GUEST COMMENTARY BY JEFF SADOW
On. Nov. 16, northwest Louisiana’s Senate District 36 contest between Republicans may turn on trial lawyer money and Democrats’ willingness to vote.
Even as the Oct. 12 results gave Republicans heading into 2020 a 26-seat veto-proof majority and almost certain to pick up another seat three Saturdays from now, the intraparty battle between incumbent Ryan Gatti and challenger Robert Mills will attract statewide attention. Mills led after the general election 48-38 percent, with a black Democrat picking up the rest.
Mills made such headway because Gatti disappointed many conservatives in his district. Having squeaked into office in 2015 by complaining about tax increases made in Republican former Gov. Bobby Jindal’s final year, Gatti then voted for several during his term. He also proposed legislation that he claimed would enhance religious freedom, only to have prominent litigators in that subject, including the area’s GOP Rep. Mike Johnson, declare it would backfire, causing drastic changes to it despite Gatti’s objections before passage.
But the district’s electorate also seemed perturbed by Gatti’s fealty to his trial lawyer profession. He and Shreveport state Senate neighbor Democrat John Milkovich teamed up earlier this year to stall legislation that would have made Louisiana’s tort laws look much more like those in other states having vehicle insurance rates averaging less than half of Louisiana’s, which are the nation’s second-highest by far.
In this, Gatti made common cause with his law school chum Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards. Gatti has defended this friendship by saying he will work across party lines to achieve goals. Edwards has raked in millions of campaign dollars from trial lawyers while opposing tort reform and encouraging local governments to sue energy companies. He also has benefitted from millions more spent on his behalf by the special interest Gumbo PAC, which receives most of its donations from trial lawyers.
Shortly after the general election that saw Edwards receive a minority of the gubernatorial vote but make a runoff, at least one trial lawyer email plea began circulating that solicited money for Edwards, Gatti, and Gumbo PAC. It maintained that if tort reforms like those Gatti had killed became law, “the legal community will shrink dramatically …. Your job and your profession may literally depend on the results of the Nov. 16 election.”
Voters retired trial lawyer Milkovich in October when Republican challenger Barry Milligan defeated him. If both Edwards and Gatti can avoid the same fate, then reform opponents may have enough votes in the Senate to override expected Edwards vetoes of reform bills.
As well, Gatti has a very personal stake in keeping his Senate gig and stopping reform. Over the past few years he has loaned his campaign around $423,000, and losing his job means not only would tort reform likely happen making his profession less lucrative but also with him out of office campaign donations to help him defray the debt would dry up.
Thus, expect Gatti to launch a full-scale effort to attract Democrat voters to close the gap with Mills. Making good on his pledge to work across party lines, for the general election his campaign paid thousands of dollars on election day to 34 canvassers to contact voters in his district’s rural parishes. Of the 24 who could be identified from voter registration records, 18 were black Democrats and six were blacks without a party affiliation. Clearly, he wished to pick up the votes of black Democrats and likely will try the same tactic for the runoff.
Still, Gatti’s appeal to the left and infusions of trial lawyer cash provide only remote hope for saving his political skin.
Jeff Sadow is an associate professor of political science at Louisiana State University Shreveport where he has taught for 28 years. He publishes the blogs Between the Lines (http://www.between-lines.com) where links to information in this column may be found and Louisiana Legislature Log (http://www.laleglog.com)about state and local politics. Follow him on Twitter @jeffsadow. Contact him at jeffsadow@vivaldi.net. His views do not necessarily express those of his employer or this newspaper.
This Article was published in the November 1st issue of The Inquisitor.