LA TERM LIMITS ELECTIONS - With another legislative session under their belts, many Louisiana lawmakers will won’t be seeking re-election simply because they are “termed out”, meaning they can’t run again for their current seat. Back in 1995, voters approved a constitutional amendment limiting state lawmakers to three-four year terms. For this upcoming election cycle, just under a third of Louisiana Lawmakers are term-limited. Pearson Cross, associate professor of Political Science at University of Louisiana at Lafayette explained the recent history of Louisiana’s Term Limits to Public Radio WRKF in Baton Rouge.
"This is the second wave of term limit elections," explained Pearson. " The first wave was in 2007. Now, 12 years later, we're in 2019."
Because Louisiana’s legislature is mostly controlled by Republicans, Cross suggests there is a likelihood that term-limited seats will be replaced by more conservative lawmakers. However, Barry Irwin, president of Council for a Better Louisiana, says the political discourse in the Legislature will depend on who’s elected governor.
"I think that will set the tone to a large degree in terms of partisanship or not," said Irwin.
Democrat John Bel Edwards is running for his second term as governor against two Republican challengers: Congressman Ralph Abraham and businessman Eddie Rispone’. Erwin says the legislative session which wrapped on June 6th, was largely influenced by lawmakers who weren’t necessarily interested in sticking their neck out with an election right around the corner.
"I think what you saw was people kind of keeping their head low," Irwin explained. "Not doing anything really wild on super hot-button issues, passing a pay raise, having a budget that takes care of some things that people feel good about, and then just going home."
Louisiana Voters will go to the polls on October 12th and if there are any close races, runoffs will take place in November.
