Louisiana Voice

In some ways, State Sen. Karen Carter Peterson reminds one of Donald Trump.

Yeah, that’s a pretty wide canyon to bridge, but consider that while Trump has been possibly the most controversial pissypants president in US history, she has been an undisputed complete disaster as chair of the Louisiana Democratic Party.

And we know all too well how petty and vengeful Trump can be. We have, after all, witnessed how he can ruin a career over a perceived slight.

And Karen Carter Peterson (D-New Orleans) has proven herself every bit as unforgiving

And boy, did she prove that on Monday.

In March of last year, Peterson was issued a citation by State Police after being removed from L’auberge Casino in Baton Rouge.

Why was she removed?

Well, because two years prior to that, she had volunteered to participate in the Louisiana “self-exclusion from casino gambling” program after decided that she had a gambling problem. She completed a waiver which excluded her from all casino gambling establishments. That waiver said that should a participant be caught gambling all winnings would be remitted to the state and the participant was subject to arrest or other legal recourse. See that story HERE.

So, when she was caught and issued a summons by State Police, she apparently took it personally and from that point on, State Gaming Board Chairman Ronnie Jones had a target on his back.

And Walt Leger, III, chairman of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, was also a marked man because he got caught up in the fight between New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell and Stephen Perry, head of the New Orleans tourism marketing organization, New Orleans & Co.

LaToya and Peterson are big pals and apparently, the mayor passed on the word to Peterson that Leger was personal non-grata when he came up for Senate confirmation.

Of some 700 appointees considered for confirmation by the Senate, 11 were rejected. Of those 11, six were shot down by Peterson who took advantage of an obscure rule that allows an individual senator to block a nomination if the nominee is from the senator’s district.

Hello Ronnie Jones and Walt Leger. Both men came up for nomination on Monday and Sen. Trump Peterson finally got her opportunity to extract her pound of flesh by thumbing her nose at Jones, a man with 40-plus years with the Louisiana State Police and who was on the verge of overseeing the reopening of Louisiana’s casinos after the coronavirus lockdown. And Leger went down in flames because of the bond between Peterson and Cantrell. Ask any number of casualties from the Trump administration about how those back-room alliances shake out.

Peterson, like Trump, seems to think that laws were enacted for others and not for her and woe be unto those who do their jobs in enforcing those laws.

[See Tyler Bridges’ story in the Baton Rouge Advocate HERE and read Gov. John Bel Edwards’s statement on the Senate’s action HERE.]

It’s not the first time Peterson has acted out of pure spite.

One of her first acts as the new Democratic State Chairperson in 2012 was to nullify all parish executive committee appointments made during her predecessor Buddy Leach’s term in much the same fashion that Trump has attempted to undo everything his predecessor did.

Once the Democratic Executive Committee was stacked with Peterson appointees, the committee awarded her an annual stipend of $36,000, plus expenses. This was done without the approval of the Democratic State Central Committee, most of whom were unaware of the stipend. [Wonder if some her mileage expense payments correspond to travel for which she is paid by the Senate?]

Peterson’s sister, Eileen Carter of Houma, was paid $13,000 during October and November 2015 for “organizational/grassroots consultation,” according to figures provided by the Louisiana Ethics Commission. That’s a per-annum rate of $78,000.

And there’s this from a Nov. 7, 2017 LouisianaVoice STORY:

“…[T]he biggest concern to several Democratic Parish Executive Committee (DPEC) members is the lack of membership on no fewer than 29 parish executive committees, a condition critics attribute to Peterson’s lack of timely appointments.”

“There are 29 parishes which have five or fewer members on their committee,’ one DPEC member said. “There should be at least 15 members of each parish executive committee. That’s nearly half the state that has non-existent or non-functioning DPECs. Livingston Parish has only seven of 15 seats filled. One member of the Livingston DPEC has been working since February to get the seats filled but that still hasn’t been done even though names have been submitted.”

And nearly two years into Peterson’s second term as state chairperson, there are 33 DSCC vacancies. “If she fills positions at all, it’s usually with her minions,” one DSCC member said.

Parishes with one or more vacancies in DSCC representation include Caddo, Bossier, DeSoto, Sabine, Lincoln, Union, Ouachita, Iberville, Pointe Coupee, West Baton Rouge, West Feliciana, Caldwell, Catahoula, Franklin, LaSalle, Tensas, Concordia, East Carroll, Madison, Tensas, Rapides, Lafayette, Vermilion, Calcasieu, Acadia, Iberia, St. Martin, East Baton Rouge, Livingston, Tangipahoa, Washington, St. Tammany, and Jefferson.

“Karen Carter Peterson is an ambitious politician of questionable loyalties who has used her chairmanship of DSCC to build a fiefdom and to launch a national career, all at the expense of the organization she was elected to build and serve,” a DSCC member said.

But the real lesson here is don’t piss off Karen Carter Peterson, even if she does violate her own voluntary waiver. She doesn’t forget and she’s not above using her political clout to settle a pissypants personal grudge.

Just like Donald Trump.