Election results strengthen Seabaugh influence
Blog: Between The Lines
Early voting has started for the Nov. 18 runoff
elections for state and local offices in Louisiana, but that doesn't need
resolution to declare the biggest winner in northwest Louisiana elections this
cycle: Republican state Rep. Alan Seabaugh,
who is emerging as the region's kingmaker.
Who will become state senator for District 31 in a
couple of months in a far-flung district anchored in southern Bossier and Caddo
Parishes, which together will have the plurality of population, and extending
south. For a region, that is one of the higher-profile elected offices to
attain, but more impressively is the strength Seabaugh showed at gaining it.
Known as an unwavering limited government
conservative, that and his take-no-prisoners style of advancing his policy
objectives has created many enemies on the political left and among
get-along-go-along Republicans in name only. They banded to find a popular
non-politician malleable enough to carry their water in retired collegiate
basketball coach Republican Mike McConathy. Not only had his time on the
hardwood in Bossier and Natchitoches Parishes built up considerable positive
name recognition, but his father had served as Bossier school superintendent.
Seabaugh's campaign, including 2022 when both he and
McConathy declared, spent $379,000
up until the end of September prior to the Oct. 14 election, while McConathy spent
$388,000 though
the end of October. When Seabaugh's numbers through October come in (due this
week), the contest could set the all-time mark for candidate expenditures in a legislative
race, beating the Senate District 36 record of 2019 won by GOP state Sen. Robert Mills, cementing Seabaugh's
reputation for raising funds on behalf of candidates and causes.
However, these numbers understate the actual amount
of dollars that went into the contests. Some is traceable through political
action committees required to file with the state, such as Americans for Prosperity
that spent on behalf of over a dozen candidates including Seabaugh, who plunked
down up through the end of September $184,000 for their
elections. Others, however, legally can avoid reporting expenditures, such as Republican
Patriots Protecting Property Rights who backed McConathy. Public reporting
doesn't reveal these figures, but an educated guess judging from the volume of
outreach by several groups would place this outside spending at the very least
as much as the amount spent by the campaigns, and likely considerably higher.
Based on resource allocation, Seabaugh won one of
the toughest legislative races in state history. More impressively, while he
had his own campaign to run and on which to concentrate, behind-the-scenes
efforts here and there by him aided a number of his allies to win.
One, Bossier Parish Republican state Rep. Raymond Crews (a
past recipient of Seabaugh donations), didn't even draw an opponent, Two others
in Bossier, GOP state Reps. Dodie Horton and
Danny McCormick,
won comfortably against what initially appeared to be tough contests (McCormick
in a revamped district that now includes only Caddo Parish). They and Seabaugh
formed the backbone
of an effort to hold down state spending this spring in the Legislature,
but were thwarted, and for their efforts were punished by both House Republican
leadership and Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards in
denial of capital outlay projects for their districts
In Caddo, his ally GOP state Sen. Barry Milligan called it a day
and was replaced by Republican state Rep. Thomas Pressly,
which opened that district for Board of Elementary and Secondary Education
member Republican Michael
Melerine, a lawyer in Seabaugh's firm and past recipient of Seabaugh
donations, to grab. Meanwhile, Melerine's wife Stacey is a heavy favorite to
replace her husband this month in the district that spans half of northern and
half of western Louisiana.
But Seabaugh's influence also is measured in who
didn't choose to support. In 2019, he backed Mills, but Mills like all senators
voted to scuttle the spending reduction plan forwarded by Seabaugh and other
conservative representatives, so none of that help was forthcoming in 2023.
Mills ended up losing to GOP Bossier Parish School Board Member Adam Bass
rather decisively.And Seabaugh, as the head of the Louisiana Freedom Caucus, a group
of limited government conservatives in the Legislature, also scored some legislative
election victories. The group successfully promoted the candidacies of a number
of like-minded legislators and newcomers, aided by a similar but unrelated political action committee
of the same name.
The Bossier political establishment is not keen on
Seabaugh's muscling in on parish politics. He didn't win fans among it when he
supported Republicans Bossier City Mayor Tommy Chandler and City Councilor Brian Hammons
in their successful bids for office, both of whom have been a thorn in the sides
of parish political insiders. Nor do they like Crews and Horton, his allies.
But they may have to settle for an uneasy truce,
with Seabaugh now as one of two parish senators and Bass, part of that clique,
benefitted from Seabaugh's positioning on that contest. And it's not that they are
at complete loggerheads; in 2020, Seabaugh donated to GOP City Judge Santi
Parks' campaign, whose wife Julianna
was reelected recently as a Bossier Parish Police juror.
Still, as more and more rookie candidates that
Seabaugh backs win and his existing allies keep winning reelection, he will capture
increased influence in the parish at the expense of the traditional Bossier
power base – besides, of course, fending off their handpicked candidate designed
to end his career in elective office. If you shoot at the king, you'd better
not miss or he'll come back stronger than ever.
