Elected officials can now legally display political signs at high school sports venues under a new law passed earlier this year. (Julie O'Donoghue/Louisiana Illuminator)
Louisiana political candidates and campaigns can post signs at public school athletic fields and gymnasiums starting Friday after being prohibited from doing so.
Gov. Jeff Landry and state lawmakers carved out the school athletic facility exception from a more sweeping ban on political signs on government property in state law.
Act 89, sponsored by Sen. Eddie Lambert, R-Gonzales, will allow the signage so long as it complies with local school board policies.
If the school is used as a voting site, rules against political advertising during an election will still apply. Any area within 600 feet of a voting booth area becomes a campaign-free zone.
“In that case, a sign would have to be taken down during a political election,” Lambert said.
Lambert offered the proposal in response to a letter Attorney General Liz Murrill’s office sent to high schools in his district last year telling them to take down political signs on display. It cost the school’s athletic programs a lot of money in refunds when the signs came down, he said.
The president of the St. Amant High School athletic boosters, James LeBlanc, said his school lost $20,000. Before the letter from the attorney general, the athletic boosters had been selling advertising space to politicians for 25 years, he said during a hearing on the bill earlier this year.
Lambert said he spends between $3,000 and $5,000 on high school signs every year from his campaign account.
“It came as a shock to me and the school systems in Ascension Parish” when the political signs were taken down, Lambert said.
The proposal overwhelmingly passed the Legislature with a 38-0 vote in the Senate and 92-1 in the House of Representatives. State Rep. Beryl Amedee, R-Gray, was the only lawmaker to vote against the bill.
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