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Louisiana's clout in Washington, D.C., eroding
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| Contributor | Brandonius Maximus |
| Last Edited | Brandonius Maximus Dec 14, 2008 03:30pm |
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| Category | General |
| News Date | Sunday, December 14, 2008 09:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | WASHINGTON — Louisiana's influence in Washington, D.C., on the wane for more than a decade, took another hit this year.
Power in Congress comes largely through seniority, which lets lawmakers to climb the ranks in committees and someday become a chairman — or at least a subcommittee chairman — allowing them to promote legislation and win favors for their state.
But three of the seven members of the Louisiana delegation to the House of Representatives in the 111th Congress will be freshmen, another was elected less than a year ago and the dean of the delegation, Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-Quitman, has been in office only six years.
Besides having little seniority, a majority of the delegation is Republican, the minority party.
And Louisiana is expected to lose a House seat after the 2010 census because its population is not growing at the rate of other states.
"This is a time when Louisiana is hurting," said University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato. "Without (U.S. Sen. Mary) Landrieu, the state would be in terrible shape."
Landrieu, a Democrat from New Orleans, chairs a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee. She also is on the Senate Appropriations Committee, where she is chairwoman of the Legislative Branch Subcommittee. Landrieu also might win the chairmanship of the Small Business Committee after the 111th Congress is gaveled in Jan. 6.
Her career has been helped by party leaders who wanted to keep the vulnerable Democrat in the Senate. But she's only been in office since 1997, and her influence pales when compared with previous Louisiana senators, including her predecessor, former U.S. Sen. J. Bennett Johnston, a Democrat from Shreveport who rose to chair the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. |
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