LA Voice: “When State Sen. Karen Carter Peterson (D-New Orleans) announced her immediate resignation from the legislature last week, she attributed her decision to depression and a chronic gambling addiction.
While the reasons for her decision were rooted in facts, the truth may be a bit more complicated, it now seems.
Political writers Gordon Russell and Tyler Bridges wrote on Saturday that Carter-Peterson was the subject of a federal investigation and hinted that the probe might well be tied to her tenure as head of Louisiana’s Democratic Party from 2012 to 2020.
Carter-Peterson has been a lightning rod of sorts, having used her veto power to squelch the reappointment of Ronnie Jones as head of Louisiana’s Gaming Board and former House Speaker Pro Tem Walt Leger, who was bumped from his appointment as chairman of the Ernest M. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.
She invoked an obscure rule that allowed her to personally torpedo five of 11 gubernatorial appointments, including Jones and Leger, because each of the five had managed to piss her off by some perceived slight. And Karen Carter Peterson was not the type to forgive and forget.
She offered her full-throated support for Mike Noel to succeed Jones because, she said, Jones had been there too long (seven years) despite the fact that Noel had been involved in gaming regulation for more than 15 years. Moreover, she was in full support of the guy who was in charge of the day-to-day operations of LSP during the time of the Ronald Greene cover-up.
Funny how things sort of have a way of working out.”