To the curious, I usually describe Washington Mardi Gras as a cross between a political convention and a debutante ball.
But that doesn’t cover one of the main reasons Louisiana’s annual mass trek to the nation’s capital is so popular and enduring.
It’s that a lot of business gets done. Seriously.
With local, state and federal officials all in one place alongside issue advocates and business, civic and education leaders, the opportunities to connect, talk policy and get face time with decision-makers are pretty much limitless.
Some years, there’s one overarching issue that focuses the gathering’s collective energy. In 2014, it was federal flood insurance, as officials used the weekend to devise a successful revision to legislation that had prompted devastating rate increases. Other years, it’s been the push for disaster aid for the latest catastrophe Mother Nature sent Louisiana’s way.
This year, there’s no single dominant issue. Instead, people are working on pretty much all of them.
U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy said one concern that’s bubbled up is the federal law forcing people who’ve been arrested to be kicked off Medicaid even before their cases are adjudicated. This means that people with mental illness might not be able to get their regular meds and could suffer setbacks, and perhaps wind up homeless upon release, he said.
“So my state and locals, I was amazed how much they know about it. That’s something I’m working on right now, easing the transition,” he said.
Elsewhere, a delegation from New Orleans, including City Council President Helena Moreno and Health Director Jennifer Avegno, scored a meeting with the White House office of Gun Violence Prevention, where they learned about grants and other available resources.
Loyola University President Xavier Cole had several meetings focused on federal financial aid.
Leaders of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana visited every Louisiana congressional office to talk about continued funding for coastal restoration. The group also got to demonstrate a version of one of its Louisiana initiatives, recycling oyster shells to create new habitat and reduce erosion, by sending shells from 5,000 Louisiana oysters shucked at the big Louisiana Alive! party to Chesapeake Bay to restore oyster reefs.
And as always, flood insurance is on the agenda, this time as the focus of a Senate hearing timed for the gathering.
Even at social events, Cassidy said, he watches connections being made between people who work on the same problems from all corners of the state.
“Productivity plus,” is how he described the environment.
That’s the case for people who are working on local and state priorities as well as federal ones.
Moreno, a Democratic former legislator, wrangled a morning meeting at the main hotel restaurant with a bipartisan group of female state lawmakers — state Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, state Senate President Pro Tem Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, and state Rep. Delisha Boyd, D-New Orleans — to talk about putting issues affecting victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse onto the agenda for the upcoming special legislative session on crime. The meeting could have happened back home, but it was easier to gather with everyone already in the same place.
So think of it as the flip side to the old Yogi Berra quip — that "Nobody goes there anymore because it’s too crowded." In this case, everybody goes because everybody’s there.
To be honest though, that makes it pretty crowded.
Humanitarian of the Century
This year’s Washington Mardi Gras chair, U.S. John Kennedy, came up with a novel idea: To name Saints and Pelicans owner Gayle Benson the ceremonial monarch — or krewe parlance, king.
No can do, said the Mystick Krewe of Louisianians, which each year chooses a male business leader as king and a well-connected younger woman as queen.
But the krewe did offer Benson a consolation prize, the inaugural “Humanitarian of the Century” award. It’s quite a title, given that we’re not even a quarter of the way through the current century, but while Benson chuckled a bit, she said she’s humbled.
And indeed, Benson’s philanthropic endeavors are the stuff of legend. She is leading fundraising efforts to restore the iconic St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, a project that’s expected to cost tens of millions of dollars. She is fully funding a new campus of the Good Shepherd school, which strives to give low-income children a high-quality, faith-based education, in New Orleans’ Desire/Florida neighborhood.
On Friday, Ochsner Health leaders on Friday celebrated their partnership by presenting Benson with birthday cake.
“We are forever grateful to Mrs. Benson for her servant spirit, leadership, and unparalleled acts of generosity, which have significantly changed the lives of countless patients and families at The Gayle and Tom Benson Cancer Center,” CEO Pete November said in a statement. “The recently announced Gayle and Tom Benson Ochsner Children’s Hospital will greatly enhance the care we provide to children in our region for generations to come.”
Benson’s had an active time in D.C. On Friday, she scrambled her schedule to attend a private meeting with homegrown U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett; she pronounced Barrett “sweet” and “normal,” and said they talked a lot about the justice's seven children. That night, Benson accepted her award at a formal dinner.
On Saturday, she was scheduled to read at the annual Mass held by Loyola University, then greet each princess of that night’s ball; House Majority Leader Steve Scalise would normally do this, but he’s undergoing cancer treatment and asked Benson to take his place.
Otherwise, Benson's full itinerary included stops at some of the many political fundraisers — not to write checks (at least not on the spot), she said, but to make connections with elected leaders and support economic development in the state. She said she’s particularly eager to work closely with new Gov. Jeff Landry, just as she’s supported past governors from both parties, and encourage his focus on New Orleans.
She’s also spending lots time at events honoring her former quarterback Drew Brees, who got the assignment as king in her stead and presented her with the award.
None of which means Benson doesn’t think a female business leader like her couldn’t someday join the krewe’s royal pantheon.
“I think the way the world is moving…they’re going to need to have a woman at some point,” she said. But unlike all the immediate business at hand, Benson said that’s a topic for another day.
If you can see her, you can be her
For all the folks who come to Washington Mardi Gras with serious agendas, there are also those there just for the festivities.
Still, you never know what might come of the odd mixing of the two. Marie DesOrmeaux Centanni is living proof of that .
The Abbeville native first came to D.C. in 1997, as an 18-year-old University of Louisiana at Lafayette student who’d been named queen of Cameron Parish’s Louisiana Fur & Wildlife Festival, and said it changed the trajectory of her life.
The festival queen visited congressional offices, the Capitol and the White House. She also met young people who worked in Congress from her neck of the woods, places like Crowley and Lake Charles, and saw a career path she had never considered.
That summer she signed up to be a page in the state Legislature, and eventually became a TV reporter, an aide to politicians such as former Gov. Kathleen Blanco, and finally a communications consultant who has helped plenty of politicians win office, including her husband, Justin, now Lafayette’s assessor-elect.
At this year’s Washington Mardi Gras, Centanni unveiled her latest venture, “Back PAC,” a new political action committee promising “serious support for serious women.” The group is nonpartisan, and aims to elect “good, smart, pragmatic people willing to serve in public office,” Centanni said.
Honored at a sold-out tea at the stately Willard Hotel were three women who’ve already made it, U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow and two recently elected statewide officials, Attorney General Liz Murrill and Secretary of State Nancy Landry, all Republicans.
The three talked of the particular challenges they’ve faced and the different perspectives they bring, and despite their own success, of a playing field that’s still not level — including when it comes to raising the money to run strong campaigns.
“You cannot run a campaign without money,” Landry said. “And as women, we are groomed to be the fundraisers for charity in our communities. We organize and do fundraisers for the less fortunate, and the men organize and do fundraisers for the powerful, and we've got to break that mold. We’ve got to recognize that…it’s just as important to have good government.”
