http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/11/landrieu_sees_opport...

By Bruce Alpert, NOLA.com | Times-PicayuneThe Times-Picayuneon November 09, 2012 at  6:30 PM, updated November 09, 2012 at  8:14 PM

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Washington -- It's being called the status quo election - because President Barack Obama was re-elected to a second term; Democrats retained control of the Senate; and Republicans kept the majority in the House. Nonetheless, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., sees new opportunity.

She tried unsuccessfully in 2011 to speed increased revenue sharing for oil producing states like Louisiana -- stymied by Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy Committee.

But Bingaman is retiring and the incoming chair, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is more open to her proposal. It could mean tens of millions of dollars more for Louisiana in 2015 and 2016. Without a change, the 37.5 percent share of royalty payments from off-shore drilling, approved in 2006 legislation, wouldn't take effect until 2017.

Landrieu hopes a compromise could help trigger passage of a major energy bill, with "robust domestic oil and gas production," and development of alternative energy sources.

Among the state's mostly Republican members, there's some talk of cooperation with the newly re-elected President Obama, but also warnings of opposition to higher taxes and stringent environmental regulations.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La. NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, who is running Thursday to head the House's GOP main conservative caucus -- The Republican Study Committee -- describes Congress as the "last defense," to "radical legislation" from the Obama administration. Just days after the election, Scalise is already expressing skepticism about a possible deficit reduction deal between GOP congressional leaders and Obama that includes tax increases on the wealthy.

Other Louisiana Republicans are even more outspoken -- going so far as to criticize House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio., for even suggesting he might be open to a deal that includes "revenue increases."

"I...am puzzled by the Speaker's willingness to put new tax revenue on the table when the expiring Bush tax rates come before Congress," said Rep. John Fleming, R-Minden. "Let's be clear, raising taxes during a very slow recovery is likely to lead to another recession, and it will do absolutely nothing to balance the budget."

But a nationwide exit poll of voters in Tuesday's election found a majority favors tax increases. Forty seven percent said taxes should increase only for Americans with incomes of $250,000 or more, as proposed by President Obama and 13 percent said taxes should increase for everyone. Thirty-five percent agree with Fleming that taxes shouldn't be increased for anyone.

Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, said Republicans no longer have the same political imperative to thwart Obama's proposals.

"President Obama can't run again so that goal set at the beginning of his term by Senate Republican Leader (Mitch McConnell) to make sure he would be a one-term president isn't applicable any more," Richmond said. "So they might as well drop their partisan obstructionism," Richmond said.

Joshua Stockley, a political scientist at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, sees some bipartisanship emerging because it will be in the interest of both parties to show results -- at least on key issues starting with sequestration -- automatic cuts in defense and domestic spending if there's no deficit reduction deal.

"Sequestration will not happen -- the cuts scheduled to occur would be so draconian and so unpopular threatening incumbent Democrats and incumbent Republicans with their jobs," Stockley said.

 Landrieu is likely to build a record over the next two years designed to help her with her re-election in 2014 despite Louisiana's increasing tilt to the GOP. She has vowed, for instance, to work with the Obama administration to implement more popular school reforms to improve education. But Landrieu will challenge what she and other state lawmakers see as the administration's continued slow pace in approving oil and gas exploration since the 2010 BP oil spill. In other words, Landrieu is hoping to reassert her image as a centrist, working with Democrats and the Obama administration on some issues but taking an independent path on others.