LA POLITICS: GOP conference returns to Louisiana

Published 12:45 am Sunday, November 25, 2018

The Bayou State will once again host the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in January, providing a gathering place for  GOP figureheads from 14 states to promote candidacies, discuss policy agendas and hear speeches from other conservative movers and shakers.

The SRLC has become a-must-attend event for Louisiana Republicans, who heard from every major presidential candidate in the party during the 2010 conference, including President Donald Trump.

The two-day conference kicks off Jan. 18th at the Pontchartrain Center in Kenner and is meant to serve as a “jumpstart to the 2020 elections for president and the U.S. Senate,” according to SRLC President Roger Villere.

A new feature of the conference will be a program called “Campaign Ready” that will function as a political triage of sorts for party players.

“We’re going to have a number of speakers, consultants, pollsters,” said Villere, “people that do TV and radio, people that run campaigns and even know about the psychology of politics… We’re trying to see wether you should be a candidate, or whether you should be working on staff. So we’re going to train people who want to run campaigns, run for office or just want to volunteer on a high level with a campaign.”

SRLC Executive Director Phil Capitano said the conference is working to find its own volunteers as well.

“It’s a big event and there are a lot of moving parts to it,” Capitano said. “You’ve got a VIP room, where many of the speakers will be going before or after they speak. You’ve got a book signing room, or an autograph room, where those who have books will be signing their books and taking the opportunity to talk to people and take pictures. Security is another huge issue. We need good volunteers, they do have to pass a little bit of a background check, but if they do, we certainly can use them.”

Odds & Ends

• State GOP Chairman Louis Gurvich, via opinion columns and public remarks, has been calling for an end to Louisiana’s so-called jungle primaries, or open primaries. While there’s officially no legislators attached to the call for action, it could potentially become an issue during the 2019 regular session of the Louisiana Legislature.

• Both of the candidates in the runoff for secretary of state, Kyle Ardoin and Gwen Collins-Greenup, have won the endorsement of their respective state parties. According to The News-Star, Gov. John Bel Edwards has pledged to stay out of the contest. Sources also tell LaPolitics that Turkey Creek Heather Cloud has thrown her support behind Ardoin, making her the first from the GOP field to back her fellow Republican.

• The city of Scott, in the heart of Acadiana, has elected its first-ever Republican mayor, Jan-Scott Richard. 

•  Public Service Commissioner Craig Greene of Baton Rouge spent the Veterans Day weekend duck hunting with former Vice President Dick Cheney.

•  U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy is partnering with U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, a Democratic colleague, to author the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Reform Act, a bill which would allow the Energy Department to lease unused storage space in the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve. 

Agnew’s timing troubles

In 1973, all of Washington, D.C. was gripped by the Watergate scandal. Press reports were filled with daily accounts of “dirty tricks” taking place from behind the White House gates, and investigators were closing in on President Richard Nixon and his inner circle.

While Vice President Spiro Agnew was not directly involved or implicated in the Watergate controversy, the veep did have his own legal problems. Federal prosecutors had discovered that, as governor of Maryland, Agnew took bribes and kickbacks from state contractors. The troubles in the executive branch caused political problems on Capitol Hill for Republicans like then-Congressman Dave Treen, who was a freshman representing Louisiana’s 3rd District. Treen had built his reputation on honesty and integrity, but was still a loyal party man, having led the state GOP out of the wilderness and into its first real electoral victories since Reconstruction. 

Further complicating things for the congressman was the fact that he was also on the outs with the Nixon Administration. According to LaPolitics founder John Maginnis in The Last Hayride, the dispute stemmed from the 1968 Republican National Convention, when Treen opposed Nixon’s nomination and instead cast his ballot for then-Gov. Ronald Reagan of California. 

Even though he would eventually support Nixon’s candidacy, the convention vote was enough for the president to deny Treen the nomination to an open federal judgeship. “On the White House political ledger, there was still a black mark by Dave Treen’s name, signifying traitor,” Maginnis wrote. 

While the congressman was only a couple of months into his first year, and was still learning his way around the Capitol, Agnew approached him personally one day in search of a favor. Would he (Treen) be willing to make a floor speech calling for his (Agnew’s) impending trial to be moved to the House of Representatives, rather than a courtroom? 

Treen, wanting to get back into the administration’s good graces and believing Agnew’s plea of innocence, wrote a set of impassioned remarks defending the vice president. He delivered them on the House floor on Oct. 10, 1973. 

“We are not dealing with the guilt or innocence of a single man,” Treen said in his speech, “we are dealing with the vitality of the American system.”

Treen was eloquent, but his timing was terrible. A few hours later Agnew found himself in a federal courtroom in Baltimore, pleading guilty to a felony charge. 

They Said It

“They must have been smoking some of Willie’s dope.” 

—U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, on singer-songwriter Willie Nelson and pop star Taylor Swift supporting Democratic candidates

“I’m not even sure the Saints could beat Alabama.” 

—Kennedy, on the strength of the Crimson Tide football team, to an NBC reporter 

For more Louisiana political news, visit www.LaPolitics.com or follow Jeremy Alford on Twitter @LaPoliticsNow.