Regular Session Special - Constitutional Convention

[00:00:00] Welcome to The Pelican Brief, with your host David Tatman.

[00:00:29] Welcome to The Pelican Brief, I am your host David Tatman.

[00:00:32] Thank you so much for listening.

[00:00:34] We have a special episode today that we're going to talk about one of the major issues

[00:00:39] in the current 2024 regular session of the Louisiana legislature.

[00:00:46] And to talk about that issue, the constitutional or proposed constitutional convention, I brought

[00:00:51] in one of the few guys I know around the Capitol who have actually been doing this longer

[00:00:56] than I have.

[00:00:58] And so I want to welcome Joe Meep's to our show.

[00:01:02] Good morning, David.

[00:01:03] Thanks for having me here.

[00:01:04] And yes, I'm in my 50th year, in case I started that was 5-0.

[00:01:09] And yes, I'm 61.

[00:01:10] I started lobbying when I was 12.

[00:01:12] I lobbied Senator Leonard Shawbear outside of committee room E in the Senate area.

[00:01:18] And since then, I lobbied his son Marty who served in that seat and his son Norby

[00:01:21] that served in that seat.

[00:01:23] My father was the third registered lobbyist in the history of Louisiana.

[00:01:27] There was no ethics commission.

[00:01:28] The clerk of the house just gave them a piece of paper with the number three on it and said,

[00:01:32] here, your number three.

[00:01:33] OK?

[00:01:34] And I always knew from a very young age, just me and my brother.

[00:01:38] He's one year older than I.

[00:01:39] And he swore off politics when in a civil service.

[00:01:42] Get explain that to me.

[00:01:44] But seriously, I always knew from a very, very young age that I wanted to do what my father

[00:01:49] did.

[00:01:50] And so I just followed in his footsteps.

[00:01:53] And he was a master, as you know.

[00:01:55] And I tried to keep silent and pay attention as much as I possibly could.

[00:01:59] And then met my lovely wife Sandy in 1980 with she had hired her American Association

[00:02:07] of Beauty Shop and Barber salon owners at hired our company to work on an estheticians

[00:02:12] building that time.

[00:02:13] And she was so good at being the legislative chair and enjoyed it so much.

[00:02:17] She stayed.

[00:02:18] And about 13 years later, she and I got together.

[00:02:21] We've been married.

[00:02:22] And now we've got seven grandchildren, eight on the way.

[00:02:25] Wow.

[00:02:26] That's amazing.

[00:02:27] Sandy's a great lobbyist.

[00:02:28] You do a great job at the capital and behalf of your clients.

[00:02:31] And you and I have worked on a number of issues together and someone on the other side.

[00:02:36] But I've always enjoyed it either way because a good professional knows how to work together

[00:02:40] whether you're on the same side or not.

[00:02:42] And you do David.

[00:02:43] And I appreciate that.

[00:02:44] I was going to say, this is my 34th regular session.

[00:02:48] And I'm feeling like it's actually my 68th.

[00:02:51] I went in and actually did the research.

[00:02:53] It's my 68th session if you encounter not organizational sessions but special sessions.

[00:02:59] Right.

[00:03:00] So there are about one for one.

[00:03:01] I usually just works out that way some years.

[00:03:03] You'll have two specials some years, you'll have none.

[00:03:06] But I was thinking my 68th session, I could qualify for Social Security full payment.

[00:03:11] I don't think.

[00:03:12] But anyway, well.

[00:03:13] I got to tell you Sandy's favorite saying.

[00:03:16] And she told it to the president of the Senate page Cortez last year.

[00:03:19] So you can verify this.

[00:03:20] We were talking about a quarter horse breeders issue on the way up the capital and it got

[00:03:25] a little tense and Sandy turned around.

[00:03:27] She's only about five foot nothing.

[00:03:29] And she said, she said, Paisley, let me tell you we're on the B team.

[00:03:32] We B here before you got here.

[00:03:34] We B here after you go.

[00:03:35] I like it.

[00:03:36] She's so sweet.

[00:03:37] And again, a really, really good lobbyist.

[00:03:39] So we are talking today about, I guess it's House Bill 800, which is by Representative

[00:03:47] Bobo Yeh use the chair of Housing Governmental Affairs to hold a constitutional convention.

[00:03:53] And so just to give a little bit of background to our listeners, the last constitutional convention

[00:04:01] was the bill was passed in the regular session in 1972.

[00:04:06] It was I think House Bill 181.

[00:04:09] It became act two in a number of ways.

[00:04:14] It did a lot of things, but it provided for the election of delegates 105 delegates from

[00:04:22] the 105 House of Representative districts.

[00:04:26] And then the governor was part of the legislation, the act allowed the governor to appoint 27 individuals.

[00:04:35] Now, the legislative intent of that was that these 27 people would come from specific

[00:04:42] areas of our economy and then geographically across the state so that there would be not

[00:04:48] only representation of people who were the delegates who were elected, but also have different

[00:04:53] industries so that there was a knowledge.

[00:04:55] You couldn't Google everything back then.

[00:04:57] So sometimes if you had to say a farmer on there, which probably back then half of the

[00:05:01] legislature were farmers.

[00:05:03] That's somebody who works for foreign bureau.

[00:05:06] But as you know, that process was lengthy.

[00:05:11] It took people in motels for three months at a time.

[00:05:15] Right.

[00:05:16] You know, delegates.

[00:05:17] That's right.

[00:05:18] And so how long was it two years?

[00:05:21] It depends on who you talk to.

[00:05:23] I don't know if that should be throwing out so many names here, but some people think

[00:05:27] it was one year and some people think it was two years when you talk about everything

[00:05:32] start to finish.

[00:05:33] I go with two years because it did take a lot to and I think you mentioned something that

[00:05:42] I think really is important that's missing in this conversation with House Bill 800 is

[00:05:46] the election process of the electors.

[00:05:50] I mean, of the delegates.

[00:05:51] Okay.

[00:05:52] So who are the electors?

[00:05:53] You and I were having that conversation earlier.

[00:05:56] It was the people in 1971.

[00:05:58] Right.

[00:05:59] That's right.

[00:06:00] So in this process, if this bill were to pass by a two thirds vote over here at the legislature,

[00:06:05] how much input would come from the public?

[00:06:08] It's a really, really good point.

[00:06:11] And I, if you know, being so of course you and I both worked with Bob a Henry very closely

[00:06:17] at Edwin Edwards.

[00:06:18] I mean, we worked with really the two.

[00:06:21] Great.

[00:06:22] And Bob was one of the last two surviving members of that 73 constitutional intervention.

[00:06:27] And the architects of how the process worked.

[00:06:30] And if you look back historically, the big fight at the beginning was the structure and

[00:06:38] the rules.

[00:06:39] I mean, they spent, I believe six months just on the structure in the rules, right?

[00:06:44] And I mean, I thought, look, I think it was well thought out last time.

[00:06:48] Obviously, the, the, you had a Supreme Court justice who served over the constitutional

[00:06:53] convention until they elected their leader, which eventually was Bob a Henry.

[00:06:59] They worked very hard on the rules.

[00:07:02] They broke into again, they didn't have Google.

[00:07:04] So they were a little bit disadvantaged.

[00:07:06] But what they immediately realized was what they do is staff.

[00:07:10] Yes.

[00:07:11] I mean, they, a big part of this was staff.

[00:07:14] And if you, if I'm gonna give, I'm gonna give Jeremy a little plug here and certainly

[00:07:19] Bob a Henry, if you read the book, the last constitution, if you haven't read it, you

[00:07:23] should read it.

[00:07:24] You and I know almost everyone that they mentioned in that book, I haven't been around as long

[00:07:29] as you, but all those people sort of carried on.

[00:07:32] And it talks, you know, a lot about the things that they did not anticipate when they first

[00:07:38] went in.

[00:07:39] And I mean, if you go, as you go through the book, Bob a Henry had to keep going back to Edwin

[00:07:43] Edwards and saying, I need more money.

[00:07:45] I need more money.

[00:07:46] I need more money.

[00:07:47] Now, in the House of the 800, it funded.

[00:07:51] So I don't think that becomes as much of an issue.

[00:07:54] But it's clearly not the same construct as what we're dealing with in House of the 800.

[00:08:02] So let, so I just wanted to give a little bit of that background and I would say it was two

[00:08:06] years because I think you have to start when the bill was filed.

[00:08:09] And the bill was filed at this point.

[00:08:10] Exactly.

[00:08:11] Yeah.

[00:08:12] In the spring of 72 and the constitution was approved in the fall of 74, correct?

[00:08:18] That's right.

[00:08:19] That's right.

[00:08:20] Some people I talk to say it's two years and one month, but we won't get into all of

[00:08:23] that.

[00:08:24] But anyway, so let's, you know, as a background there, I mean, look, we have been talking about

[00:08:31] a constitutional convention.

[00:08:33] I mean, almost every year since I've been here.

[00:08:36] Since I've been around.

[00:08:37] And yes, every year somebody brings it up.

[00:08:40] That's right.

[00:08:41] And so this bill gets filed and I know you, you've been studying it along with some of

[00:08:46] your people.

[00:08:47] And I guess, you know, just generally I've read through it.

[00:08:50] But give me some of your thoughts on the bill itself and then we'll talk broadly about

[00:08:55] perhaps how we might think a constitutional convention should be held.

[00:08:59] The bill itself has got a couple of words in that are hard to define antiquated, for

[00:09:05] example.

[00:09:06] I mean, who gets this aside?

[00:09:07] That if you and I are talking about what's antiquated, is it official like 25 years or

[00:09:12] more, but, you know, somebody might consider some type of thinking outdated if it's only

[00:09:17] 25 years old.

[00:09:18] So, and there's other words in there that are not clearly defined in that piece of legislation.

[00:09:22] Well, you and I are both over 60 so we're antiquated.

[00:09:25] But I agree.

[00:09:27] I don't know.

[00:09:28] But it goes, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but it goes to what you were saying earlier.

[00:09:34] They spent six months in just, you know, arguing and putting together the structure, you

[00:09:39] know, of how the electors were going to, who they were going to be, and how the delegates

[00:09:43] were going to be elected, and how they were going to serve where they were going to

[00:09:46] be housed and you were talking about budgets and everything.

[00:09:48] We're not talking about any of that.

[00:09:50] And one of the concerns through the years about crack and open the Constitution, and it came

[00:09:55] from the business community, it came from, I mean, again, I'm not going to name names,

[00:10:00] but it came from the business community, and the concern was that the legislature wasn't

[00:10:04] qualified to go in there and crack open a precious document like that.

[00:10:08] And I think they would be, I think they definitely would be if they took some more time.

[00:10:14] However, you mentioned earlier, you know, time is not on the side of this Constitutional

[00:10:19] Convention as far as people staying up delegates, staying up at night, burning them in

[00:10:24] night oil, studying the myriad of issues that are coming at them because you know what?

[00:10:28] They don't really know what's coming at them.

[00:10:30] That bill is general and it's that piece of legislation is general and it's parameters.

[00:10:34] Yeah, so talk a little bit about that, Joe, for our audience.

[00:10:38] I don't think everybody understands, but you know how, you know, the difference between

[00:10:43] a bill which makes a statutory change and a constitutional amendment and what that threshold

[00:10:47] is, talk a little bit about that.

[00:10:49] Yeah, that's a great point.

[00:10:50] So one of the official rumors going around is that you know they want to take things out

[00:10:55] of the Constitution that when you pass a piece of legislation into legislature, if it's

[00:11:00] going to be an amendment to the Constitution as you well know, and I'm doing this for your

[00:11:04] listeners, you've got to have a two thirds vote instead of a simple majority vote, all

[00:11:07] right?

[00:11:08] Once you get that two thirds vote on this proposed constitutional amendment, it's still

[00:11:12] proposed because it's got to go to the polls for the voters in the fall, okay?

[00:11:17] Then if it gets voted in, which it usually always does, it becomes an amendment to the Constitution.

[00:11:23] What what what the official rumor is, is that we're talking about removing some of these

[00:11:27] items that we may need more flexibility with like matters related to the fisc of the state

[00:11:33] the state's budget, okay?

[00:11:34] We may need more flexibility rather than having a send this issue through the meat grinder

[00:11:39] through the legislature every time, and then back through the polls and you got to spend

[00:11:43] money on advertising for those, you know, for the people in the polls and everything.

[00:11:47] So this would take some of these things out of the Constitution, put them in the statute

[00:11:51] and what that means is you only have to have a majority of 51% instead of a 70% vote

[00:11:57] and you can have more flexibility with those issues.

[00:12:00] Then there's then there that flexibility becomes a concern for some specific issues and

[00:12:05] we'll get into that later like you said.

[00:12:07] Yeah, and so you know as you know this and I know this is government relations professionals.

[00:12:11] I've always said that if I had a bill that was mom, apple pie in the American way it would

[00:12:16] be amended 14 times and put in a conference committee.

[00:12:19] So to get 70 people to agree on anything is a really heavy lift.

[00:12:23] So I did a little research since the 74 and I may be off a little bit, but so I'm going

[00:12:28] to give a general range.

[00:12:30] Since the 74 Constitution was ratified by the people, there have been 300 over just

[00:12:37] over, is it 400 and I think maybe it was 400 that were offered in 300 that actually

[00:12:45] passed about 100 didn't pass.

[00:12:48] Right.

[00:12:49] It takes a lot to not pass because people tend to vote for them.

[00:12:53] I mean right two thirds of the ones that were offered up were passed and so people we

[00:12:59] know that people don't pay a lot of attention to that.

[00:13:02] A lot of that said to do with the wording in the past but we did pass legislation somewhat

[00:13:06] recently to change the wording of the polls.

[00:13:09] And I don't know about you and this is kind of a side subject but my family and friends are

[00:13:13] so thankful just sitting around barbecues.

[00:13:15] I can finally understand what I'm voting on when I'm voting on.

[00:13:18] Well, as you know those go to the Civil Law for the ballot language and the Civil Law

[00:13:22] Committee so that they can take a look at it and make sure it's not misleading.

[00:13:25] But I can tell you I voted on constitutional amendments which were reverse where it sounded

[00:13:32] like it said one thing but it said another thing.

[00:13:35] That is not an accusation that anybody did anything wrong.

[00:13:38] It may have been the only way to state that but the reality of it is and I just you know

[00:13:43] probably getting trouble with some of my listeners but most people really don't pay attention

[00:13:46] to it.

[00:13:47] They they don't take the time and frankly they don't a lot of people don't take the

[00:13:52] time to even learn about the candidates.

[00:13:54] They see a commercial, they like them.

[00:13:56] They're pretty they speak in a dialect like they speak whether it's Cajun or Nalans

[00:14:03] or whatever and okay I like that guy but-

[00:14:07] That's a podcast for an entirely different day.

[00:14:09] It is it is so you know so one of the big things is that there will be no election for

[00:14:17] these these delegates right and so right now as I appreciate it it's the 105 House members

[00:14:28] the 39 senators and then 27 people elected appointed I guess a referred from the governor's

[00:14:37] office.

[00:14:38] Last time we did this there were 105 plus 27 so 132 I think that's my math right there.

[00:14:44] They couldn't do it at the Capitol they had to do it at you remember where they did

[00:14:48] it they did it at the old Belmont.

[00:14:49] Well Belmont's not there anymore.

[00:14:52] And the other part of that that is a little challenging is is you think okay what's

[00:14:57] no big deal but the the voting and the electronic aspect of it and the staffing and all the

[00:15:05] things that are constantly updating the voting system on the House floor the Senate floor

[00:15:09] the constantly maintain it constantly tweaking it yeah yeah so and look big organizations

[00:15:14] like you represent some associations that have their own voting system right and it's a complicated

[00:15:19] situation.

[00:15:20] It is and and and so let's talk a little bit about what we're hearing and what we're

[00:15:26] what we think is going to be the approach.

[00:15:29] We know the bill give me the framework of the bill it talks about what is it is it May

[00:15:34] 20th or somewhere around there and that's kind of open ended yeah it says that it would

[00:15:39] go on you know until a report is due to the legislature I believe August 1st was the

[00:15:45] date so they could they could go on and on but look my point is how are you going to get

[00:15:51] a brand new group some people have never even met each other and you're talking about

[00:15:54] a two-thirds vote if you had a co-easy of house or a co-easy of Senate that's been getting

[00:15:59] along for a while and you got a difficult vote coming ahead of you on either floor it's

[00:16:04] still going to be difficult to get a two-thirds vote so my point is I think that's going

[00:16:09] to be a big lift for them you know just to just to get it going with this new group and then

[00:16:14] once the new group is together how do you get cohesion on issues that soon and that's

[00:16:21] when you don't you haven't studied the issues independently you haven't worked on them

[00:16:24] as a group together this is your first time to work on them as a group together I just

[00:16:29] think that if it were me if I were going into a constitutional convention and I know now

[00:16:33] all the egos are on the line hey I won't be party history okay but I would want to be you

[00:16:38] know the right party history and I would want to go in knowledgeable so I would want

[00:16:42] to have some round table sessions a year to two years prior and you could do the interviews

[00:16:47] for the delegates at that time too but have some as they're being approved is voted in

[00:16:53] as delegates whatever have some round table discussions where they're able to ask questions

[00:16:57] because you know they're going to have basic questions about the constitution not about

[00:17:01] specific items in it and that's going to take who knows how long so we should do that

[00:17:06] outside of a constitution truncate the constitution and have you know some very specific goals

[00:17:12] going in and and and more parameters because the concern is once you open a main article as

[00:17:19] as you know David all sub articles under that automatically open and we've been given this

[00:17:25] thought over the past 10 to 12 years that we can have something like call bay limited fiscal

[00:17:31] only matters look constitutional convention and it's just not so and that's why the business

[00:17:36] community backed off their opposition they said okay because that makes sense you know we think

[00:17:41] that we could get in you know we the business and government we could get into the constitution

[00:17:45] retool it and do some good for the state's finances okay but once you get in there let's say

[00:17:53] somebody's there in the middle of the constitutional convention they the legislators don't know

[00:17:58] what's going to you know about a particular issue but then something happens to them from a

[00:18:03] particular profession or an industry or their family member while they're serving in a constitutional

[00:18:08] convention now they're driving to the camp capital angry at this profession and they're looking

[00:18:13] around and they realize they can crack open a certain section of their protection in the constitution

[00:18:20] that's what's scary about this and more but that bottom line is you you open up your kimono you expose

[00:18:27] everything you know yeah you're you're correct I mean so one of the things that we have in the state

[00:18:33] Louisiana and you know this is that any individual bill or whatever it is it can't have dual objectivity

[00:18:39] right you can't not supposed to cover two subject matters now sometimes you can you can if you do

[00:18:45] an omnibus bill that's all about say insurance and it it covers some things you can get away with

[00:18:50] that but in this situation you're talking about executive branch powers legislative powers

[00:18:56] civil service K through 12 education I mean kind of goes gun rights your personal bill

[00:19:03] rights which kitty Kimber when she was Supreme Court justice issued a statement on how strong Louisiana's

[00:19:09] bill of rights is and how it's even stronger than the bill rights that the US Constitution allows right

[00:19:15] so some of the rumor going around and this would be like fifth hand so you you can take it for

[00:19:22] its work but you know when I hear a rumor come back to me I either have started a bad rumor or

[00:19:28] it's the truth but the one of the is that they will not remove anything from that will not

[00:19:37] remove anything from from law that they will take part portions that are currently in the constitution

[00:19:46] and and drop them into statute so the message will be we're not changing anything everything's now

[00:19:52] still there it's just in statute now of course to your point earlier it's a lot easier

[00:19:59] to change to change a law into a statutory law then it is a constitution and so those are some

[00:20:08] things that if so right now we actually have a pretty low bill count I think it's by 1200 bills maybe

[00:20:14] 1300 bills it used to be what I remember when it was like we were in sessions with over 6,600

[00:20:20] bills in the past and thank how many amendments would be attached to those bills I saw one bill

[00:20:26] in that session that had 150 pages of amendments to it that's crazy you know and they would all have

[00:20:32] the effect of law each one of those amendments if they pass right so so 1200 bills I'm not going

[00:20:38] to say is easy I would never say that because then we'll get our butts kicked right but we're

[00:20:43] pleased to see this amount so far yeah unfortunately I think I'm tracking about 300 of them but I

[00:20:48] haven't we are at the the late bill filing deadline so I don't want to I don't want to jinx myself

[00:20:54] there maybe some more you know tell me well if you were the king and you had the wand tell me how

[00:21:01] you would put together the constitutional convention I would take two years out I mean I would I would

[00:21:08] start I would talk about the legislation just like they did in 71 and then I would I would start the

[00:21:15] process of letting the legislature know how things work that you know look you know we've got to pass

[00:21:21] a piece of legislation to form a constitutional convention it takes a two-thirds vote so it

[00:21:25] educates them first try to get them as knowledgeable as possible and then you're going to have to

[00:21:31] you would I would have to do some type of immediate campaign you know for the people because they

[00:21:35] would be the ones elected the electorate delegates and so they have to understand that this is their

[00:21:42] time that you'd have to have some I'd have to have some type of PR campaign that shows people

[00:21:46] that that government is for the people you know by the people for the people out of the people

[00:21:51] this would be the perfect opportunity to show that for them to get involved roll their sleeves up

[00:21:56] actually get to know who the potential the delicate candidates are get to know them and elect

[00:22:03] right candidate just like they do in you know for the state house or the state senate once you get it

[00:22:08] that in place I'm just thinking as I'm speaking it seems I'd take about three quarters of a year right

[00:22:13] there to you know our year if not and then you go into you know actually having the roundtable

[00:22:20] discussions I think that it once you get your delegates in place having roundtable discussions where

[00:22:25] they can raise their hands ask fundamental questions about the constitution specific questions about

[00:22:31] items in the constitution and then go in there armed and knowledgeable to represent the people

[00:22:37] that elected them you know right now I just that to me that's a big chunk that's missing in this

[00:22:43] process we're just I'm not against the governor's idea for a constitutional convention and I'm not

[00:22:48] against the concept of the idea of a constitutional convention I would just suggest that we want to take

[00:22:53] more time and give it more careful thought and consideration then then House Bill 800 would give it

[00:23:00] well I'll tell you a few things that would concern me about the current construct and that is that

[00:23:07] you know so last time you had 132 this time you're looking at two

[00:23:13] 171 right that's great 171 individuals and and I just I think it is very difficult to get

[00:23:23] 171 people or half of that frankly to agree on everything right because you may not like

[00:23:32] article you might not like what they did with article two you might not but you love article 7

[00:23:37] and 8 and you know and so you say do I give up you know what I don't like about this one article

[00:23:43] because I love these other two articles or do I stand strong and say I'm not going to go

[00:23:48] to yourself earlier you and I have worked together on some really big issues okay what if you and

[00:23:53] I got hired and it was just you and me and we had had to go at that 171 and we had to get a two-thirds

[00:23:59] vote on a very high profile intense issue I'm going to tell you what you and I would say to each

[00:24:04] other but not on camera yeah yeah well the other part of it is we need a really big budget

[00:24:10] and we would need a lot of soldiers because you know you start looking at it and and and talking to

[00:24:16] you know I mean it seems I mean right now in each of the bodies you and I do most of our work in

[00:24:22] committee where we're dealing with you know maybe six or a point or maybe seven or eight when you

[00:24:27] get into the you know I always think and I love all of my House of Representative members but many

[00:24:33] of whom listen to our show 105 man I always say the house is 105 free agents it's different

[00:24:41] the Senate is much more cohesive they are I think it has to do with the fact that when you go

[00:24:46] down to the well in the Senate you have to share the mic so it's a little bit like when you're looking

[00:24:51] in someone's eyes it's just a little bit of a different deal and you've seen people you've seen

[00:24:56] it you've seen people come from the house who are very fiery and they go to the Senate and it's just

[00:25:01] a different feel of demeanor it's a totally different demeanor 39 you know so even at 105

[00:25:07] it's a lot but 170 something I mean think about and I will say this but think about how dysfunctional

[00:25:14] the house the United States House of Representatives or at at 435 correct 435 that's just like too many

[00:25:23] to me oh yeah and but I guess because of smaller states they may only have one that that's the way

[00:25:28] they had to do it but you know it does seem difficult I think personally that they ought to elect

[00:25:34] the delegates it's not any you know it's not an affront to bow I think bow is a great legislator

[00:25:40] I agree I think he's one of the one of the good guys and one of the nicest people at the Capitol

[00:25:44] and I think he's going to be open to ideas but I think they ought to elect delegates I think people

[00:25:51] ought to run for that seats you know for those delegate positions saying what they're going to do

[00:25:57] I don't have a problem with the governor appointing the 27 but I think in today's age

[00:26:03] there ought to be some consideration for little buckets right we need these many people from oil

[00:26:11] and gas and we need these many people from agriculture all the things that our state does tourism trade

[00:26:17] whatever I think that as opposed to just 27 delegates I think it ought to maybe be 27 delegates

[00:26:25] with buckets to where you can bring some people in and then of course it's going to be up to the

[00:26:29] governor and whoever's in charge to make sure that those people are doing it for the right reasons

[00:26:36] and they are concerned about the whole state I would hope it would be a good amount of experts

[00:26:43] in 27 because with the legislatures regardless of how much education they're going to get prior

[00:26:49] to a constitutional convention they're not going to be experts on constitutional law and certain

[00:26:55] parts of industry and that's in the constitution so I would hope that 20 parts of the 27 would be

[00:27:02] you know I mean experts from the private side sure you can be an expert in oil and gas but no

[00:27:06] nothing about K through 12 education you can be a you know big end to secondary education to

[00:27:14] the universities to tech schools it is just so many things I think you would see in that

[00:27:19] framework where our priorities are which I think is really important you and I both know

[00:27:26] and I think our listeners know that Louisiana is one of the only if not the only southern state

[00:27:32] that's losing population are you know we have a good strong oil and gas economy but you know

[00:27:39] our we don't treat our agricultural community as well as I think we should

[00:27:43] that's what we were built on and it would seem like we have to reinvest more into that we've

[00:27:49] got major insurance problems our tax structures not good so there's really a lot of things

[00:27:55] that need to be fixed and I guess if you could go into the constitution and fix those things

[00:28:00] it would be great but can you well purse your your and my personal injury rights in the courtroom

[00:28:08] are in the constitution so I don't know how much it how much fixing is going to go on if that's

[00:28:16] cracked open and again define fixing right we're trying to define it right now at the legislature

[00:28:22] and it's like the Hatfield McCoy you know over there so again I think just more careful thought

[00:28:29] consideration and time to create a process a more intricate infrastructure you know that supports

[00:28:38] the people in the industries I mean in my video I made recently I talked a lot a lot about

[00:28:43] industries and professions and Sandy said what about the people and I said you know the people don't

[00:28:48] know that this is even happening really I mean when you're talking about earlier that they don't

[00:28:53] know who they're voting for they look at a commercial and they go I like blue you know so I'm

[00:28:57] going to have a green or whatever I'm not choosing parties there I'm just seriously I like yellow

[00:29:01] and that's the way that was on commercial so you go vote that person on the way to soccer practice or

[00:29:05] something right so yeah in campaigns a lot of time they look I know because I've worked them

[00:29:11] and you've worked them they you don't pick a color of a sign for your yard signs or for your logo

[00:29:17] based on your favorite color you pick it on the color that you that the science shows attracts

[00:29:23] people even to the point of it's not just a blue it's a particular shade of blue right right and

[00:29:29] but yeah I agree let me ask you a question if you were selected by the governor with one of his 27

[00:29:36] to serve would you oh certainly I would and I mean I've been doing this for 50 years and

[00:29:43] and I've seen a lot and I've experienced a lot and and I'm a contract lobbyist so I'm predominantly

[00:29:49] known for representing the farmers and the ranchers for a long time since the early 80s but I represent

[00:29:54] a lot of other issues as you well know through the years and I'll always consider myself a little

[00:30:00] mini expert you know on different professions and industries and you are too we both you know in

[00:30:05] our profession we get we get crash courses like people will come to us and say their entire

[00:30:10] industry is about to go wonder because the law is going to pass or a law doesn't pass or an amendment

[00:30:14] whatever so we get these crash courses so these you know these are real life experiences for me they

[00:30:20] say that people that that go away after college and live life for a few years and then go back to

[00:30:26] law school they say they come out and they do the best of all the law students because they had a

[00:30:31] little bit of life experience well after doing this for 50 years I've had a little bit of life

[00:30:35] experience as a Louisiana lobbyist just to be clear uh haven't lobbied anywhere else don't lobby in

[00:30:40] DC that's somebody else's Bailey Wigg like Louisiana politics you can work with people here and get

[00:30:47] things done yeah I look I agree with you we've done we've done federal work before we don't love it

[00:30:52] I'd to hold 435 thing most of the work that we did at the federal level was in the United States Senate

[00:30:58] back in shoot back in the late 90s so I don't I'll go to Washington but I don't really want to

[00:31:05] lobby and look I have a great love for this state I've bought one of my sons has left he goes to

[00:31:14] LSU and gets a mechanical engineering degree and to get the kind of job he wanted he had to leave

[00:31:19] the state that's that's sad it's sad he was with me this weekend I had a great time and every time

[00:31:25] he goes it's sad and unfortunately I don't think he's coming back I don't think there's going

[00:31:29] to be opportunities for him to come back I have a daughter who left Baton Rouge is still in Louisiana

[00:31:34] and I have one daughter hanging on here in Baton Rouge and and I just feel like we you know

[00:31:41] this this state is so such a cultural jargonaut you know I mean everything I was you know this weekend

[00:31:50] I was at a barbecue it was a barbecue and every you looked down the street you had crawfish boils

[00:31:56] and you know seafood boils and you know all it gone on and it almost looked like a martygrop

[00:32:01] down a to a street in Tibetal Louisiana you know and we just in our music and you know the food

[00:32:08] and the people right and all the different regions from from my friends down in Shalmet

[00:32:14] to you know my my a K Deanna friends you know down in from million parish to when you go up

[00:32:21] north where it's almost like a whole you know you go to you know rapids parish where it's a whole

[00:32:25] different world right and I'm not cutting anybody out and I know you get up there a lot but

[00:32:30] we something we're doing is not is not right and we're losing people and you cannot

[00:32:36] you look at the European countries who are in decline they are losing population because when

[00:32:40] their kids grow up they go somewhere else for opportunity and that's just not good but let me

[00:32:45] tell you where we're getting killed and when you they're talking about the constitution this is

[00:32:49] really important you and I worked our whole lives one day you might not want to go to the capital

[00:32:54] anymore I know one day I won't and when I don't go to the capital anymore why wouldn't I take all

[00:33:00] of the wealth whatever wealth I earned and just go spend it somewhere else go to Tennessee go to

[00:33:05] North Carolina where it's safer lower crime lower taxes all that when the when you have that

[00:33:13] wealth and I'm gonna talk about me I'm talking about a lot of people that I know that have left

[00:33:18] and moved to Tennessee I mean Tennessee's killing us right and they take that money and they go

[00:33:24] invested in in there they buy a house there they spend money at the grocery they travel

[00:33:30] there their airports there everything those are the kind of things that trouble me as much as

[00:33:35] the education piece right but if your heart's here in Louisiana that's the answer to your question

[00:33:41] it is but the real question is do you go get a do you go get a place in North Carolina like a bunch

[00:33:46] of our lobbyists fellow lobbyists there's a little area there that they're all moving to and just

[00:33:51] keep a house here to come in and do work Maggie Valley oh yeah I know people who are there and I

[00:33:57] know people are out there to and I'll just say my son's in Virginia very proud of him he's working

[00:34:02] on the John F Kennedy aircraft carrier but he is a mechanical congratulations he's a mechanical

[00:34:09] engineer trained by LSU and he works with two other mechanical engineers from LSU

[00:34:15] all the way in Virginia so I want that work here so that I can bring him back at you know and

[00:34:20] that's a big part of it so I don't know if the Constitution fixes that I don't know if that's

[00:34:25] part of what they're going to talk about um I don't know if in as a part of the Constitution

[00:34:31] they're gonna get into any of that or if they're just gonna strip it down but those are the kind

[00:34:35] that's a valid question to consider yeah because it just you really just don't know so um any

[00:34:41] parting wisdom for us Joe uh just stay the course I mean you know it seems sometimes that

[00:34:49] that your issues over here at the Capitol are gonna turn out wrong or bad and

[00:34:55] and it's kind of like I told Joe McPherson one time when he was in the Senate and I was working

[00:34:59] with him I said you know working with you's like being on a wild roller coaster ride Joe and I

[00:35:05] said but you if you know Joe's there waiting for you at the end you just hang on and everything's

[00:35:09] gonna be okay and so that's what I'd say with this Constitutional Convention with the issues

[00:35:14] that are over at the Capitol just hang on hang in there when you say Joe McPherson I tremble a

[00:35:19] little bit but uh he says it's McPherson there's no fear in McPherson first I love it well

[00:35:26] that's our show for today we want to thank you for tuning into the Pelican brief you can find us

[00:35:31] on the web at pelicanbriefpodcast.com you can also follow us on social media at pelicanbrief 225

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[00:35:50] on YouTube is at the pelicanbrief 225 that's our show thank you and until next time we'll see you

[00:35:57] yeah

[00:36:05] the pelicanbrief is an off script production