This LA veto session failure can actually be a good thing long-term

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 said that this veto session, for all the disappointment of not actually overriding any vetoes, was a structural success for the House of Representatives.

Seabaugh, if you’ll remember, was one of the most outspoken supporters of Schexnayder’s opponent, Sherman Mack, when those two were duking out for the Speakership back in January of 2000. He has been a critic of Schexnayder’s. 

Seabaugh was the guy pushing the petition to reopen Louisiana last year that Schexnayder was opposing, until Schexnayder’s face was covered with egg after a special-session suspensive resolution gambit he tried collapsed.  Schexnayder then, far too late, ran his own petition (which is still in court, by the way, with Edwards likely bringing that issue back to the forefront with the Delta Variant craze sweeping Democrat policymakers across the country).

Conservatives across the state have a very low opinion of Clay Schexnayder.
And yet Seabaugh said the veto session galvanized the House GOP delegation. He said the delegation meetings had struggled with attendance and that Schexnayder hadn’t been responsive to them. He also mentioned that the distrust over the fact Schexnayder had gotten himself elected Speaker with mostly Democrat votes, distrust which ran both ways because Schexnayder was just as terrified of the conservatives who might potentially run a coup against him as the conservatives were peeved about his method of victory and the solicitous way he treated those Democrats, was corrosive.

But that’s changed now. Seabaugh said with the veto session we’re past the election. He said the delegation, buffeted by voters deluging them with clear messages of support for the overrides, now has a much clearer sense of purpose than before and Schexnayder’s willingness to put his credibility on the line by calling that veto session and running that girls’ sports bill was a big step for them.

Previously, House Speakers would never have gone for veto sessions. They would have demanded those “no” ballots from the members so as to stay away from the scary possibility of looking like a loser.
But Schexnayder didn’t dodge that bullet. He took it. He backed the veto session, and when he did he gave those legislators, particularly the conservatives, a chance to vote their principles – at least on SB 156.

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