Gov. Jeff Landry leads a news conference Sept. 13, 2024, at General Aviation in Kenner on recovery efforts after Hurricane Francine. To his left are U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell. (Greg LaRose/Louisiana Illuminator)
There’s no question Jeff Landry — first as a member of Congress, then attorney general and now governor — has navigated the rising red tide in Louisiana with perfect timing to reach its conservative crest.
But a closer look at his policy decisions during his first 10 months in office show a state leader whose decisions have often been practical rather than purely political.
This became evident even as Landry ran for governor when the trial lawyers’ lobby, typically aligned with liberal Democrats, put its ample resources behind the staunch Republican’s campaign. And after the GOP-controlled Louisiana Legislature got behind so-called tort reform measures that plaintiffs’ attorneys opposed, Landry flexed his muscle to soften the proposals. He also vetoed a bill that would have reduced damages awarded in court to injured parties.
The governor, an attorney himself, has played down his ties to trial lawyers, noting their campaign dollars accounted for just a small portion of his contributions.
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As attorney general, Landry also caused the business sector to bristle when he intervened on the state’s behalf in lawsuits several parishes filed against Big Oil companies to extract money for repairing coastal and wetland damage. At first, it was thought Landry might supplant the trial attorneys working with the parishes, but those lawsuits continued to move forward.
What’s more, Landry appointed the lead attorney in many of the parish cases, John Carmouche, to a prime seat on the LSU Board of Supervisors. It was Carmouche who gelled trial lawyers’ support behind Democrat John Bel Edwards in his 2016 run for governor.
Yet when it came time for him to pick a new leader for the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, Landry chose former Terrebonne Parish President Gordon Dove, who went against the flow of his peers and discouraged lawsuits against fossil fuel companies.
While some conservatives have called out Landry for his duplicity, he remains popular with the far right thanks in large part to his unwavering stances on culture war issues.
He has openly welcomed lawsuits over a new Louisiana law that would require placement of Ten Commandments posters in classrooms of any school that receive state money. The issue has placed Landry on a national stage during a presidential year, lending further credence to suggestions that he might be eyeing a place in a potential second Trump administration.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill and Gov. Jeff Landry hold a press conference on July 1, 2024, at the Denka neoprene plant in LaPlace to speak against a new EPA rule they say is unfair to the company. (Wes Muller/Louisiana Illuminator)
Also, the governor and current Attorney General Liz Murrill, who was his solicitor general, remain steadfastly opposed to abortion. Both back a new law that designates the pregnancy care drugs mifepristone and misoprostol as controlled dangerous substances because they are also used for abortions. Neither will concede to the concerns of health care providers who fear the law’s storage and security requirements present life-threatening risks to hemorrhage patients.
Landry has also been an advocate for anti-transgender legislation, championed education savings accounts and sought stricter treatment of juvenile offenders — all calling cards for the neo-conservative movement.
Yet the governor might once again need to bend other Republicans to his will with his approach to preventing the state’s pending fiscal crisis, one that could find Louisiana with a deficit reaching $700 million. The state tax structure overhaul he has proposed — and will need two-thirds of the Legislature and a majority of voters to approve — relies in large part on keeping a temporary 0.45% portion of the state sales tax in place, as well as a 2% tax on business utilities.
Many GOP lawmakers have said they want these taxes to expire as scheduled at the end of June, yet they might have to hold their noses and keep them in place in order to enact other provisions in Landry’s tax proposal. The governor is also likely to ask legislators and voters to expand the state sales to a variety of services and products it currently doesn’t cover
While critics say Landry’s overall tax strategy will benefit businesses and the wealthy the most, it’s still a decidedly non-Republican, tax-reliant approach for someone who’s a devoutly deep-red leader.
The governor intends to call a special session next month for the Legislature to hash out his tax code revisions. It would take place some time after the Nov. 5 presidential election, a period during which political turmoil is expected to peak no matter who emerges the winner.
Regardless of the outcome, it will take unprecedented dexterity from Landry to see his plan through to the finish line — and even then it might emerge looking far different from what it did going in.
What’s certain is that the son of St. Martinville will continue to do and say what’s needed to sustain his string of political successes.
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