House speaker defended

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Former House Speaker Chuck Kleckley, now a government affairs advisor at Adams & Reese in Baton Rouge, said last week that he thought his successor in the Legislature’s lower chamber is “doing a good job.”
But Kleckley also added that sitting Speaker Taylor Barras, R-New Iberia, “has his work cut out for him.”
Barras, the first speaker elected in modern times with the endorsement of a governor, has been under fire in recent weeks by newspaper editorials asking for a fresh start for the House.
“I think probably every speaker back to the beginning of time has had some type of challenge,” Kleckley said in last week’s episode of The LaPolitics Report podcast. “I read the stuff about Taylor and removing him from the speaker’s office... But if you remove him, the whole deck gets reshuffled. You’re going to have new chairmen of the 16 standing committees, new vice chairmen of the 16 standing committees, a whole new Appropriations Committee.”
Kleckley added, “When you factor all of that in, what guarantees that a new speaker will be any different? It’s a lot of noise. It’s unfortunate. That energy can be better spent resolving some of the problems the state has.”
Legal contract inked by governor
Gov. John Bel Edwards and the Natural Resources Department have finally put the finishing touches on their contract for legal services with former state Rep. Taylor Townsend.
It’s good for up to $150,000. That includes $385 per hour for attorneys, $250 per hour for associate attorneys and $50 per hour for paralegals.
This is money that must be appropriated by the Legislature.
A Natchitoches attorney who has helped raise money for the governor, Townsend found himself thrust back into the limelight last year when he started handling coastal litigation for the Edwards administration that targeted the oil and gas industry.
That’s around the same time Attorney General Jeff Landry refused to sign off on the first contract drafted for Townsend due to a variety of concerns.
The new contract, effective through April 30, 2019, covers the same coastal subject areas.
Solving the budget
The Advocate newspaper and the Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs teamed up this year to host a “Solve The Budget” puzzle where voters could actually try to balance the state budget. It’s not so easy. (Remember when lawmakers tried it for real in the regular session and failed?)
With more than 5,100 participants, the exercise’s results offer an unscientific snapshot of how voters and residents feel about spending priorities.
For example, no other budget-balancing question received a stronger response than “reduce some reductions and incentives on corporate taxes.” About 64 percent of participants were in favor. The least popular option was “remove a penny from state sales tax.” Only 27 percent were in favor of that.
Under the spending category, 78 percent supported “spend $24 million in state funds to receive $200 million in federal money for roadwork.” Whereas only 21 percent favored “provide state funding for local jails and prisons.
Leach to LSU board
Gov. John Bel Edwards has made his selection and Mary Leach Werner is his appointee to the LSU Board of Supervisors.
She will replace former Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle, who has taken an energy regulation job in the Trump Administration.
Many voters may know of Leach through her unsuccessful bid for the Public Service Commission last year, for which she received Edwards’ endorsement.
She is the CEO of Sweet Lake Land and Oil Company and North American Land Company. Werner is also the daughter of Buddy Leach, the former chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party and one-time congressman.
Political History: Remembering Marie Louise Snellings
Marie Louise Wilcox Snellings was a Louisiana woman who carved her own path across this state’s unforgiving political landscape. But her contributions also extended well beyond elected life.
In 1933 Snellings was one of the first women to earn a law degree from Tulane University. She also secured a master’s in law from Columbia University before conducting research for and learning to cook from U.S. Sen. Allen Ellender of Houma, according to KnowLouisiana.org, the Digital Encyclopedia of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.
(Those culinary and political lessons came in handy later in her life.)
After college Snellings became very active in Republican politics and ran successfully for the Ouachita Parish School Board in 1964. Having received resistance from party establishment types, Snellings switched to the Democratic Party soon after and eventually won a seat on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Her time on BESE stretched from the 1970s to the 1990s.
Well known as an excellent cook who was schooled by Sen. Ellender, Snellings likewise wrote a popular cookbook and several children’s books. When she was in her 50s Snellings even bought and managed a 600-acre farm in Caldwell Parish, where she grew cotton and bred cattle.
The parents of two children, Snellings and her husband adopted a third child, Frank Snellings, from Ireland in 1954. He is now married to former U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu.
Marie Louise Snellings died Feb. 2, 1994, in Monroe.
They Said It
“It’s good to see all your shocked faces.”
—Rep. Jay Morris, R-Monroe, after it was announced that he would be giving the opening prayer for the state House last week
“Government is like a fire. The more you feed it, the bigger it gets.”
—Rep. Steve Pylant, R-Winnsboro
For more Louisiana political news, visit www.LaPolitics.com or follow Jeremy Alford on Twitter @LaPoliticsNow.