Welcome to election season, when your favorite candidate finds out all kinds of things about themselves they didn’t know before. It reminds me of that meme: “Have you ever heard a rumor about yourself and actually wanted to hear more? Like d@#$, what did I do next?”
It’s really no wonder that Blake Miguez (R 10/10) has been a long-time friend and supporter of Citizens for a New Louisiana. The fact is, he carries good legislation, and he votes right. Add to this, he was Master of Ceremonies for our very first Champions of Change Gala way back in January of 2020. So, when one of those attack ads dropped recently about his voting record, I asked myself that most dangerous of questions: “I wonder if that’s true.”
Over the years, that question has gotten me into quite a bit of trouble. It usually means someone will be upset with me for not toeing the line, or not supporting their preferred candidate. But then there’s that scamp, Thomas Jefferson, who is always encouraging my unseemly behavior with quotes like: “he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods & errors.” And so, bolstered by the investigative power of our new StateLens project, I set out on a mini-adventure to discover what was true and what wasn’t.
Are You Willing to Stand Alone?
Rather than starting with good or bad bills and then looking to see who voted for them, I remembered a question posed by John Stemberger, a recent Champions of Change speaker: Are you willing to stand alone? That inspired a different question of my own: Who in the Senate actually did? A single name emerged: Blake Miguez. As it turns out, during the 2026 regular session, he stood alone on about a dozen floor votes. No one else was even close.
For the sake of length, I picked out seven of Miguez’s most conservative one-man stands. If you’re counting along, it will be six bills. It’s just that one was so bad that he had to vote against it twice. It may also be interesting to know that Miguez’s positions weren’t necessarily controversial among conservatives. As we’ll see, several of these bills were also opposed by the House’s most conservative members. It was only when those bills reached the Senate that the courage to stand alone was required.
Elected-Official Allowances and Compensation (Pay Raises)
HB1201 by John Illg (R 6/10) expands legislative per diem and mileage eligibility for official legislative business to up to 10 days per month, in addition to attendance on the body. It also extends capital-city housing reimbursement of up to $1,000 per month to legislators and provides an inflation adjustment. It also provides statewide elected officials, other than the governor, with a $1,000 monthly housing allowance for renting or leasing a capital-city residence, as well as a $500 monthly expense allowance.
As you can imagine, this kind of legislation is popular with legislators and other elected officials, but very unpopular with their voting base. Supporters will be quick to argue that the allowances reimburse real constituent-service and travel costs.
The Senate passed it 26–1. That one opposition vote was Blake Miguez.
The initial House vote was 53–36, with 25 Republicans and 11 Democrats voting against it. House concurrence passed 62–35 on May 29, with 22 Republicans and 13 Democrats voting against it. This was not a near-unanimous vote in the House. Republican opponents at both stages included some conservative powerhouses such as Beryl Amedée (R 10/10), Danny McCormick (R 10/10), Rodney Schamerhorn (R 9/10), Chuck Owen (R 9/10), and Gabe Firment (R 8/10).
Rick Edmonds (R 8/10) was recorded as absent for that vote. The bill became Act 954 without the governor’s signature.
Tax Districts, Tax Powers, and Debt
SB374, by Stewart Cathey (R 5/10), allows for college bureaucrats to levy their own taxes, with property taxes up to 5 mills, sales taxes up to 2 percent, and hotel occupancy taxes up to 2 percent. The bill also includes a very specific constitutional loophole that allows the tax to be levied without a vote of the people it affects. This bill is so bad that we wrote an entire, stand-alone article about it: Stewart Cathey’s Bureaucratic Tax Machine.
The Senate passed it 36–1, and then concurred with House amendments 33–1. Both times, the legislation was opposed solely by Blake Miguez.
The House passed it 85–9. All nine opponents were familiar conservative Republicans: Beryl Amedée (R 10/10), Raymond Crews (R 9/10), Danny McCormick (R 10/10), Rodney Schamerhorn (R 9/10), Beau Beaullieu (R 7/10), Daryl Deshotel (R 6/10), Gabe Firment (R 8/10), Rhonda Butler (R 6/10), and Jay Galle (R 7/10).
Possibly of interest: It passed out of the Senate committee chaired by Rick Edmonds (R, 8/10) without opposition.
SB283, by Regina Barrow (D 2/10), created the BLVD at Harding Area Special District in Baton Rouge with economic development, infrastructure, tax increment financing, tax, and bonding powers. This was one of those Zohran Mamdani-style socialist grocery store concepts. Why any conservative would vote to create a public taxing district to support a project of a nonprofit (run by a recently released felon) is beyond me.
Senate passed it 35–1. You can probably guess that the lone opposition was none other than Blake Miguez.
The initial House vote was 66–27, with all 27 opponents being Republican. When it came back from the Senate, the conference report passed 70–24, with all 24 opponents Republican. Among others, the opponents at both stages included the ever-vigilant Beryl Amedée (R 10/10), Danny McCormick (R 10/10), Rodney Schamerhorn (R 9/10), Chuck Owen (R 9/10), and Gabe Firment (R 8/10).
Miguez was joined in opposition by Valarie Hodges (R, 9/10) on the 29–2 conference vote, which isn’t counted in our total. This bill (and a related $18 million legislative give-away) was ultimately vetoed by Jeff Landry.
Parcel-fee Increases Without Another Election
HB127, by Vanessa LaFleur (D 1/10), changes the boundaries of the Victoria Farms Crime Prevention and Improvement District and permits its board to increase its parcel fee up to a $100-per-parcel annual maximum without an election.
Senate passed it 34–1. Miguez was the only one opposed.
For their part, the House passage vote was 83–11. All 11 opponents were Republicans, including Dodie Horton (R 9/10), Beryl Amedée (R 10/10), Danny McCormick (R 10/10), Rodney Schamerhorn (R 9/10), Chuck Owen (R 9/10), and Gabe Firment (R 8/10); the linked tabulation contains the full list.
HB138, by Barbara Carpenter (D 1/10), transfers authority to levy the Parkwood Terrace district’s parcel fee from the elected parish governing authority to the unelected district. It sets a $150-per-residential-parcel annual ceiling and permits one increase per subsequent calendar year without an election. To add insult to injury, it also removed the requirement to mail notice of the parcel-fee election to voters and nonresident parcel owners.
The Senate passed it 34–1, with Miguez in lone dissent.
The House passage was 80–11. As expected, all 11 opponents were Republicans, including the ever-faithful Dodie Horton (R 9/10), Beryl Amedée (R 10/10), Danny McCormick (R 10/10), Rodney Schamerhorn (R 9/10), Gabe Firment (R 8/10), and Kathy Edmonston (R 8/10).
Preservation Fines, Property Liens, and Enforcement
HB368, by Aimee Freeman (D 2/10), in the final conference version, doubles the fixed-dollar component of the New Orleans unauthorized-demolition fine from $25,000 to $50,000; the alternative of 15 percent of assessed value remains. It also adds property liens for fines, costs, and penalties, with tax-bill and property-tax-lien enforcement provisions.
Senate voted 32–1 for the conference report (initial Senate passage has him marked absent).
House comparison: The House conference report passed 82–11 on May 31. All 11 opponents were Republicans, including Dodie Horton (R 9/10), Beryl Amedée (R 10/10), Raymond Crews (R 9/10), Danny McCormick (R 10/10), Rodney Schamerhorn (R 9/10), and Gabe Firment (R 8/10).
What the House and Senate comparisons show
Miguez’s dissent often aligned with our most reliably conservative House representatives, such as Beryl Amedée (R 10/10), Danny McCormick (R 10/10), and Rodney Schamerhorn (R 9/10), who opposed at least one House passage, concurrence, or conference-report vote on each of the six bills covered in this article.
Of course, the article wouldn’t be complete without addressing the elephant in the room. For the seven Senate roll call votes in which Miguez stood alone, Rick Edmonds (R 8/10) voted Yes six times and was absent once (HB1201).
After all this, someone will inevitably be upset with me for shining my little flashlight into another dark corner. But if these politicians would stop with their scorched-earth advertisements, perhaps I’d never have to “wonder if that’s true.”
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