Jim Brown

Jim Brown is a former Louisiana state senator, Secretary of State, Commissioner of Insurance and a regular contributor to The Gazette.

Earning big bucks in state government

Jim BrownJim Brown is a former Louisiana state senator, Secretary of State, Commissioner of Insurance and a regular contributor to The Gazette. How do you put a dollar value on the worth of a public official? Attorneys working full time for the state are often paid more than $400,000 a year. So how do you justify such large increases? The governor …

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Serve your county – then get swiftboated?

Jim BrownJim Brown is a former Louisiana state senator, Secretary of State, Commissioner of Insurance and a regular contributor to The Gazette. Well here they go again.  Political extremists who work behind the scenes in both national political parties have dusted off their old playbook by attacking the military record of both vice presidential candidates. Such attacks even have a …

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Trump’s dumb idea to buy Greenland

Jim BrownJim Brown is a former Louisiana state senator, Secretary of State, Commissioner of Insurance and a regular contributor to The Gazette. President Trump stirred up a hornet’s nest recently as he proposed that the U.S. try to buy Greenland. Many political observers rolled their eyes. Buy another country? Has the Prez thrown out another wacky suggestion and is this …

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Edwards and Duke – the race from hell

Jim BrownJim Brown is a former Louisiana state senator, Secretary of State, Commissioner of Insurance and a regular contributor to The Gazette. It was 33 years ago this past week that perhaps the most consequential and controversial election in the nation’s history took place here in the Bayou State. Edwin Edwards and David Duke squared off in a run-off election …

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Kennedy’s controversial views on our health

Jim BrownJim Brown is a former Louisiana state senator, Secretary of State, Commissioner of Insurance and a regular contributor to The Gazette. The person who heads up the federal Department of Health and Human Services is quite essential to Louisiana.  Louisiana citizens, bless their souls, are in large numbers, poor, unhealthy, and aging at a higher rate than many other …

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Is Trump an aberration or is America changing?

Jim BrownJim Brown is a former Louisiana state senator, Secretary of State, Commissioner of Insurance and a regular contributor to The Gazette. Listen.  Put your hand to your ear. Can you here it?  (Silence). That’s the sound of the Trumpites hollering about all the election fraud.  Oh, that’s alright.  You see, the Republicans won. There’s only election fraud when Trump and Republicans loose.Trump said in …

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Thinking past election day

Jim BrownJim Brown is a former Louisiana state senator, Secretary of State, Commissioner of Insurance and a regular contributor to The Gazette. As you read this, it’s a matter of hours before voting in the presidential election is over. That’s not to say that a final verdict will be determined. As we saw four years ago, if the election is …

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Columbus and the Indians

Jim BrownJim Brown is a former Louisiana state senator, Secretary of State, Commissioner of Insurance and a regular contributor to The Gazette. Did you celebrate Columbus Day last week? ( Ooops, it’s now Indigenous Peoples Day.) That’s right. We changed the name, and now celebrate those Indian tribes Columbus encountered on his discovery of the Americas, a number of which …

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Louisiana can relate to disaster in the mountains

Jim BrownJim Brown is a former Louisiana state senator, Secretary of State, Commissioner of Insurance and a regular contributor to The Gazette. “Drive Faster. The Mountains are close by”. That’s a bumper sticker I’ve seen on a number of cars throughout western North Carolina. Yes, living in the mountains is special. A lot of people are beach groupies or mountain …

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Trump says lock up your dogs and cats

Jim BrownJim Brown is a former Louisiana state senator, Secretary of State, Commissioner of Insurance and a regular contributor to The Gazette. It’s a national scandal and a call to arms. Our country is under attack by dog and cat eaters. So says our former president. That’s right.  Donald Trump is saying that in some communities, immigrants are prowling neighborhoods …

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