Governor Jeff Landry's political clout is waning, and according to one political analyst, Landry's own words may be helping him lose the influence that helped him win the governor's office.
Although voters on Saturday rejected four state constitutional amendments that Landry championed, political analyst Clancy Dubos says that's not necessarily a sign that Landry's political influence is on the decline. In fact, Dubox says Landry can still get the constititional reforms he wants by presenting them as smaller, more specific amendments. However, Dubos says Landry needs to change his tact in fighting for those reforms.
According to Dubos, Landry shot himself in the foot by responding to Saturday's results by claiming that Louisiana voters are "conditioned for failure."
"Voters want to get fiscal reform right, but they didn't want to do this brand of it right now." Dubos said. "Landry misunderstood the message, and he's taking it personally when he should just look at what the voters were actually saying."
Dubos says Governor Landry should apologize to the people of Louisiana for the remarks he made on Saturday night. If he doesn't, Dubos says what is now a temporary hurdle for Landry could become a roadblock to his reelection.
"If he keeps going down his path, he's going to make it a fatal loss, and he's going to lose a lot of the goodwill that he had built up," Dubos said. "He's going to wind up being Bobby Jindal 2.0."
Dubos says Landry still has time to correct his error and avoid becoming a political pariah.
"He has to accept that sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose," Dubos said. "People are forgiving. If he approaches this with a little bit of humility and if he clarifies what he was trying to say, I think voters would accept it. Most politicians are loathe to apologize, but I think an apology is in order. I think people would like him--people would respect him more--if he would actually say, 'Look. I apologize. I didn't mean to insult voters.'"
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