POLI 2056 : Final Exam Notes
Political Science
Final Exam Notes
The Governors
• Edwards I and II (1972-76; 1976-89)
o Dominated LA politics for the past 30 years
o 1971/72-76 = first term (close race); 1975/76-80 = second term (elected easily)
o Oil money, after civil rights movement – things were going well, celebrating LAs
diversity
▪ “Let the good times role”
o Ran as a Cajun, White conservative (Edwards TVized Huey Long) vs. J.B. Johnson
(reformer)
o Embraced Black community and made people feel good about LA
o Brought African Americans and women into his administration
o Spent oil money like crazy, embraced oil and big business
o Had no chance at national politics because he was too LA
o People still felt like he was governor after he left office – very popular
▪ Edwards was accused of things because he was promising and doing
things like he was still in office since everyone naturally assumed he
would be once again
• Dave Treen (1980-84)
o Seemed like a natural heir
o Had African American and Labor support
o First Republican governor
o Many people switched parties (from Democrat to Republican)
o People also voted for him because they did not want the strong Lambert to run
against Edwards in the next election
o Treen cut taxes, wanted to reform
o Did not have a big political organization and allowed Edwards’ people to stay
along with anti-Edwards (quiet, etc.)
o 2-3 years into term, oil crisis hit LA economy
o Treen said things that big Democrats would say
▪ Reversal of Edwards and Treen in terms of Democratic and Republican
ideology
o Pushes oil and gas taxes until oil price drop disaster and LA went broke
o Known for clean, open government, except struck by economic disaster
• Edwards III (1984-88)
o Everybody knew he was a shoo-in for next election
o Edwards was going to replace oil and gas money with gambling money to turn
state around
▪ Constituents trusted him because he promised to bring the state back to
how they knew it during his first term
o Indicted for selling gambling permits
▪ On trial in NOLA
▪ Sitting governor
▪ Hung jury, but then they did a re-trial and he was acquitted
• People were angry because the economy was still in shambles, so
the residents no longer put up with Edwards’ shenanigans
o Claimed only reason he did not turn state around is because
“republicans had him cooped up”
o 1987, ran for re-election
▪ People knew whoever was in the run-off with Edwards would win
▪ People thought it would be Livingston, but Roemer came up and won
• Roemer (1988-92)
o 1987, Roemer was first, Edwards was second.
▪ People construed Edwards as a crook and Roemer won
o Some thought that Edwards would bring Roemer’s father’s past up during the
run-off
o Around 1:30-2:00, Edwards pulls out of the election because he did not want to
lose, and Roemer declared winner
▪ Roemer would have had a powerful mandate in office if Edwards had
continued to run against him; however, since Roemer just “limped” into
office, he was not viewed as powerful
o Roemer put his own people in office
o He brought many amendments to the constitution and brought it to the people to
vote → did not pass
▪ “Roemer Revolution”
▪ This weakened his power
▪ Roemer was humbled and broke vote down into 15 separate votes – half
of them passed
▪ Economy didn’t get better, Roemer didn’t produce results, and people
were angry
o 1991, decided to run for re-elected against Edwards and David Duke
o David Duke got elected to a state representative seat
▪ Former KKK Grand Wizard
o Roemer switched parties and became Republican (David Duke [R] Edwin
Edwards [D])
▪ Roemer came in third
o Edwards and Duke were in run-off for governor, people were so angry at
Edwards that Duke actually had a chance
o National Republicans were angry at Duke’s reputation
o Edwards; people had bumper stickers: “Vote for the crook. It’s important”
▪ Democratic party began tossing money at Edwards over the former Grand
Wizard
o Having Duke as Governor would have killed the LA tourist industry
o Duke did not know what he was doing when it came to economics
o Black turnout was extremely high because no one wanted KKK member as
governor
• Edwards IV (1992-96)
o Going to change everything, including his method of doing things
o Biggest critic, Times-Picayune reporter, was brought onto his administration
o Roemer had already passed gambling, and Edwards could not turn economy
around
o Edwards’ fourth term was a lot like his third in the sense that he couldn’t fix
economy
o Since the economy failed, incumbents were not getting re-elected
▪ People were mad and wanted governor to do something, but he couldn’t
o Edwards was not going to run for re-election because he had bigger plans
▪ Rumor was he would buy 49ers or become a televangelist
• Neither happened, he didn’t re-run because knew he couldn’t win
o Mary Landrieu announced she was going to run against him
▪ Clean D vs. Dirty D
▪ Represented new, clean Democratic party
o 1995 election:
o Democrat Republican
Landrieu
(upper-income)
Roemer
(upper-income)
Poor white Republicans did
not care for Roemer
Fields
(African American/lower
income)
Foster
(lower income)
Day before election,
switches to Republican
party
• Foster I and II (1996-2000; 2000-04)
o Appealed to a group of voters who had no one to vote for
o Roemer started trailing
o Edwards was highly supportive of Fields
o Election ended up being Foster vs. Fields
▪ Foster was going to win because LA has a history of racial voting
• Hurt Fields’ chance at a lucrative campaign
• Foster didn’t do well in the debates, but that didn’t even matter
o Foster was a businessman, but had a folksy way of talking, which connected him
to the people
▪ Not a “smooth” businessman
Document Summary
Edwards that duke actually had a chance: edwards and duke were in run-off for governor, people were so angry at, national republicans were angry at duke"s reputation, edwards; people had bumper stickers: vote for the crook. It"s important : democratic party began tossing money at edwards over the former grand. Dirty d: represented new, clean democratic party, 1995 election, democrat. Poor white republicans did not care for roemer. Jindal"s response was panned: no longer the center of national attention. Jindal is expected to be re-elected, but he is struggling because of economy. Napoleonic: la legislature does not trust judges because there is nothing common in la; so, how would they be able to interpret the laws. Focal point: circuit and supreme courts do not hear cases, they review them, courts of limited jurisdiction (i. e. city and traffic courts, the judges.
