Too many elections may equal low voter turnout

The anecdotal and empirical data is there — Louisiana has too many elections each year.

Recently, the Lake Charles newspaper weighed in on the matter.

A few leges have offered legislation and some has even passed, yet we still hold too many elections. It results in fewer and fewer people going to the polls.

Obviously, reducing the number of elections is not glamorous enough (o national headlines for his ambitions) for Bobby Jindal to offer even lip-service to the problem.

The question remains is when will the governor and a majority of the leges get behind Secretary of State Tom Schedler and do something about the “emergency” elections that exist solely for local governments to sneak propositions passed the voters?

Elections are a part of a democracy; too many elections make thwart a democracy.

Kudos to the American Press for their support for reducing the number of elections.

Leges game the system

Under our new “gold standard” of heh, heh, heh, ethics, it is illegal for a lege to hire a member of his immediate family to work for him.

Reps. Thomas Carmody and Henry Burns, both Republicans, figured out how to circumvent that problem.

Carmody hired Burn’s wife to be Carmody’s lege assistant.

In addition to an extra family paycheck courtesy of the taxpayers, the assistants are eligible to join the state retirement system. After 10 years the assistants “vest” in the system.

If all the leges did what Carmody and Burns did there would be 100 percent employment of spouses and “significant others” in the lege branch of government.

Additionally, every lege would have a stake in the state retirement system in contravention of the constitutional prohibition.

Another Jindal “achievement”

When the GOP is considering candidates for Vice President perhaps they should look beyond the professional “spin doctors” on Bobby Jindal’s payroll and look at how our state ranks in comparison with the other states.

Louisiana was just awarded another last place position in higher education. SUNO ranks dead last when it comes to graduation rates among all colleges in the U.S.

Governor Romney, Bobby will do for America what he has done for Louisiana. Do you really wish to inflict that on our fellow Americans?

Please think about it.

 

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