BATON ROUGE, La. -- House Speaker Jim Tucker stripped four lawmakers of their assignments to two highly prized legislative committees after they voted against his choice for the House's No. 2 leader.
The announcement Wednesday came only hours after Tucker said some lawmakers would lose their committee positions or face other punishment because of their votes against Rep. Joel Robideaux as House speaker pro tem.
"People have to learn that there's a penalty when you break your word in this process. That's all we've got to make the process work," Tucker said in a wide-ranging discussion with reporters.
Three lawmakers who backed Rep. Noble Ellington, Robideaux's opponent for the job, lost assignments on committees that write the budget and that will redraw the lines of political districts next year. Ellington also lost his position on the redistricting committee.
A fifth lawmaker who supported Ellington lost his spot on an audit advisory panel.
The lawmakers were replaced with House members who voted for Robideaux.
Ellington said he was surprised by the move, but he said he felt worse for his colleagues than for himself. "I've been broke. I've hoed cotton. I've fed hogs. He can't do anything to me," Ellington said of Tucker.
Robideaux won the bid to become pro tem in a close and unusually public dispute over the job. Tucker said lawmakers wouldn't lose committee seats because they voted against him, but rather because they broke promises of who they would support.
"You just can't pat somebody on the back and say, 'I'm with you' unless you mean it," Tucker said.
As speaker, Tucker makes committee assignments, chooses committee chairmen and assigns a block of apartments set aside for lawmakers near the Capitol. Ellington provided a copy of a letter Tucker gave him, notifying Ellington that his apartment lease would not be renewed and instead he'd be advised of his status on a month-to-month basis.
Gov. Bobby Jindal personally asked Tucker not to punish anyone who voted against Robideaux, saying it would create division in the House and distract lawmakers from the state's budget shortfall and other needs, said Timmy Teepell, the governor's chief of staff.
"We made it clear to all parties involved that we thought it would be a mistake for there to be retribution for how anybody voted," Teepell said. "We need them to be unified and to be focused on the problems facing our state."
Removed from the Appropriations Committee were Reps. John LaBruzzo, R-Metairie, and John Schroder, R-Covington. Removed from the House and Governmental Affairs Committee were Ellington, D-Winnsboro, and Rep. Charmaine Stiaes, D-New Orleans. They were all Ellington voters and were given assignments on committees considered less desirable.
Added to Appropriations were Reps. Rosalind Jones, D-Monroe, and James Armes, D-Leesville. Added to House and Governmental Affairs were Reps. Nick Lorusso, R-New Orleans, and Nancy Landry, R-Lafayette. They were Robideaux voters.
In a statement released with the committee changes, Tucker described the assignment shuffling as a reworking because of membership changes in the House, including Robideaux's election of the speaker pro tem.
The House earlier this week voted 53-48 for Robideaux, I-Lafayette, over Ellington. It was a narrow margin of victory for a title that for decades was decided behind-the-scenes.
The selection of the speaker pro tem usually is worked out in back-room negotiations, with only one member nominated on the House floor and then approved unanimously. But this time, neither Robideaux nor Ellington would drop out of the race, forcing a public roll call vote Monday to decide between them.
The Republican, Democratic and black caucuses all split in the vote, with members supporting both men. The last time House members publicly chose between two nominees for the pro tem job was in 1984, said House Clerk Alfred "Butch" Speer.
The position was left vacant when Karen Carter Peterson was elected to the state Senate. The pro tem often presides over House debates when the speaker is absent and is included in House leadership discussions.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
