A special interest group with influential backers hopes to divert lawmakers’ attention away from the financial crisis long enough to convince them that transportation issues are still important. Driving Louisiana Forward (DLF), a nonprofit advocacy group backed by construction and other business interests, is already touting its legislative agenda for the 2009 regular session — or a special session, should one be called. 

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 Lost in the controversial bill tossing a $700 billion life preserver to Wall Street was a significantly smaller provision that could help flood and hurricane victims stay afloat during their own recovery. The new federal law allows Louisiana families who suffered property damage from hurricanes Gustav and Ike, as well victims from the recent flooding in the Midwest, to claim thousands of dollars more in deductions on their taxes.

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State Rep. Michael Jackson of Baton Rouge hopes to ride the Barack Obama Express like a true Democrat, which he was until a few months ago — before “no party” replaced his official Democratic party affiliation on the ballot. In the race to capture the Sixth Congressional District, Jackson bills himself as an “independent Democrat” and claims ties to Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.  Read the rest of this entry »

While cautious candidates and television’s culture of sound bites might drain any actual debating from the upcoming U.S. Senate debates, communications experts contend the forums still hold value for voters. This year, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, the incumbent Democrat, and state Treasurer John Kennedy, a Republican, have agreed to four public exchanges.   Read the rest of this entry »

  Gov. Bobby Jindal continues to garner praise for his handling of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, and the key to his success may have been some strategic hires the governor made earlier this year. Few would have suggested then that Jindal was building a Category 5 administrative team, but some say the analogy is warranted. 

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  The PBS news division weighed in with a re-election analysis of Louisiana senior U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, and it wasn’t a pretty picture for the Democrat. In a story update posted to the site of NewsHour with Jim Lehrer last week, the writer suggests that the 2005 storm season uprooted the Bayou State’s political structure and will continue wreaking havoc during the ongoing fall elections.

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  Northshore businessman Jim Harlan, a conservative Democratic businessman, is crowing about a recent poll that shows him narrowing the gap between him and freshman Congressman Steve Scalise, a Republican. 

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As newsrooms shift their focus to gathering pictures and reports from random readers and viewers — known as the i-reporter trend — it’s becoming more difficult than ever to find investigative journalists on the beat. Read the rest of this entry »

Energy issues continue to fuel the fires of Louisiana’s U.S. Senate race, which pits GOP state Treasurer John Kennedy against incumbent Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu. Earlier in the campaign, the two candidates fought over who loved drilling more as experts weighed in with a reality check: any senator elected from Louisiana will be pro-oil. The focus on drilling is a national Republican strategy against Democrats, and Kennedy appears to be following that cookie-cutter template — something Landrieu’s previous opponents also did, to no avail.  Read the rest of this entry »

The congressional campaign of former TV newscaster Helena Moreno was crowing last week about a poll by Multi-Quest that showed her making the runoff against Congressman Bill Jefferson and beating him in a head-to-head match-up. Indeed, the poll by veteran pollster Jack Grimm showed her running second in the crowded Democratic primary field in the Second Congressional District and leading Jefferson by a margin of 49 percent to 36 percent in a head-to-head match-up. The poll was completed shortly before Hurricane Gustav — roughly five or six weeks before the Oct. 4 primary.

However, the numbers that were released to the media did not include a racial breakdown of either the primary “horse race” or the head-to-head contest between Moreno and Jefferson. 

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