(The Center Square) — Sen. Jean-Paul Coussan, R-Lafayette, will be the new District 2 public service commissioner in Louisiana, keeping this important regulatory body under Republican control.
The Tuesday vote had a Coussan victory with a 54% majority vote against opponents Nick Laborde, with 26%, and Julie Quinn, with 20%.
Although District 2 is largely white and Republican, some were worried the new majority-Black 6th Congressional District, which intersects with the PSC’s District 2, could drive Democrat voter turnout.
This win is big for the Republicans who currently have a 3-2 majority on the Louisiana Public Service Commission.
Outgoing Commissioner Dr. Craig Greene held enormous power as a moderate swing voter, so with the future of the seat in the hands of a strong Republican, the GOP can have almost complete control.
While in the House, Coussan chaired the Natural Resources and Environment Committee, championing policies that protect the state’s oil and gas industry. These sentiments resonated with Louisiana District 2 voters, and was the biggest reason why he won.
The Public Service Commission regulates public utilities and public service corporations, which provide services like electricity, water and transportation. These include investor-owned utilities such as CLECO and Entergy, as well as member-owned rural power cooperatives. It also regulates pipelines and tow truck services.
That means this five-member elected regulatory body can directly impact the pocketbooks of Louisiana residents through the cost of energy, making it by some accounts the state’s most powerful political body that most people don’t know about.
Laborde, the only Democrat in the race, ran with his main goal being to hold utility companies like Entergy accountable. The idea was to bolster the grid while making utilities pay more instead of raising consumer bills. This includes diversifying power generation to make the Pelican State the “renewables leader of the South.”
Unfortunately for Laborde, he didn’t have the war chest to flip a conservative district, with no campaign finances reported ahead of the election according to the Louisiana secretary of state’s office.
The lone Democrat still managed to get over one fourth of the vote, but had to compete with another Republican in order to get non-Laborde votes.
Julie Quinn didn’t have quite the campaign contributions that Coussan had, but both ran on a similar platform of affordable, reliable energy.
While both parties ran on cheaper utility bills, Coussan felt that any new green deal would cost consumers more and wasn’t reliable.
