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Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards intends to remove work requirements that Gov. Bobby Jindal has enacted for more than 60,000 food stamp recipients. Edwards sent a letter Monday to the U.S. Department of Agriculture saying he will seek a federal waiver of the work requirements. The governor-elect says Louisiana's unemployment rate qualifies it to skip the work mandate. He's asking the USDA and the state social services department to stop any interruption of benefits until Edwards can reapply for the waiver that Jindal allowed to expire. The work requirements are supposed to kick in Jan. 1 for adults aged 18 to...

Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration has decided not to re-apply for a waiver that allows out-of-work residents to apply for food stamp benefits after they've been on the program for three months. But because Louisiana's unemployment rate is above the national average, Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards could decide to apply for the waiver once he takes office Jan. 11. Doing so could restore food stamp benefits, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, to as many as 64,000 Louisianians who have been unable to find work. snip

Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards plans to issue an executive order to protect the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community from firing, discrimination and harassment as state employees and government contractors. Edwards' directive would cover state workers and government contractors in agencies and departments he oversees. But executive orders don't necessarily bind parts of state government outside the governor's control, such as the judiciary. The Edwards' transition team did not provide a timeline for when the order might be issued, but the Democrat will be sworn into office Jan. 11. The governor-elect told NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune directly a few weeks...

By Marsha Shuler| mshuler@theadvocate.com Nov. 26, 2015; 6:25 p.m. On the campaign trial, Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards promised time and again that he would expand the rolls of Medicaid on his first day in office. His promise to reverse repeated rejections of expanded Medicaid by Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal and open the government health insurance program to more low-income workers was a cornerstone of the Democrat’s campaign. But legal realities have caused Edwards to back off, at least for the time being, while his incoming administration works through a legal glitch raised by the Legislature’s fiscal advisers. Edwards told reporters...

The outgoing RINO Lt. Governor Jay “Ephialtes” Dardenne just sat down with Baton Rouge talk show host Clay Young to discuss his future plans and the governor’s race. The interview was largely Jay Dardenne’s audition for Commissioner Of Administration. Young asked Dardenne if there was a deal between John Bel Edwards and him for his endorsement. Dardenne says that it didn’t come up and that he endorsed Edwards because he believed David Vitter would be a terrible governor. Dardenne says Vitter was too much of a Washington politician and he didn’t want the Washington style politics of division to come...

Governor-elect John Bel Edwards told Republican House leaders Tuesday afternoon that he backed New Orleans Rep. Walt Leger III, a fellow Democrat as Speaker of the House, Majority Leader Lance Harris said. The Republican majority in the Louisiana House would prefer one its members in the top leadership role and passed a resolution to that effect during a meeting in the State Capitol. The 61 GOP representatives in the 105-member Louisiana House met for several hours behind closed doors to discuss how to handle the incoming administration of a Democratic Party governor. Traditionally, Louisiana governors choose the leaders of each...

The answer is less than 24 hours after he was elected. John Bel Edwards tried to run an issue free campaign for governor. Instead, he made the election about David Vitter’s character. While he was busy destroying a good man, Edwards didn’t really go into his vision for Louisiana. Despite his best efforts though, he made some promises to the state. One of them was to hold two special sessions this coming year to deal with structural budget crisis the state is in. Here’s John Bel Edwards making the case via some questions posed on social media. Plans or priorities...

John Bel Edwards' alliances with teachers unions and conventional public school leaders are drawing concern that Louisiana's next governor will seek to revisit legislative battles over charter schools and private school tuition vouchers. In a sign of the strength of Edwards' ties to the unions, the Democrat's first speech since winning Saturday's runoff election was Monday (Nov. 23) at the Louisiana Federation of Teachers convention in Lake Charles. "I know the power and the promise of a public school education when it's done right and when you've got a good partner in the governor's office. Well, let me tell you...

It didn’t take long for Governor-elect John Bel Edwards to show his true colors. In fact, it only took about 12 hours after he was elected governor. The fresh air he was claimed to bring to Louisiana is now a whiff of the stench of Louisiana’s corrupt past. Here are the members of the transition team, according to the Times-Picayune. The transition team, which will operate from the Kirby Smith Hall on the campus of LSU, will include Laura Leach of Lake Charles; Mayor Jamie Mayo of Monroe; Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newel Normand; state Sen. Sharon Weston Broome, of Baton...

Governor-elect John Bel Edwards called expanding Medicaid "among the highest priorities" of his new administration, though he said Sunday (Nov. 22) he may not be able to approve an expanded program on Day One. Edwards has said for months that he would accept the expansion of Medicaid, which requires executive approval, in the early days of his administration. But he said new questions have been raised about a funding mechanism the Legislature finished building in the spring. There is "a difference of opinion" in interpretations of how the bill was drafted and passed, Edwards said. But he did not appear...

11/22/2015-- 4:12 PM CDT Governor-elect John Bel Edwards has named Ben Nevers as his chief of staff. He announced this at a press conference Sunday afternoon. Edwards said that Nevers "has my complete confidence. I could not be happier with the decision that I have made and couldn't be more pleased that Senator Nevers agreed to do this." Ben Nevers has taken positions and supported legislation that has come under fire over the years. Years ago, we wrote about the ongoing controversy regarding man-made reservoirs in Louisiana. One of our concerns was with the Oak Grove community in Washington Parish,...

Today, Louisianans are going to the polls to decide who will lead the state for the next four years. In what was arguably the state's most interesting primary elections since 1987, state Rep. John Bel Edwards and U.S. Sen. David Vitter ended up in the top two slots in the Oct. 24 primary election. Edwards finished in first place among the four gubernatorial candidates receiving votes in the double digits in that primary election, garnering 40 percent of the vote - almost double those of his nearest contender, U.S. Sen. David Vitter, who received 23 percent. Back in May a...

According to the newest state-wide poll of Louisiana taken Thursday, Republican gubernatorial candidate Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) 71% has inched to within just 4 points of his Democrat opponent, John Bel Edwards. Earlier in the month, Edwards had been handily beating Vitter by as much as +22 points. Proving once again why early voting is an appallingly dumb idea, while the Syrian refugee debate appears to be helping Vitter gain ground (he leads on this issue 40% to 36%), according to the Huffington Post, more than a quarter of a million votes have already been cast in Louisiana. Like almost...

The Fat Lady ain't singing. Not yet. Shades of the 1993 election in which Mary Landrieu rode the wave of the Sugar crises in South America, David Vitter, behind in the polls, all runoff season, is building a typhoon over the international Paris terrror crises. In the last poll of the runoff, John C. Convillion of JMC Analytics notes the race has now dropped to 4 percent difference. Weeks ago, Edwards led by 22 points.

This one is by RRH Elections, which is an offshoot polling operation of Red Racing Horses - a political junky blog we frequent often. They've decided to take up collections from their readers and poll races, and the LAGOV race is the latest project within that effort. The poll is an IVR, which is a robopoll, and the sample size is 359 voters. It was apparently taken in two tranches - Nov. 12 and last night. That's not great, but there is some method to the madness here which might offer some credibility to the results. From the poll memo...

In a final statewide TV debate Monday (Nov. 16), Democrat John Bel Edwards and Republican David Vitter began making the closing arguments in a wild gubernatorial campaign that often took on an angry tone. The two men came out swinging as the debate opened with a question about Syrian refugees; it ended with Vitter making a personal appeal to voters for forgiveness for his prostitution scandal and Edwards making the case that he's the best leader. In between, both men fumed at each other for a series of attacks that each said was a distortion of his record. It was...

Republican presidential candidates Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) and former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.) are coming to the aid of their colleague Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) in the final week of his Louisi­ana gubernat­ori­al run­off cam­paign. On Sunday, National Journal reported the two presidential hopefuls recorded robocalls voicing sup­port for Vitter, who is trailing Democratic Louisiana state Rep. John Bel Edwards in the heated race. The Vitter campaign told National Journal that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is expected to do the same. Vitter's involvement in the 2007 "D.C. Madam" prostitution scandal resurfaced after a tough Edwards attack ad alleged Vitter "chose...

The latest attack ad targeting Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) in the Louisiana gubernatorial race claims that he chose "prostitutes over patriots." The 30-second spot contrasts Vitter with opponent Louisiana state Rep. John Bel Edwards (D) on their commitment to the armed forces. "The choice for governor couldn't be more clear: John Bel Edwards, who answered our country's call and served as a Ranger in the 82nd Airborne Division," the ad begins, "or David Vitter, who answered a prostitute's call minutes after he skipped a vote honoring 28 soldiers who gave their lives in defense of freedom." "David Vitter chose prostitutes...

Louisiana Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne, a Republican who was eliminated from the state's gubernatorial race in the jungle primary last month, has endorsed Democrat John Bel Edwards over Republican Sen. David Vitter. Dardenne announced his support for Edwards at a news conference at Louisiana State University on Thursday, a day after the Vitter campaign rolled out an endorsement of its own from former Republican Louisiana Gov. Mike Foster. The race has split Team Dardenne, which, along with supporters of Republican Scott Angelle, came up short in the October primary. Earlier this month, Dardenne's spokeswoman, Marsanne Golsby, announced her support for...

Pollsters: Win over Vitter still tough path BY MARK BALLARD| MBALLARD@THEADVOCATE.COM Oct. 26, 2015; 7:59 p.m. State Rep. John Bel Edwards’ surprise showing in Saturday’s election gave hope to many that the Democratic Party could elect one of its own to a statewide office for the first time since 2008. Edwards was expected to make the Nov. 21 runoff. What surprised many political professionals was that he polled 40 percent of the vote and outpaced Republican candidates in every region of the state in a low-turnout election.