Our Louisiana Governor, Jeff Landry, has been appointed by President Donald Trump to be an “ambassador to Greenland.” So the question is — who’s in charge when the Louisiana Governor is out of state?
Past governors have said: “the Governor remains the Governor wherever he is.” Apparently, the mindset is that the governor is always available by phone or email, so he never really is “away.” Not so, says the Louisiana Constitution, where clear language states: “When the governor is temporarily absent from the state, the lieutenant governor shall act as governor.”
The most recent constitutional convention, which was held in 1973, was called by the Louisiana legislature to update and rewrite the state’s founding document. I was a co-author of the legislation creating the convention, and I also served as an elected delegate for the one year undertaking to draft a new constitution. With little controversy, the convention overwhelmingly adopted the provisions that put the lieutenant governor in charge when the governor is out of state. The intentions of the delegates were quite clear.
