BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Legislators have wrapped up the first-ever veto override session with all the vetoes intact. Since the gavel out, conversations have begun on what this means for lawmakers on both sides.
With the conservative legislators unable to turn key Democrats in the House to get their veto override majority, it has led to some high tensions within the party. There are already calls for a change with a redistricting session coming up.
In the Senate, the vote on the transgender athlete bill fell along party lines but in the House, one Democrat and one Republican went against the majority of their party. The effort to flip some votes fell short by two.
“I think the best line of the entire session came from Beth Mizell, the author of the transgender athletes bill,” said Jeremy Alford, Editor of LAPolitics.com. “She asked lawmakers not to vote with the stick and carrot which is just fitting for this session because there really was rewards and punishments on both sides of this issue.”
The governor admitted to making promises to some legislators to get them to not vote to override his veto, which he said is not different from what the leadership may have been doing. The day prior to the session the Speaker of the House said he was 100% confident the override would happen. Now, the Louisiana GOP is calling for the Speaker to remove Democrats as committee chairmen or face potentially being removed from his seat.
“It really puts the speaker in a bad spot because the speaker counts among his base of support, both Democrats and members of the Black Caucus,” Alford said. “If he gives in to these demands by conservatives he could very well lose support in the base that helped put him in that spot.”
Even with the failed attempt this time around, some believe this could lead to more veto override sessions. With the redistricting special session coming up it also shows the governor can survive a veto override.
“That was kind of the Speaker’s response after the failure of the session. He said that this should be the norm now, that lawmakers should continue to come into these veto sessions after each regular session… I think politically we’re going to see that this session is maybe going to turn the legislature a little redder,” Alford said.
Alford also said those in charge of the redistricting believe it will be a whole new ballgame and could be different votes. Talks have already begun around redistricting and the public will get a chance to share input later in the year after census data is released.
Catch the full interview with Jeremy Alford on This Week in Louisiana Politics at 10:30 a.m. Sunday on NBC Local 33.