Legislature sworn, elect leaders
Politics and football merged as themes as Louisiana’s 144 legislators started four-year terms and elected new leaders Monday.
Newly-elected Senate President John Alario and House Speaker Chuck Kleckley both invoked bipartisan unity and underscored Gov. Bobby Jindal’s expected education initiative in brief remarks following their elections by the members of their respective chambers.
All 105 House members, 58 of whom are Republicans, and all 39 senators, 20 of whom are Republicans, took their oaths of office Monday morning.
New House Speaker Pro-tem Walt Leger III, D-New Orleans, closed brief remarks with four words: “Go Tigers! Beat Bama!” He said he woke up Monday morning thinking of the game and would probably go to bed that night thinking about it.
Leaders of both chambers focused on revamping the way public school education is provided in the state.
Kleckley said good teachers are key. He introduced Owen Bourque, who he said had a “profound impact” on his life as a history teacher at LaGrange High School in Lake Charles.
Republican Kleckley, of Lake Charles, said legislators must meet the challenge head-on so that at the end of their current term they can say “we not only made lives better for our state but created opportunity for those who will follow .... and where do we start? Education.”
Alario struck a similar note.
“Our responsibility is to give our children the best tools to succeed. Only through a quality education will their lives be brighter,” Alario told those crowding the Senate chamber. “Change is not easy, but we do have an opportunity to leave a legacy during our time in public service by providing our children opportunities to not only exceed, but excel. Now is the time for us to work together for the common good.”
Alario said the campaigns were over and it was time to put the hard feelings in the past to work together. In 2007, Alario was criticized as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in a television commercial paid for by the Louisiana Republican Party and likened to television crime boss Tony Soprano in another ad.
Quoting the popular hymn written in 1955, Alario ended his speech with, “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.”
Conservative bloggers, talk show hosts and some members of the tea party movements around the state have criticized the selection of Alario as the head of the state Senate.
Alario had served in the Legislature for four decades as Democrat, until last year when he switched parties, including a stint as House speaker and as a floor leader of Gov. Edwin W. Edwards.
In nominating Alario as president, Sen. Danny Martiny, R-Metairie, acknowledged criticism of the selection of Alario as Senate president. “Alario was “always the guy that everybody went to” for support, advice and insight, he said.
Only newly elected Republican Sen. Barrow Peacock, of Shreveport, voted against Alario. After the session, Peacock said he voted against Alario because his selection as a leader was an issue during his campaign.
Democratic state Sen. Yvonne Dorsey-Colomb, of Baton Rouge, nominated fellow Baton Rouge Democratic state Sen. Sharon Weston Broome to a second term as Senate president pro tempore, the second highest office in the upper chamber. She was elected unanimously with all 39 senators voting yes.
Alario quipped that the electricians must have fixed Peacock’s machine.
On the House side, Leger was elected as speaker pro tem, that chamber’s number two position, shortly after Kleckley was unanimously selected House speaker.
The House re-elected Alfred “Butch” Speer as House clerk. State Rep. Hunter Greene, R-Baton Rouge, who put Speer’s name in nomination, evoked boos as he told colleagues he was wearing a red tie in honor of daughter who is a freshman at Alabama. Then, he quickly added, “I will pray for her in her time of sadness this evening.”
Clarence Russ won re-election as House sergeant-at-arms.
In the Senate, Glenn Koepp was reelected as Senate secretary and John Keller as sergeant at arms.