Louisiana: The State We're In; 704

Funding for the production of Louisiana, the state we're in, is provided in part by the Ziegler Foundation of Jennings. Gulf state utilities, helping Louisiana bridge the gap to our energy future. And the Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation. If the election was held today, former Governor Edwin Edwards says his latest poll shows he would win with 51% of the vote. How accurate are political polls? And what do they mean? Tonight, some answers. The servant public office is the on-and-press teach. Anybody said it would serve for anything other reasons that they're crazy. For 12 years, Sherman Bernard has served as Commissioner of Insurance, but his stranglehold on the job is being seriously challenged this year. In tangent behold parish, residents there are trying to figure out what went wrong. The

financially troubled parish is broke. Tonight, a penetrating look at a parish with problems. Our police jury is totally out of control. There is no one up there who is in control. So tonight, we'll have a report on a man whose spectacular photographs have brought us closer to the wonder of wildlife. Good evening, I'm Robin Eckings. And I'm Ken Johnson. Welcome to this edition of Louisiana the state we're in. Beth George Courtney is on special assignment. Tonight, more on campaign 83. With the election less than a month away, many candidates for statewide and local offices are pulling out all the stops. We'll have a report tonight

on the Governor's race, as well as a look at the candidates for Commissioner of Insurance. We also have a fascinating feature on wildlife photographer Lloyd Poissonow and an in-depth report on the financial problems facing tangent behold parish are coverstory. But first, the week in review. Preliminary figures indicate that Louisiana's unemployment rate in August dropped to 12 percent. That's down four tenths of a percent from July. But despite the drop, the number of people out of work last month was an all-time high for August. Lake Charles had the highest unemployment among the state's metropolitan areas. With a jobless rate of 15.2% in August, followed by Alexandria, Shreveport, Monroe, New Orleans, and Baton Rouge. Lafayette had the lowest unemployment rate, 8.5 percent. State officials say Louisiana historically is slow in recovering from a national recession. But from all indications, the economy here is beginning to get better. Unfortunately, there's also some bad economic news for New Orleans. The port of New Orleans caught up in a worldwide maritime recession lost nearly

a million and a half dollars last fiscal year. Overall, cargo tonnage was down 18 percent, mostly because of declines in bulk shipments such as grain. And the problems facing the port of New Orleans could get worse. Now there is talk that 50,000 long showmen could walk off the job at the end of this month. Port officials say just the possibility of a strike is scaring away business. This week, the Public Service Commission ruled that Louisiana's investor-owned electric utilities must get state approval before building new power plants. In the past, utilities did not need such approval, but cost overruns at nuclear power plants being built around the state prompted the PSE to require detailed applications before new construction projects are allowed. This order, however, will not affect Waterford 3 and Grand Golf 1, both of which are nearing completion and could raise customer rates by 50 percent. Meanwhile, in a related development, a Ralph Nader organization has rated Louisiana Power and Lights Waterford 3 the worst managed of the 35 nuclear power plants now under construction around the country. The management ratings were based on a series of individual grades handed

out to utilities by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. And LPNL spokesman said the Waterford 3 rating was a result of an evaluation of the plant done more than a year ago. Since then, he claimed significant improvements happened made at the Waterford 3 plant that plant is scheduled to open next year. This week in Jennings, 28-year-old Michael Perry pleaded innocent and innocent by reason of insanity to first-degree murder charges in the fatal shootings of his parents and three relatives. Perry, a former mental patient, was ordered to undergo a sanity hearing before his next court appearance. Last July, Perry became the focus of a nationwide manhood when the bodies of his relatives were found in Lake Charles. Later police revealed that Perry had written letters to entertainer Olivia Newton-John, saying he believed she was a Greek goddess trapped underneath the waters of Lake Arthur. Apparently, Perry made several unsuccessful attempts to see the singer at her California home. Researchers at Louisiana State University Medical School now say a child whose mother smokes runs a high risk of lung cancer. Of some 1,300 people surveyed, 400, or roughly one

third said their mothers had smoked. This is believed to be the first study connecting lung cancer to parental smoking history. Southern Louisiana, including New Orleans, has the highest rate of lung cancer in the country, and researchers say smoking is mostly to blame. At a time when campaign 83 in the governor's race should be heating up, a new poll released this week shows that the race is all but over. That is, if you believe in polls. This latest one, conducted by Hamilton and staff, or former governor Edwin Edwards, surveyed 598 people around the state and showed Edwards with a comfortable 51% of the vote. But how accurate are polls and what do they mean? What we talk to some pollsters and they say have done properly polls are very accurate, but they only reflect what people feel in the day they're taken. In other words, a lot can still happen to change people's minds between now and election day. I think the problem with most of them is, or at least in terms of the public, is that they tend to believe that the results of a poll taken three months ahead of the election is an indication of what's going to happen on election day. And it's just not true. The poll is a

snapshot in time. It's only good on the day for which it is taken. And it's really taken only for one purpose and that's to give the candidate an idea of where he is at that particular point in time and what he's got to do to affect the change in those attitudes that people have either to increase his share or to try to decrease his opponent's share. Roy Brady has been conducting public opinion polls since 1970. Polls for politicians, newspapers, banks, and businesses. Through scientific polling, Roy Brady can feel the polls are the populace. Now, as a rule of thumb, a top-notch statewide poll will quiz anywhere from 500 to 1,000 people and cost in the neighborhood of $20,000. Roy Brady says politicians and businessmen do not spend that kind of money unless they believe in the accuracy of polls. Well, polls are very accurate if they're done properly. I mean, a poll is a scientific instrument which follows laws of probability and sampling theory and so forth, and they're very accurate. Many times you hear politicians, especially politicians

who are trailing in polls, dismiss the polls themselves saying that they can manipulate a poll to make it say anything they want to say. Why would you want to do that? Well, the primary reason has to do, I think, with fundraising. In other words, somebody who is far down in the polls has a much more difficult time of raising funds than somebody who's way up in the polls. I think both of us are using polls significantly, and we use them not only to help us develop issues, but to see where the soft spots are and what seems to be turning undecided voters in one direction or the other. While the Edwards polls show him ahead in the race and by comfortable margins, polls done for governor Trine show him gaining ground. Like Edwards, Trine believes polls can be helpful in developing campaign strategy, but to borrow that worn out political cliche, he says the only poll that counts is the one taken on election day. But one question persists. How can polls taken by the two major candidates during roughly the same timeframe vary so much? Sometimes by as many as 10 percentage points. When I do a poll, I go out and give everyone with

a telephone a chance to answer. Other pollsters go through certain screening techniques. They may only interview people who voted in the last three elections, and I think tends to change the results possibly. In addition, you can also analyze the different blocks of voters. You have young people versus old people, males versus females, whites versus non-white, and you can have your own ideas about what's going to happen on election day in terms of, let's say, white versus non-white turnout. And if you think non-white turnout is going to be higher than you can wait, the non-white results in the survey and cause the results to be different from someone who either waits in a different way or doesn't wait in it all. Edwards supporters are as strong toward him, I think, as Trine supporters are toward him. So at this point, the election can still be water lost. Oh, I'm from to believe that, yeah. There was another interesting development this week concerning campaign 83. The Louisiana J.C. is a nonpartisan group which does not endorse candidates, how the mock election at its annual convention. The results of the straw poll show

former governor Edwin Edwards with 55% of those votes, and Governor Dave Trine with 42%. Also this week, Edwards said he expects to spend $10 million by the time voters go to the polls on October 22nd. Governor Trine's Camp Meanwhile says he will spend about $5 million. Our cover story tonight takes us to Southeast Louisiana, where a group of local officials have more serious things than reelection to worry about. Tancha Pahor Parish government is broke. Recently, the State Bond Commission denied a request by the police jury for a loan of more than a million dollars. Some people who live in the parish pleaded with the Bond Commission not to grant the loan, claiming officials there already had mismanaged too many taxpayer dollars. The attorney general and the Tanchor Pahor District Attorney are now investigating charges that the jury broke numerous laws as it drove the parish deep into debt. Tonight correspondent Robin Eckings reports that everyone is asking the same question where the money go. The Tanchor Pahor Parish police jury is in trouble. The money that was budgeted to run the

parish through the end of the year is gone. By the police jury's calculations, the parish needs a loan of over one million dollars to pay its debts and provide basic services to the tax payers. The i-police jury is totally out of control. There is no one up there who is in control. Located in southeast Louisiana, Tancha Pahor Parish is largely rural, with this population of 80,000 scattered over its 800 square miles. Although this isn't the first time the parish government has been in a financial bind, it's by far the worst. In fact, it's the most serious money crisis a local Louisiana government has had in recent memory. Ironically, the people who are being held responsible are police jurors who four years ago ran on a platform to reform the old ways of parish government. The major problem is that the jury members that voted the majority wanted to continue doing it the way it always had been done. And the people generally gave them backing by doing this, by asking that things be done and preparing at

meetings and requesting things to be done. And it was just easier to keep doing it that way. And in spite of some of us trying to do some other things, it just worked out differently than some of us had hoped it would. Tanchmahola Parish's latest financial problems first gained statewide attention earlier this year when legislative auditor Joe Burris set out to make a routine audit of the parish's 1982 books. The record says Burris were in deplorable condition, so bad that his staff couldn't perform the audit. The parish was given five months to set things straight. I think it would be a parallel to a personal bank account. If you went about writing checks and spending money without any real concern as to what your bank balance was, maybe occasionally glancing at the bottom line of the bank statement when it came in at the end of

the month. Troubles with the 1982 books are only the beginning, with debts mounting, and the possibility of having to default on its bonds, a Attorney General William Gust intervened petitioning a state court to order the police jury to hire an accountant to get the parish through the end of 1983. The jury had no accountants on its staff. In his petition, the Attorney General alleged numerous violations of state and local laws by the police jury, including the state's public bid laws and the local government budget act. Not only is it disastrous for the parish, but it's embarrassing. It's all good for people over here. And, you know, people from other parishes laugh about it. People from other states laugh about it. We saw your parish on National TV. What's wrong with you, Clans? It's not funny there. When your roads are impossible and the school buses can't use some of the roads and children have to walk in the winter weather to get to where the school bus can pick them up. To garbage, we should become a

serious health hazard, which the National Guard is having to pick up. To the fact that there was an emergency in the bonded and dead in the system of the parish where they were about to default on their bonds because the money from the bond sinking funds had been thrown away. You know, where did the money go? Bired Edwards is an attorney who claims to represent the taxpayers of Tange Boho, a parish. He blames the jury's troubles in part on a proposal for a new parish jail, a jail for which Edwards says the jury has spent half a million dollars it can't afford. They are a ship without a rudder. And they are yelling to political pressure and political harassment. Edwards says the harassment is coming from Tange Boho, a parish sheriff Ed Larison, and district attorney Duncan Kemp. Edwards says both are pushing the project to help political supporters. Well, you know, my comment to that is that these particular people, of course,

are political opponents of the sheriff and some of his supporters and potential political opponents of mine. Kemp, who along with the attorney general, is now investigating the police jury for evidence of criminal wrongdoing, also disagrees with Edwards claim that the district attorney as legal advisor to the police jury failed to give proper legal advice to help the jury avoid its crisis. Kemp says he warned the jury of possible problems with the law on several occasions. We do not follow the police jury around. We do not follow the individual members of the police jury around. I don't have the staff to do it. I don't have the inclination to do it. If I did, and if I did that, I would be accused of being a dictator. So, you know, we have provided legal counsel, and we have instructed them as to what the law is. And, you know, only their dedication to duty and their conscience is going to see to it on a day-to-day basis that they follow that. And it's only when someone brings to our attention a criminal violation that we're

bound to get into it. A Captain Harry Levine was parish manager for a year. He says his attempts to set procedure and policy were repeatedly frustrated by the jurors themselves. They felt that they were the law, and they were just, they violated all state laws, all parish laws. We're not set policies that it was needed. And basically, that was the biggest problem the police jury has itself. Levine's contract with the jury was not renewed after its first year. He's now running against the jury in his district. Sure, Sarah Landry isn't seeking another term. One of the few members who spoke out against the jury's money policies, Landry was removed from his position as head of the Budget Committee and replaced by jury president Ronnie Bankston. Bankston refused LPB's request for an interview. District Attorney Duncan Kemp says a grand jury will soon be in session to consider the police jury's case. Kemp says criminal charges, civil suits, or no action at all could result from the probe.

Meanwhile, life goes on in Tangipahoa Parish, the best it can. The roads are in disrepair, and many of the parish services erratic. Many in the parish say they expect to see few jurors return to their positions after the fall elections. Sarah Landry says he's had enough, but adds that even with he and some of his fellow jurors no longer at the helm of parish government, their mark will not soon be erased. Louisiana's incumbent insurance commissioner Sherman Bernard wants a fourth term in office, but there are candidates who say that 12 years as enough, and it's time for the controversial incumbents rain took come to an end. Correspondent Carol Leslie has a report on the candidates and the issues in the race for insurance commissioner. On the seventh floor of this towering building, the incumbent insurance commissioner, Sherman Bernard, looks out over the state's capital city. The official seat of his political reign for a dozen years. On the wall behind his massive, but largely uncluttered desk, hangs a 130 pound sailfish, a trophy from an aquapocal vacation. But Bernard has souvenirs from

his tenure in office that are not so proudly displayed. Like the time he and a Kenner police officer gotten to a squabble over a parking space at the New Orleans International Airport. And he said to me, he said, is that your constant? Yes, it is. He said, well, you got to get it out of here. And he wasn't very nice about the way he said it. I said, well, officer, I said, I was granted permission. He said, I said, get the car out of here. Very nice to like. And I said, I just wanted to explain. He said, look, if you don't get the car, I'm going to rest you. Very nasty. I said, well, you don't have to be chicken shit about it. And it says, you're under arrest. And he grabs me and man handles me, put handcuffs on me. And he threw the book at me. No, you know, if that's embarrassing to the state of Louisiana, then I embarrass the state, but I don't think I embarrass anybody, because most of my friends recognize what happened. And anybody goes to the New Orleans Airport, I think, will tell you that that's happened to numerous people. So you feel you were unjustly unjustly and adjudged through those charges out?

Not entirely. Bernard pleaded guilty to refusing to obey a lawful order and paid a $15 fine. The insurance commissioner says that incident and other controversies that question his ethics are all much ado about nothing, unjust, biased history, rehashed in an election year to divert the real issues of this campaign. Personally, I think I'm highly qualified for the job. I've been doing it for 12 years. And it would take anyone at least four years to understand what the heck's going on in the department of insurance, if you should gain this office. I can remember back in 1971 when Sherman Bernard first ran for this office. His theme was a very basic one. He said that he didn't know anything about insurance, but what he did know is that rates were too high and it went on to work. And he was elected. The theme worked so well for him that he used it again in 75. He said, I don't know anything

about insurance, but what I do know is that rates are too high. Well, you'll never guess what his theme was in 79. You guessed it. I don't know anything about insurance, but what I do know is that rates are too high. Well, I'll tell you why rates are too high, because he don't know anything about insurance. Dave Brennan of Mettery is not the only contender for commissioner of insurance who has pointed at Bernard's alleged incompetence in office as a major issue in this campaign. At this press club forum, the 27-year-old Republican's criticism was echoed by Bob Morrison, a Greenwell Springs, and Lemmy Walker Baton Rouge. Both Democrat contenders believe the incumbent ineffective in working with the legislature and the insurance rating commission. That's why they insist insurance rates have skyrocketed in recent years. Well, I'm elected as insurance commissioner, and I'm serving as chairman of the insurance rating commission. You give me 12 years, and you bring me back here and tell me that I can't get

that commission to vote the way I want it to. That's ridiculous. You've got to have good rapport with the legislature. You can't go in their toast on for it. You've got the womb a little bit. You cannot lower rates, and if anybody tells you they're going to lower the rates they're telling you law, they simply cannot do it. If you look at Louisiana law, the law says rates must be adequate. They may not be excessive. No, they'll be unfairly discriminatory. The facts or in the facts are available for public inspection by anybody that wants to see them. The losses are there, and as a result of that, it takes the premium to pay the losses. Under the direction of the insurance commissioner, the state's insurance department regulates rates into main categories, property and casualty and life health and accident. It's a $4 billion industry that the GOP contender thinks he can streamline with high-tech modernization to catch and penalize uninsured drivers. When we enforce this law, in my days to use a computer tie-in from the Department of Public

Safety to the insurance companies, when that law is enforced, you're going to see your premium base spread out, and your per unit cost should go down. With his political parties endorsement, Brennan expects to make it into a runoff with Bernard. He is spending about $250,000 before the primary, and his extensive travels around the state. Bob Morrison is running a much cheaper bid for office. He's hired no staff, opened no campaign headquarters. On foot and by car, he spreads his ideas for deregulating and making the industry tougher. One of the great problems in Louisiana right now is fraud claims. In the states of California and Florida, for instance, on all their papers that they signed, there's a warning there. If this is a fraud case, you may be prosecuted, and this makes a lot of people back off when they know they could be prosecuted on a felony count. Morrison tried to unseat Bernard four years

ago and ran a respectable third. According to a recent poll, he's running second this time around, but with only about 10% of the vote. Let me walker is the only challenger without an insurance background. He thinks Morrison's job with state farm and Brennan's career as an independent agent amount to the same thing, a conflict of interest putting the fox in the hen house, even though both men have vowed to leave their professions if elected. And as far as the incumbent is concerned, Walker says Louisiana needs a change. The president insurance commissioner cannot go to the legislature and get money for anything because he can't get along with the legislature. And, you know, that's understandable. My goodness, from the time he took office, he called the legislature, jackals and thieves. Walker says he spent 16 years successfully lobbying the legislature, but regardless of qualifications, it's those 12 years of a known quantity that may be the toughest to beat. Well, politics may be the number one spectator sport in Louisiana,

but hunting and fishing are far behind. Few states have such an abundance of wildlife. In fact, there are species of animals in Louisiana, few of us know about, and even fewer of us have ever seen. That's where wildlife photographer Lloyd Poisono comes in. He has crisscross, Louisiana, hiking through the woods and paddling down the bayou's, taking photographs of animals, spectacular photographs that have brought us closer to the wonder of wildlife. For nearly 20 years, Lloyd Poisono has been a photographer. His name may not ring a bell, but his photographs do. An avid outdoorsman, Poisono's works have been featured in the Louisiana conservationist National Geographic outdoor life, Newsweek, Louisiana life, and scores of other magazines and newspapers. Wildlife photographs are his specialty. Over the years, he has taken more than a half a million pictures in his capacity as staff photographer for Louisiana conservationist. But for Lloyd Poisono, snapping pictures of alligators and deer and raccoons isn't work,

it's a labor of love. Animals are a little bit elusive. A lot of people will spend time in the woods and say, well, gee, I didn't see any animals. So the person they do is to how to look for them. You have to look for sign and you have to find some awareness that they're there. Then from then you move on. You can either do a little tracking or learn a little bit about that habits and that habitat. Some animals are nocturnal and virtually unseen in the daylight. A lot of times you'll see animals and this is the way that you approach them. You want to keep a little distance with them along telephoto lens is good, but the animal will more than likely be aware of your presence. So then it's kind of a communication. It's going to be a cat mouse game. He's going to look and he's going to watch you and then the majority of them will have a short attention to spans. So then he'll forget about you. Then if you move and make an eye, he'll look again. So

one of the secrets to getting them where they are interesting looking are they look like they're communicating with you is the fact that they really know you there. The swamps and woods which are home to so many animals and birds are a long way from New Orleans where Lloyd Poisono was born and raised. But like the animals around him, he is more at home now in the outdoors. He spent the past 13 years out here taking pictures, winning awards and marveling at the natural beauty of Louisiana. Well, we've got such a variety of wildlife here, Ken. And you know, it's a little bit unusual people from other parts of the country. Don't really realize them. Maybe sometimes you don't believe just how much activity we have here in Louisiana. The species alone are, I'm sure we've still got some species that aren't even catalogued. We've got so much down here. And it's so tropical and lush that you really can't expect to walk around and see animals. I'll see you and hear you a lot sooner than you see them. Most of us will never see firsthand a bobcat or herd of deer grazing quietly in the woods. But through the eyes of Lloyd Poisono and his photographs, we all can appreciate the beauty of Louisiana and the wonder of wildlife.

And I'm Ken Johnson. Thank you for joining us. Have a nice weekend. Good night. One thing for the production of Louisiana, the state we're in is provided in part by the Ziegler Foundation of Jennings Gulf state utilities helping Louisiana bridge the gap to our

energy future and the Kaiser aluminum and chemical corporation.