Welcome to Louisiana Lefty, a podcast about politics and community in Louisiana, where we make the case that the health of the state requires a strong progressive movement fueled by the critical work of organizing on the ground. Our goal is to democratize information, demystify party politics, and empower you to join the mission, because victory for Louisiana requires you.
Thank you for joining us in our first four seasons of the podcast. I'm your host Lynda Woolard. Welcome to Season Five.
We spent our first three seasons creating the beginnings of a roadmap for Democrats and progressives to learn how to organize more efficiently and effectively in the South, and what it takes to develop winning campaigns. In season four, we continued that mission but spent several episodes illustrating the importance of having allies in Washington, D.C., not just the ones who occupy the seats we get to vote on, but the one who's in the White House, and the ones who control both chambers of Congress. While our local, regional and state elected offices are always important to us, so is our ability to have a more sophisticated understanding of the support our state gets from the federal government. The bottom line is that in order to save democracy, in order to save Louisiana, sometimes in federal election years, we'll necessarily invest some of our political energy in a support role for swing state races. That does not mean we entirely divest ourselves of movement building in Louisiana in those years. But every election year, we've got to make some stone cold assessments based on data and math.
When the Dobbs decision overturning Roe was leaked, I wrote a piece for the Bayou Brief that went into this in great detail. And while it focused specifically on the 2022 midterms, it has some background information that will remain relevant to Louisiana political strategy for years to come. In case you missed it, I'll link to it again in the Episode Notes.
That said 2023 is really one of those years where our focus will necessarily be on Louisiana. Unlike the vast majority of the United States, our big elections are this year, like governor, attorney general, treasurer, secretary of state, in addition to all the legislative seats for state senate and state house.
With donor resources less stressed nationally, that opens up some opportunities for us. But the seats that we vote on this year will decide the fate of the statewide policies enacted over the next four years. So it's a critical year for us to be recruiting good candidates and strengthening our organizing muscles.
It's also an important year for us to start thinking about what we want our state party to look like in the future, as qualifying for Democratic party official elections falls at the end of this year. So it's important that we recruit and organize around that, as well. We gave a preview of that in the bonus episode on state party chair elections that dropped directly before this one. But we'll spend some more time outlining that this season too.
Before we dig into new themes in season five, let's take a quick look back at some season four highlights to underscore the importance of having partnerships with national organizations that have local chapters, and of making sure we have Democratic control in D.C. Actually, just last month, President Biden hosted a group of Louisianans at the White House to go over all the ways the administration has already helped our state. And I was able to be in the room to hear mayors, business leaders and nonprofit directors recount story after story of how Biden administration funding and programs have had huge impact here with more to come. It certainly helps that so many Louisianans have found homes as senior leadership and staff in the White House.
I want to make sure we continue amplifying this good work in our podcast episodes and through our social media. But Louisiana Lefty listeners are surely already aware of some of the strides we've been able to make with D.C. support via the discussions we were able to have last season. We had a great conversation with senior White House official Andy Berke, about the huge investment the Biden-Harris administration is making in high speed internet in Louisiana, and what that means for jobs and connectivity in our state. Notice how the fact that John Bel Edwards is our governor really facilitated and amped up the implementation of this funding.
President Biden has made a pledge that every American will have Access to affordable, reliable high speed internet. And the most important thing to get out today's podcast, if there's nothing else is that we take that pledge incredibly seriously and every word of it. So that's every American, not just more Americans, not just a lot of Americans, but every American, including every person in Louisiana. And that's where we spend our time working, and the access piece is really important as well, not just the connection. But how do we think about the skills, the affordability and the devices that go alongside the connection? And there is $65 billion in the bipartisan infrastructure law to do this work, which we've never seen that kind of investment before. And you know, I'm happy to talk a little bit about kind of my background in Chattanooga, and why I've seen this so important. But this is a time where we're going to stop thinking about internet as a luxury that some people have, and some people don't, and start thinking about it more like roads, and water and electricity, that this is the baseline for everybody to succeed. And so when I came to Louisiana last week, I was down there to give out the very first planning grants under the bipartisan infrastructure law to Louisiana, about $3 million to do planning for the dollars that are coming for building out the connection and also these plans for devices and affordability and skills.
I was stunned by the amount of funding heading to Louisiana for high speed internet, literally hundreds of millions of dollars, as the Alexandria Town Talk reported. There were so many grants and sources of funding, including state and private matching money, I couldn't even keep track of it all. There were the GUMBO awards -- that stands for Granting Unserved Municipalities Broadband Opportunities.
Definitely the best name of any state broadband work.
And that's funded through the American Rescue Plan. Right?
Yeah, so I want to thank the governor, because he was there when when we did these announcements, and the governor has been one of the biggest leaders, I think, because of course, he's working hard on all kinds of issues. But he also sees how critical this is for Louisianans. And so he took a portion of the American Rescue Plan dollars. Those were dollars that Congress passed back near the beginning of President Biden's term that were designated to go to states and cities, and were flexible in use. So the governor or the mayor could prioritize what he or she thought was the best use of those dollars, and Governor Edwards decided that broadband was one of the biggest issues. So the state has been using its flexible dollars for this. On top of that we are now coming in with dollars that are specifically designated to accomplish that purpose. And Louisiana, got the first planning grant dollars, because it's a little ahead of the curve, because all the work he's already been doing.
We talked to local Sierra Club leader Angelle Bradford about investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the potential that has to improve our public transit and address the climate crisis. Again, she stressed the importance of the interplay between federal and state government and emphasized the role we have to play in pushing for progress.
Is there anything I haven't asked you about climate change in Louisiana or the public transit that you feel like I've missed?
Well, the only thing I'll say is while transportation in general, as a sector, is the second largest contributor to carbon emissions in Louisiana, we're different from the rest of the country, in that our industry is number one, and obviously we're working on that too. But while transit is very convoluted, just ride it. That's like the most important thing you can do is like, it doesn't have to be all or nothing if you want your local transit system to get better. And you know, if you want to join us in our in our fight for public transit to be ubiquitous and affordable and reliable across the state, you have to first just ride it because it's, you know, a big priority of ours, as well as stopping highway build outs including the I-10 expansion in Baton Rouge, which is going to destroy neighborhoods, it will impact the environment, in tandem with that is the bridge that's proposed because there's always this idea that we can develop our way out of traffic and it's just constantly reminding people, "No, you are a part of traffic."
And we're not going to shift our bad practices of segregation and unaffordable housing and sprawl and flooding in places that didn't use to flood -- all of those things go back to how we plan out our cities and towns -- if we cannot fully invest in public transit. We're not going to solve those other things, either, which also feeds into people's economic opportunities, can they get to their job reliably? Or can they go to a job in another parish? And this shouldn't be controversial, but for a lot of people, it's like, that's not possible. But until you just get on a bus, the players -- the Planning Commission's, the DOTD, the local services themselves, and the City Council's and Metro councils -- are not going to magically invest in it. They're not going to be revolutionaries. We have to give them the demand to improve the transit. And so that's a big part of it.
And the same with the rail. I don't know where we go from here, particularly on the Baton Rouge to New Orleans rail, because the things that we are asking to be done, whether it's have the city's beef up their bus transit, and their paratransit, from the lens of women and caretakers, and the disabled and for workers that are looking for work. A lot of the things that get printed in the news aren't actually happening. And you know, there was a piece earlier this week from the Louisiana Illuminator about the rail from Baton Rouge to New Orleans of just like, what comes across as like, "Oh, this is happening, and therefore the thing will be," is often window dressing. And so we're even figuring it out in real time of like, what does it look like to either escalate or demand or create alternatives to these projects that we've just been waiting on for decades that people think is happening tomorrow?
You're saying it's announced, and then it doesn't happen is that what you're basically saying?
Right, you'll see the governor, or you'll see Secretary Wilson have a press conference in front of the KCS train. I mean, it happened a couple of weeks ago, no, it was months ago, when they were talking about the IIJA Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and basically saying, like, "We're excited for rail to come." But notice, they don't give you a timeline. And they don't say, it's gonna be here. And we know, from meetings with transportation experts at the federal level, and across the country, that if Louisiana wanted to do rail, it could be ready in two years. And for North Louisiana, I think the timeline is actually sooner. And so then you just have to ask the question, like, why isn't it happening? We don't have that answer. But it is a constant question of just, if the money's there, and the public interest is there, and you've surveyed the heck out of people at this point, why aren't we just moving forward?
What are the deliverables?
Yeah. What are the deliverables? Absolutely. And that's why we put forth the Senate Bill 467 -- I can't remember the Act number because it did pass -- of scope, schedule, budget, and environmental assessment, which are like metrics and documents, deliverables that you have to have at the federal level in order to move forward with instituting intercity rail. And I say intercity, because intercity rail is what Amtrak runs, a lot of people call it commuter or high speed, it's not. We don't have the receipts for whether or not those things are happening in the ways that that bill requires. And so there's supposed to be a legislative hearing before legislative session in April 2023. Well, session starts in April, so ideally, there will be a hearing before that. It remains to be seen what they'll produce for that hearing.
We heard from Louisiana's own Madison Smither, about the funding coming our way via the Inflation Reduction Act, and the progress it has to offer for local Environmental Justice initiatives, and establishing a New Green Economy.
The focus on vulnerable communities and climate impacted communities in the Inflation Reduction Act really prompted this conversation at the Global Clean Energy Action Forum of, you know, these are the communities that we're going to start hearing from, that we need to start hearing from, and so there really, is this shift going on to, you know, how can we prioritize climate vulnerable communities. And so getting to, you know, specific provisions for kind of Gulf Coast states and Louisiana, things that we can take advantage of, there are provisions for coastal restoration specifically, there are basically these, like, earmarked funds within the IRA. That is they're really exciting to see.
And there are these Environmental Justice block grant opportunities. This is impactful because not only are we going to have funding coming in through our, you know, state government and through localities, but we're really having these opportunities here where community groups and small businesses and residents can really take advantage of these pools of funding to advocate for, you know, projects that need to be done in our communities, and really bringing the effects of this act, you know, beyond just the legislature, beyond just the text of the the legislation itself into, you know, what are the downstream effects.
That's been a huge conversation after the Inflation Reduction Act is that, you know, there are provisions out there for investment in clean energy, investment in electric vehicles. And really what the administration claims and what seems just, you know, really probable at this point is that we're really going to focus on reducing emissions even further from the downstream economic effects from this. So it's going to be about individual businesses, individual residents, really taking these opportunities from the Inflation Reduction Act working together to apply for block grants to really get involved themselves. And so that really stood out to me
Are there any that you can think of like, the block grants, whatever that that, in particular, you can think of?
There's a huge provision for Environmental Justice block grants, just generally, there's I think, $20 billion set aside in the Inflation Reduction Act for Environmental Justice block grants, and this can be for projects that, you know, individuals and community organizations can apply for, to receive federal funding. And so I think it's just really important for people to know that beyond the funding, that's going to be administered through the state and through localities, there are opportunities here for, you know, coastal restoration projects, environmental justice block grants, that we can really take advantage of as a state, as the Gulf Coast community, and really that individuals should be working on engaging with.
Is blue carbon a part of IRA at all?
That would be considered kind of a downstream effect, I would say, of kind of what we're seeing with the IRA. I'm a research assistant with the Harvard Environmental Economics Program. And one of our major focuses right now is, given the IRA and given the provisions that this really historic legislation provides, and how it's going to catalyze a clean energy transition, there are going to be downstream economic effects, there are going to be a lot of things that we are going to be seeing, beyond the IRA investments, we're going to be talking a lot about carbon pricing. That's a main focus of the research I'm doing right now is the political economy of carbon.
A major kind of downstream effect that I see right now that I'm really excited about is this idea of blue carbon. So carbon credits are going to become a major part of this discussion, carbon credits, essentially, you know, this isn't a new idea, but the idea that we can offset carbon emissions by essentially absorbing carbon in the environment. Carbon offsets are going to be a major part of this clean energy transition, that we're going to need to find creative ways to be really offsetting emissions through natural carbon sinks. And that's where blue carbon comes in. You know, marsh and wetlands are really a very effective carbon sink. There's research out there that shows that they're more effective than forests, more effective than prairies in terms of storing large amounts of carbon.
This is being implemented right now in Florida, where basically, there are programs, where, you know, mangroves are being planted in areas where, you know, the coast is has been experiencing a lot of the worst erosion issues and essentially with Cap and Trade systems that are already in place in places like California, and that will become more prominent. Companies are looking to buy carbon credits. And so if we can use this kind of wave to produce natural carbon credits by planting marsh grasses, by planting mangroves in places like Florida, we can plant cypress trees, we can plant grass, then we can essentially generate carbon credits, and we can find a way to align.
You know, this is something that a lot of people in our state have been waiting for is how can we make coastal restoration profitable? How can we leverage this ecological treasure that we have? How can we make it a good idea to invest in restoring the coast and that's where blue carbon comes in, that's where we can really change the messaging. And we can say, you know, individuals can take part in this transition, small businesses can take part in this transition, if we can get en masse, just generate a ton of carbon credits from literally investing in restoring our coastline, if we can find a way to market ourselves and our own restoration in this way, we can take advantage of this transition. And that's just exciting to me because, you know, every individual can take part in this. You can plant marsh grass on property you own or you can join with the community and do it. And so there's just a lot of opportunity I think for for individuals to get excited about it.
We talked to Sarah Tabatabai, from Vote Pro Choice about the fight for abortion rights. While Vote Pro Choice is a national group, it pushes for change via local elections, and makes the point that this fight requires more involvement with the Democratic Party and more engagement with young voters. Both themes we return to again and again.
I worked for the state party many years ago now but our communications director at the time, Kirstin Alvanitakis, told us when she first came in, "First, we elect more Democrats, then we elect better Democrats." And outside of our cities in Louisiana, we're failing at even the first part of that mission. So it seems to me that we need to be building a bench that tackles both parts of that mission at the same time.
Yes, yes. I mean, this reminds me of an analogy that Senator Warnock used when he was talking about Voting Rights, which is: you have to put out the fire and you have to rebuild the firehouse. And so while you know, reproductive freedom is on fire, we need to send more pro choice Democrats into the halls of power everywhere. And we need to build the firehouse, we need to build the infrastructure to elect better Democrats. And, you know, the best way to get the Democratic Party to do what you want them to do is you become part of the Democratic Party. So we just need people to engage, vote, run for office, go to town meetings, because it's a lot easier to push for what we want when we're part of the conversation.
People need to become part of party leadership if they want changes in the party. I want to see young people coming in to the party. I feel like I mean, they could swing every election if they engaged. Right? So that to me, seems to be like a top priority.
Oh, yeah. And I'll say, too, young people are overwhelmingly pro choice. I mean, we see a huge amount of engagement from young people. And so it's really just making sure, like, we engage with them back and we're meeting them where they are. So I totally agree. I mean, when I think about things that give me hope in a moment that feels really difficult, for sure one of those things is seeing young leaders, you know, 19, 20, 21 years old, coming out and really pushing this country in the direction that we want it to go in.
And as we look at the future of Voting Rights in the state and the country, Omari Ho-Sang, our Louisiana director at Black Voters Matter emphasized the need to always be organizing, and points out so many opportunities for hope.
So at our foundation, that's what Black Voters Matter is, we're a power building organization. And so that is really our focus is to build power in marginalized communities. And so we do understand that in order to do that, that is more than a one step process, right? And so we know that one of those steps are elections, is getting out the vote, and is voting with intelligence in terms of really doing our due diligence to understand for ourselves what's on the ballot and the implications of that, but also helping our fellow man understand that, our community members, our family members, and our friends.
But we have 942,872 Black voters in the state of Louisiana. And I can only imagine how scary that number probably is, to many people who are making it harder to vote, right? Those are the people who are already on the rolls, who already have their rights to vote, who are already of age, right? All they have to do is be activated. So when you talk about a senate race, and you say, we can never have a black state wide representative on the federal level, I'm here to beg to differ. The math shows you that people of conscious in Louisiana and Black voters and people of color, we can elect a candidate on the statewide level, we can do it. But it's just about the work that happens in between the elections.
That's right.
That will give us the ability and capacity to do just that.
It's the organizing work that needs to be done. And I'm just gonna tell you, your founders, Latosha Brown and Cliff Albright wrote an article recently that changed how I'm thinking about the support I give, because I'm a small dollar donor, but I give donations to a lot of candidates. But their argument was that the people who are actually turning voters out to vote, that are swinging these elections, are groups like yours and Power Coalition and New Georgia Project, folks who are on the ground turning out voters. And that was sort of a lightning bolt to me, where I'm like, "I need to change how I think about my small dollar donations and start sending them to those places where folks are actually doing that 365 organizing work and turning voters out, speaking to people, making sure they understand why it's important that they vote," and the opportunities, the possibilities, I should say that that you're talking about the possibilities for statewide elected officials, if if folks turn out to vote. They won't ever know just from a candidate putting an ads on TV or...
Yes.
It's that engagement that y'all are doing that's really the root of how we can change our elections. And that requires funding, that requires support.
That requires funding. So many people think that this work is all volunteer, right? There's that misconception. But when we say capacity, we mean tools and resources and training. But we also mean money. Right? And so I'm so glad that you mentioned that, in terms of like changing your perspective about how you invest your resources into this work. Because as someone who has been a campaign manager, I will say, a candidate can't inspire the people -- and we've seen that through the turnout -- a candidate can't inspire the people like the people can inspire the people to just get out there and use your power. Politics, many times, can be so transactional, but what we're doing is transformative. And so I'm glad that you're putting that into perspective, and that's a real conversation that we really need to have, not only statewide, but nationwide, about how dollars are invested into this work on both a state level, and how we can work with folks like you and others to really increase that infrastructure and increase that capacity for us to really continue this work in the way that we need to do it.
As I mentioned in the episode opening, in season five, you can look for more content about our state elections and state party. Please reach out to us and let us know if there's a particular topic you'd like more information on.
If you missed any of the episodes from our first four seasons, check out the archives on our website, or look for back episodes on all major podcast platforms. We've really worked to create evergreen material that we hope will continue to act as a guide for the progressive community in Louisiana for years to come. We continue to add transcripts on our website, and YouTube versions of each episode for increased accessibility. There's an additional resource page on our website as well as rich episode notes for each podcast drop that should offer plenty of material for those truly looking to learn more.
If you listen to us on a major podcast platform and the option exists to give us a rating, please help us reach more listeners by giving us a five star rating and a quick review. The more folks we can reach, the more people we can connect across movements in Louisiana and the South.
Thank you for listening to Louisiana Lefty please follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Thank you to Ben Collinsworth for producing Louisiana Lefty, Jen Pack of Black Cat Studios for our Super Lefty artwork, and Thousand $ Car for allowing us to use their swamp pop classic "Security Guard" as our Louisiana Lefty theme song.
