By Sonny Marks

A Democrat governor from a red state meets a Republican governor from a blue state. They will meet Tuesday night in Lake Charles, in an event open to the public and free of charge.

Former governors John Bel Edwards (D) and his Massachusetts counterpart Charlie Baker (R) will speak at 7 p.m. at the Tritico Theatre on the McNeese State University campus, in this year’s McLeod Lecture, part of McNeese’s Banners cultural series. A reception for the public will begin at 5:45 p.m. outside the theater in the Grand Gallery of the Shearman Fine Arts Center. Doors to the theater will open at 6:30 p.m.

Edwards and Baker will speak about working with majority legislative bodies of the opposing parties. The moderator of their discussion will be Stephanie Grace, editorial director and columnist for The Advocate.

The McLeod Lecture Series honors the late Bill McLeod of Lake Charles, who was a district judge and state legislator. McLeod died in 2003, and the first Lecture Series event was held in 2004. The annual series focuses on timely, historical aspects of Louisiana politics, and on efforts to promote good government and public service.

The two governors both served two terms, Edwards from 2016 to 2024, and Baker from 2015 to 2023. Discussion points in the lecture may include their early lives and what positioned them to lead their states, challenges they faced and how they dealt with them, keys to their success and accomplishments, what might they do differently if given the opportunity, thoughts on how to cross the aisle to bring people with opposing views together, and advice for young people about democracy, voting, getting involved, running for office, and public service.

Baker is now president of the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association), and Edwards is practicing law with the Fishman Haygood firm of Louisiana, focusing on renewable energy matters.

As governors, both sought middle ground. Baker’s positions put him at odds with the leader of Massachusetts’ Republican Party. On the other side, state Democrats pushed back against the governor’s effort to expand the list of offenses for which a criminal suspect could be held pre-trial without bail for 120 days if the court determined the person to be dangerous.

Baker put money into public transportation and expanded broadband internet access to areas of the state that lacked infrastructure. His administration propelled the planting of more than 35,000 trees and spurred the investing of more than $1 billion to deal with climate change. Baker signed legislation requiring utilities to use sources of clean energy.

Edwards grew up the son of a sheriff, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy, and served as an Army Ranger. He was against abortion and his views on guns were moderate. The day he was first inaugurated as this state’s governor, the majority-Republican House of Representatives refused Edwards’ choice as house speaker and voted in their own. For the previous hundred years, Louisiana governors traditionally picked the speaker of the house.

He expanded Medicaid, joined efforts to combat climate change, and invested in education. In his last term in office, the Legislature overturned Edwards’ veto of congressional maps that would have maintained only one majority-Black district. It was the first veto override of a Louisiana governor in 31 years. Later that year, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed a legal challenge to the map, thus providing, at least temporarily, for a second majority-Black district in a state in which one-third of the state’s voters are Black.

The late Bill McLeod served 23 years in the Louisiana Legislature and was dean of the Southwest Louisiana delegation. He was one of the Young Turks, reform-minded legislators in the late 1960s and ’70s who supported and sponsored numerous changes in state government. One of McLeod’s hallmarks was to set up a card table and folding chairs outside of grocery stores throughout his district to allow constituents to provide him their input prior to each legislative session.

In addition to the Lecture Series created to honor McLeod, the Southwest Louisiana Legislative Archives were formed at McNeese from the same initiative. Related professorships and student stipends were also created at the university. This year’s McLeod Professors are Victoria Jeansonne (Political Science) and Lindsay Ayling (History). The McLeod Students are Louis Gilley (Political Science) and Tanner Milner(Political Science).