Gulf Coast fears loss of clout in D.C.

BILOXI, MISS. —  Ask hardware store owner Sandy Cannette what she thinks about the resurgent Democrats, and her face -- one that typically warms to any stranger looking for a bolt or a saw blade -- tightens with worry.

For Cannette, a Republican who occasionally votes for the other party, the problem with the Democratic victory in the Nov. 7 election has less to do with ideology than with her storm-wrecked state’s loss of influence in Washington.

“We had two powerful senators,” Cannette said recently, as she rang up the purchases of a stream of contractors, do-it-yourselfers and volunteers who were slowly patching up the battered coast. “I don’t want us to be put on the back burner.”

Cannette was referring to veteran Mississippi lawmakers Trent Lott and Thad Cochran, both Republican senators. The former is one of the state’s most visible victims of Hurricane Katrina -- his oceanfront home in Pascagoula, Miss., was destroyed in the storm. The latter is the chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, which directs discretionary spending.

Both men will see their voices diminished in the new Democratic Senate. Cochran will give up his chairmanship to a Democrat when the new Congress convenes in January; Lott, like all Republicans, will lose influence as a member of the new minority, though he has been chosen minority whip.

Such concern is prevalent here in coastal Mississippi, and it cuts across party lines: Before the final election results were known, the region’s Democratic congressman, Gene Taylor, expressed hope that Republicans would keep control of the Senate. In nearby Louisiana, residents are also worried about a diminished voice in Washington. Five of the state’s seven members of Congress are Republicans. Before the election, two of them were in line to head powerful committees.

That loss of clout, however, is coupled with the ascendance of a Democratic Party that has made a protracted fuss over what they call Republican “broken promises” to hurricane victims. And Democrats have begun sketching out plans of their own.

One possible blueprint for change was outlined in a report released last month by two Gulf Coast Democrats, Taylor and Rep. Charlie Melancon of Louisiana.

The report included a proposal to build levees around New Orleans that would withstand Category 5 hurricanes, the most powerful level. It is a project that could cost tens of billions of dollars, according to Sidney Coffee, the senior coastal advisor for Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, a Democrat.

The high price tag points to the difficult choices ahead for Democrats in Congress who hope to take credit for a bigger, better Katrina recovery plan. A number of them found success on the campaign trail railing against recent profligate Republican spending. The 109th Congress, which is on its way out, has already spent about $88 billion on Hurricane Katrina emergency response and recovery needs, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

“Republicans were already spending a bunch of money, and Democrats are now under pressure not to bust the budget,” said Brian M. Riedl, a senior analyst with the conservative Heritage Foundation. “It will be tough for the Democratic majority to settle on a policy on Katrina cleanup.”

Taylor and Robin Winchell, the spokeswoman for Melancon, argue that the investment in levees is financially responsible in the long run. It is an appeal that will resonate with worried New Orleans residents, and it could prefigure a difficult intraparty debate to come.

“This is a case where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” Taylor said. “Had we spent the money to get those levees up to Category 5 levels before, it would have been so much cheaper than rebuilding New Orleans now. Why go through this again?”

The plan calls for other measures that would presumably be less costly, including insurance reform and a plan to get the Federal Emergency Management Agency out of the long-term recovery process, instead splitting its authority among federal agencies with expertise in areas like health, education and transportation.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), the incoming House speaker, is enthusiastic about the overall plan, her spokesman Brendan Daly said. But he would not comment on whether she supported its specific recommendations.

In general, he said, post-Katrina recovery is “a huge priority for us.”

Mississippi’s congressional delegation will hold some key levers of power. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) is expected to chair the homeland security committee, which oversees FEMA.

And Taylor is expected to chair a subcommittee on military shipbuilding -- a key industry for the Mississippi coast, which hosts a Northrop Grumman plant in Pascagoula.

Still, Democrats will have a harder time convincing Sandy Cannette that the coast is a priority now that she has heard comments made after the election by Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), who is expected to become chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

In an interview with the New York Times, Rangel discussed his intention to bring more federal money to New York, adding, “Mississippi gets more than their fair share back in federal money, but who the hell wants to live in Mississippi?” Rangel later apologized.

Cannette heard about the quip before heading to work in a downtown still dotted with boarded storefronts and ruined homes.

“I’d like to ask him, ‘Have you ever been here before?’ ” she said.

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richard.fausset@latimes.com

Times researcher Jenny Jarvie contributed to this report.