Welcome to Louisiana

This is my fifth year of living on-and-off here in New Orleans, Louisiana. I have tried so hard to understand how this state functions politically, but it is so difficult to read between the lines to figure out how business actually gets done.

Sometimes, though, you can just look at the lines themselves and get a pretty good taste.

There just doesn't seem to be enough space in the New Orleans Times-Picayune this week.

Let's start with the race for Louisiana Attorney General.

First, the incumbent, Democrat Charles Foti Jr. faces a nasty reelection fight in part because of his failed and questionable indictment of Dr. Anna Pou on second-degree murder charges stemming from the deaths of several patients during Hurricane Katrina.

His chief rival in this October's runoff reelection (Louisiana is weird), is a Republican named Royal Alexander. Yesterday's Times-Picayune obtained emails that flat-out prove that Alexander has coerced campaign donations in exchange for favors from his current position as chief of staff to Congressman Rodney Alexander of Quitman (no relation).

This is directly from the an email between Alexander and members of the Louisiana Association of Ambulatory Healthcare, which sought to fight cuts to providers that serve Medicare and Medicaid patients:

"...So, in return for the precious time I am going to take awqay from my campaign for Attorney General to assist you, I am going to ask you to make a substantial financial contribution to my campaign."

And as if this wasn't a direct enough solicitation of quid pro quo, here is some text from a follow-up email sent by Alexander:

"Lansing, you have hemmed and hawed for several months about helping me. No more excuses. Paul, you are also aware of the help I personally, after hours and on my own time, provided your industry... Please consider making a $5,000 contribution... If you don't help me as I help you (now for the second time) it is going to make me think that you are not very serious about reducing or eliminating these drastic rate cuts... I don't have time to waste on projects for people who don't care about helping me..." [emphasis mine]

To me, this is a slam-dunk scandal that ought to make a candidate unelectable, if not prison-bound. Public officials are supposed to represent all members of the public, not just those that are able and willing to make campaign donations of thousands of dollars. Not to mention the fact that Alexander's actions are in direct violation of Louisiana campaign finance law.

That law states that:

"No person shall knowingly coerce or attempt to coerce another person to give or withhold a contribution."

However, according to the Times-Picayune article, the penalty for a violation of this law only demands that he candidate turn over to the state any funds obtained via coercive tactics. Thus, again according to the Times-Picayune, the state ethics administrator, Kathleen Allen, "said she can find no criminal penalty for coercion by a candidate."

So what really prevents candidates from forcing wealthy individuals and industries to make campaign donations by threatening inattentiveness or retaliatory policies for noncompliance?

Nothing.

Nothing at all.

Because in a worst-case scenario, where you are caught red-handed by one of the larger media outlets in the state, you can just do as Alexander did in the article:

"There's not a lot of nuance in the e-mails, but I certainly didn't mean anything by it... All of this is part of the persuasion to build votes and build support, because unfortunately campaigns are so expensive... You have to exhort people and persuade them."

Oops, I didn't mean to sound coercive, I was being an aggressive fund-raiser. I did nothing criminal, campaign finance laws are confusing and I'll turn the money over to the state if that is recommended by the ethics board. And if you don't mind, I'll just continue on with my business of selling political favors in exchange for campaign donations and try not to get caught so red-handed next time.

Royal Alexander will probably be the state's next Attorney General.

Do those of you in other states have campaign finance laws that ban this type of behavior? What are the penalties from violating these laws? I suspect that if something like this were to occur in another state, a criminal indictment would be possible.

And without going into too much more detail, here are some more examples of the Louisiana mess that have been in the papers over the last two days alone:

1. A New Orleans prostitute accuses Senator David Vitter of being a loyal customer, contradicting his assertion that while he did patronize a Washington D.C. escort service, any allegations out of New Orleans are untrue.

2. The case against Congressman William Jefferson of New Orleans, a Democrat, is progressing nicely, with the Justice Department naming 11 co-conspirators including the Congressman's wife, brother, and the former VP of Nigeria. FBI agents, of course, found $90,000 in bribery sting money in the Congressman's freezer.

3. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and City Councilwoman Stacy Head are heading toward a major political showdown over Head's subpoena of a Nagin staffer to testify on a matter related to an air-conditioner repair at a police station in Head's district.