Covering Louisiana House speaker dispute marks new Louisiana legislative term Associated Press 9:06 AM, Jan - KATC Lafayette News

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Louisiana's new Legislature is starting with a dispute over House speaker, just like the old Legislature did four years ago.

The 105 members of the House and 39 members of the Senate take their oaths of office Monday as the new term of state government begins, with Republicans taking over a two-thirds majority in the Senate and nearing that supermajority in the House.

The Senate quietly worked out its leadership decisions behind closed doors, with Republican Page Cortez, a former high school football coach and furniture store owner from Lafayette, appearing to secure the votes in the majority-GOP chamber needed to become Senate president.

But House grappling over its top job has become an angry public brawl, with Republicans feuding about their two contenders for speaker - GOP Reps. Sherman Mack of Albany and Clay Schexnayder of Gonzales.

Voting on the elected jobs will happen after lawmakers are sworn in Monday morning.

Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry and Republican U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, along with a majority of GOP House members, are supporting Mack, a lawyer who has led the House criminal justice committee.

However, Mack has been unable to scrape together the 53 votes among the 68 Republicans in the chamber, as Schexnayder, a car repair business owner, maintained support from a small group of GOP lawmakers.

That left both men trying to negotiate with Democrats to try to win the speaker's chair - an outcome Landry and Kennedy had wanted to avoid.

The competition grew bitter as the weeks dragged on, with a PAC overseen by Landry and Kennedy attacking some Republicans who refused to support Mack.

In previous terms, legislative leadership decisions have been brokered in backroom negotiations settled days, if not weeks, ahead of the actual vote. Governors often had a heavy hand in the decision-making. But that changed in the House four years ago, when a dispute over the speaker's position between Gov. John Bel Edwards and House Republicans raged until the morning of the vote. Edwards' lost his pick, and the Republican front-runner contender also didn't win. Little-known Republican Taylor Barras ended up as a compromise among Republicans.

This time, Edwards again had little influence in the competition for legislative leadership jobs.

The House speaker and Senate president have significant sway over the fate of legislation, choosing how to assign bills and picking the leaders and members of each committee in the chamber.

The Legislature will be packed with new faces, as term limits kept many lawmakers from running for reelection. The House has 45 new members, including two former senators. The Senate is seating 20 new members, 10 of them moving over from House seats.

Meanwhile, the new term offers some historic moments.

When they are sworn in Monday, Sen. Cameron Henry and Rep. Charles Henry, both Republicans from Jefferson Parish, will be the first brothers to serve in the Legislature at the same time. And term limits are ending the Huey Long family's dynasty, with Republican Gerald Long's exit from the Senate marking the first time in 100 years that a Long won't be in an elected Louisiana office.

The House and Senate also are expected to make history with their selections for their top administrative jobs, choosing women as House clerk and Senate secretary, the first time either position will be held by a female.

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Covering Louisiana House speaker dispute marks new Louisiana legislative term Associated Press 9:06 AM, Jan - KATC Lafayette News
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