The Louisiana Democratic Party is launching a 35-city statewide tour in hopes of rebuilding a base that’s been largely waning in size and influence over the past several years.
The Getting Back to Basics Tour, which began Jan. 26 in Monroe and will end in Slaughter on Feb. 4, aims to do just what its name implies, says Louisiana Democratic Party Chairman Buddy Leach — “rebuild our party ... and get back to basics.”
“The purpose of this tour is to rebuild our statewide base and grassroots network, to bring state party resources out of Baton Rouge and to the people, and to discuss our commitment for rebuilding a sustainable and successful state party,” Leach says in a press release announcing the tour. “I encourage Democrats to join us at our meetings in their communities and to be a part of the rebuilding process of their Louisiana Democratic Party.”
The Associated Press reported in August that Democrats, for the first time since 1957, are now a minority in the state’s voter registration, declining from 90 percent of the total voter registration in 1978 to 49.8 percent in 2011. The change is attributed to a rise in Republican and “no party” voter registrations.
The tour is scheduled to stop off in Lafayette at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Holiday Inn on Evangeline Thruway. Democrats interested in attending or learning more about the event can email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more info.
For more on the dimming of Louisiana Democrats, check out The Independent’s May 2011 cover story, “Dems in Distress.”
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
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