Louisiana lawmakers could find themselves in a special session if Governor John Bel Edwards fulfills his promise to veto a package of bills targeting LGBTQ-+ people. Edwards has the threat of the line-item budget veto to whip legislators into line with him, but the head of the state G-O-P is pressuring Republican lawmakers to toe the party line.
"This week, Republican Party Chairman Louis Gurvich wrote an op-ed in the Hayride that warned conservative lawmakers that if they don't support the gender affirming care bill that the governor plans to veto that they will 'suffer the consequences,'" LAPolitics.com publisher Jeremy Alford told WWL's Tommy Tucker.
In his op-ed piece, Gurvich urged lawmakers to "just do what you know to be the right thing, and all will ultimately be well." Will that threat be enough to get GOP lawmakers to do as Gurvich demands?
Alford says that's a difficult question to answer.
"It's a wedge issue for an issue for a reason," Alford said. "It separates Republicans from more conservative Republicans."
What's more: Alford said there's no guarantee that lawmakers will even return to Baton Rouge to consider overriding any of Governor John Bel Edwards's vetoes. Alford noted that if recent history is any indication, the talk of an override session may be all smoke and no fire.
"The emotions and the drama are slightly higher right now because it's an election year, and we're also less than a week out from the conclusion of the regular session, which ended with high drama," Alford said, adding that we'll have to wait and see if that drama translates into a special session.