Posted on 04/14/2011 9:19:48 AM PDT by Galactic Overlord-In-Chief
After three weeks of wrangling, lawmakers in the final hours of a special redistricting special session finally agreed on a plan to shrink Louisiana's seven congressional districts to six and sent the measure to Gov. Bobby Jindal, who said he will sign it into law.
The plan also needs the approval of the U.S. Justice Department to ensure that it does not dilute minority voting strength.
Senators revised House Bill 6 by Rep. Erich Ponti, R-Baton Rouge, after three hours of debate and gave it 25-13 approval. The House went along with the Senate changes, 64-35.
The vote on the bill came shortly before 4 p.m. but lawmakers did not go home until the mandatory 6 p.m. deadline, but failed to approve a compromise committee report on the boundaries of the eight districts for the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Several lawmakers left the session after the congressional plan was approved and were not around to vote on the final version of the BESE measure.
BESE members are up for election this fall, so a bill will have to be filed for the regular session starting April 25 to try to make another stab at drawing those lines.
Lawmakers earlier Wednesday approved a plan to redraw the five Public Service Commission districts; on Monday they gave final approval to a plan to redraw legislative districts for the fall elections.
After promising to stay out of the redistricting fray, Jindal threatened to veto any congressional bill that did not include two north Louisiana districts: one based in Monroe, the other in Shreveport, as provided in the current congressional alignment.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
John Fleming is LA 4?
Yes.
I’m wondering now if Landry might not be better off sitting out this one rather than going through what will be a brutal primary and then taking the plunge for the Senate seat himself in ‘14. And, no, I am not happy with Boustany’s behavior in trying to preserve his seat (at the expense of sacrificing a few of the other GOP members, which might’ve ended up with a Dem winning), but he won his little hardball play for the moment, but the Senate seat ought to be put out of reach after his stunt.
Just as an aside, I have to admit the lines for the 5th are a mess. Rep. Rodney Alexander lives way up in the NW corner of that district, and were I living in one of the Florida Parishes, especially Washington, I would be none too happy to have my member be almost from clear across the state. If I have my geography correct, they’ll be closer to the Santa Rosa County, FL member from FL-1 than to their own member.
Pretty strange looking at the new 5th and 1st. Stemming for Boustany and others in the area demanding that Lake Charles and Lafayette be in the same district I suppose. I guess the Florida parishes don’t have the same clout.
The whole process was a lot more contentious than I thought it would be.
I agree, but with the new LA-03 having so much of the old Boustany LA-03, I don’t think that Landry has a very good chance in the jungle primary or a run-off.
“John Fleming is LA 4?”
Yes he is.
Thank you! ;o)
My goodness! I’ve known him since I was eight years old, and went to school with him through high school. He’s an old friend.
You should’ve seen IL-4. Two pockets of Hispanics (one Mexican, one Puerto Rican), connected by the median of an interstate highway.
‘course now, there are enough Hispanics to create a nice, fairly contiguous district in Chicago. They might even create a second one running well into the suburbs.
Damn, that is a nasty-looking map. Is the 5th even contiguous?
Former Rep Cynthia “Crazy” McKinney’s district in Georgia was like that once.
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