‘Mum’ is the Louisiana residents’ code word

The 'silent majority' has lived up to its name, and remained silent.  Forty-three percent (43%) of the 1,150 legislative offices slated for election this year are going to be filled without opposition.  No one chose to run against the incumbents.

This figure includes two of our state senators heavily responsible for the budget bankruptcy our state faces today, John Alario, Senate President, from Westwego, and John Donohue, chairman of the Senate Finance committee, from Covington.  These individuals were the major players in ramming Jindal’s ‘voodoo’ budgets through the legislature.   Both supported his raiding of various dedicated trust funds coupled with draconian cuts to services for the disabled and disadvantage, and  record funding cuts for health care and education.

Senator John Alario has run unopposed since 2007 and has served for over 43 years in the legislature.  Voters must love him even though a year ago, local media reported that Alario spent $705,000 between 2009 and 2012 in campaign money to rent a suite at Tiger Stadium for LSU football games, to lease and repair cars, to buy tickets for Saints and Hornets games and to pay for meals at expensive restaurants.  Additionally in1992, while serving in the House, as House Speaker,  he won passage of the hotly contested land casino for New Orleans by secretly telling the House clerk beforehand to shut down the electronic voting procedure several seconds early, before some members had cast their final votes. The bill passed with no votes to spare. Opponents howled in protest. 

Sadly these two individuals are just the tip of the apathetic iceberg.  The indifference shown this year by Louisiana residents even caught the Secretary of State, Tom Schedler by surprise.  He can’t believe how many Louisiana officials have been elected automatically.  Even vacancies created by term limits drew no competition; with just a single person choosing to qualify to run and therefore automatically winning the position.

I guess Bobby Jindal’s national campaign message is correct after all when he touts Louisiana as an example of a well-run, fiscally solvent, success story.  So let’s stop the complaining because obviously most of us don’t wish to change the way things are.