nature of the relationship between this governor and the legislature.

The biggest winner of all in this whole saga is the people of Louisiana. This issue touched off a degree of citizen activism and civic participation that we have not seen in the state in quite a while. Citizens from all walks of life made it very clear that the proposed salary hikes for legislators were unacceptable and they were not going to stand for it. It is a testament to a fact that often gets lost in this age of political cynicism and apathy: the idea that when ordinary citizens come together for a common purpose, they have the capacity to affect change and turned what seemed to be politically impossible into political reality. If what comes from this episode is a rebirth of citizen participation in Louisiana politics whereby voters hold public officials accountable on a regular basis (as opposed to “occasional fits” in response to crises), then this sorry episode will have a silver lining. Hopefully, the legislature, through its arrogance and insensitivity, and the governor through his bungling have awakened a sleeping giant.

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