Editorial Roundup: Louisiana
The Advocate. January 7, 2024.
Editorial: The hopes of Louisiana are in Jeff Landry’s hands now
In his long career in politics, Jeff Landry has presented himself as a man of the people. Raised in the small south Louisiana town of St. Martinville, Landry grew up like many of us, in a working class family with deep roots in the state. For too long, over years and decades, Louisiana has failed these families — whether through a lack of investment in education, poor health care outcomes or scant opportunities for their children.
So as Landry prepares to be sworn in as governor today, we are most struck by the way he has made helping these families a central theme. He’s boiled politics down to its most basic essence: “ ensuring opportunity and growth touches every part of our state. ” While other candidates in the fall election got stuck in the weeds of tax rates, insurance markets, and road and bridge funding, Landry sailed above it all with a campaign that kept coming back to key priorities of lowering crime, attracting jobs and making schools more responsive to what parents want.
That simple message resonated. But these are complex times, and the devil, as we all know, is in the details.
We are eager to see what Landry can accomplish, given that he is starting essentially with a leadoff double: The state’s fiscal balance sheet has a $3 billion surplus, and he’ll be dealing with a supermajority Legislature of his own Republican Party. It’s hard to remember the last time a Louisiana governor took office under such auspicious circumstances.
That’s not to say Landry has an easy job ahead of him. Louisiana’s problems, as documented in these pages for years, are deep and structural. Efforts to enact real, long-lasting change often feel like two steps forward, one step back.
Violent crimes dropped in New Orleans more than they did nationwide in 2023, but Shreveport ended the year with the most homicides it’s seen in decades.
Louisiana led the nation for improved fourth-grade reading scores in 2022 and 2023 reading scores were steady, but math scores still lag.
Major coastal projects. including the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, finally got off the ground. But we are still losing coastline at a rapid clip and environmental threats keep mounting, like last year’s near-miss with saltwater intrusion at the mouth of the Mississippi.
The state crisis of maternal mortality shows no sign of abating, even as the ranks of the uninsured plummeted with the expansion of Medicaid.
And Louisiana continues to bleed population, as many young people move out to seek jobs and others find it’s just too hard to live here as they age.
That’s not even taking into account the crisis in property and flood insurance, which has made homeownership unaffordable for many.
We are hopeful Landry will keep these issues front and center as he takes the reins of power. We are pleased to see that he has reached out to leaders of different backgrounds, like New Orleans DA Jason Williams, to build coalitions to tackle issues like crime.
We support his efforts to cut through the noise and do what’s best for the people of this state. We believe Landry — having worked as a sheriff’s deputy in St. Martin Parish, on Capitol Hill as a member of Congress and as Louisiana’s attorney general — has a unique perspective on how to make government work.
As was said many times in the campaign, our state is at a critical juncture.
The people of Louisiana are counting on Landry and his administration to make the right decisions. We wish him every success.
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