Thursday, February 28, 2008

Ethics Reform in Louisiana

The most interesting excerpt of a very interesting tale of Louisiana politics in today's New York Times:

In a town where legislators have been known to proclaim paid-for meals a principal draw to public service, this was an especially unpopular move. Last week, State Representative Charmaine L. Marchand of the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans said the limit would force her and her colleagues to dine at Taco Bell, and urged that it be pushed to $75 per person, to give them “wiggle room.”

No public groundswell took up her cause, and the $50 limit held.

Read the whole thing, and hope for more good things from Governor Jindal.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

He's trying to move a mountain. Good luck to him. If he can give the illusion of executing real reform it will no doubt aid him politically. He just needs to tag it with some clever semantics, like "All Lobbyists Left Behind".

Nancy Evans said...

It is no wonder that New Orleans is still in such a state of disrepair when you have a representative like Charmaine L. Marchand who couldn't possibly find herself a meal for under $50. I wonder how many of her constituents would be happy to have $50 a day let alone a meal. Wake up New Orleans and boot her and her colleagues out. You are lucky to have Governor Jindal. Wish we had someone like him in California.