This isn’t a reference to the fact that former Louisiana House Speaker Clay Schexnayder finished a dismal fourth in the primary race for Secretary of State. It’s more an observation that Schexnayder’s rise to political relevance, which came four years ago from a fateful decision to build his majority for the speakership on the votes of Democrats and a greasy deal with John Bel Edwards, isn’t something political reality will tolerate anymore.

Four years ago, the voters expressed a major preference for Republican legislators, and it was thought the results of that election, in which 68 of the 105 House seats were won by Republicans (the vast majority of whom sold themselves as conservatives), would produce a truly conservative House Speaker. But there was little follow-through among the groups whose efforts had produced that large majority, and Edwards and some of his insider pals among the contract-lobbyist crowd, and in particular some of the special interests dedicated to preserving the Capitol status quo, peeled off enough Republicans in favor of a deal to make Schexnayder the Speaker.

Because that devil’s bargain worked out so poorly over the past four years, we’ve seen an enormous amount of movement to foreclose it. Rep. Mike Johnson, not the congressman from Louisiana’s 4th District who’s now the House Speaker in Congress but the state legislator from Pineville, has been circulating a pledge for Republican candidates to sign which would guarantee that the speaker would come from a vote made by the House Republican delegation. Last week, Johnson announced that everybody involved in state House races with “R’s” next to their names had signed on.

Speaker vote on the way… Headline: “100% of Republicans Sign on to Unity Pledge” #lalege #lagov https://t.co/XdDcolW66Q pic.twitter.com/uWF2j7Ar4G

— Jeremy Alford (@LaPoliticsNow) October 19, 2023

Edwards’ machinations weren’t particularly egregious given Louisiana’s history. Previous governors had been instrumental in picking the legislative leadership, but four years ago was a peculiar situation given a large GOP majority in the House and a Democrat governor they should have been bent on opposing.

With Jeff Landry’s election there is now a lot more obvious alignment. So it’s no surprise that he’s gotten involved. Landry leaned into the process of picking the state senate leadership, which led to the choice of Landry ally Cameron Henry as the incoming Senate president.

With respect to the House, though, he’s said he wasn’t going to pick a speaker. What he was more interested in was a process, and that process is in harmony with the pledge Johnson circulated.

Which is why this happened yesterday…

This more or less closes any loopholes and it insures that the Democrats will have no say in who the next Speaker will be.

It’s a big deal. It means Republicans will run the Louisiana House of Representatives the way more successful Southern states run their legislatures – the majority party, the one the voters put in charge, runs things, and can then be held accountable for their results.

And no more coddling Democrats whose party the voters have rejected.

It’s a breathtaking change from four years ago, and one we think will go very far toward building a consensus for real, meaningful reform.