Senate committee to hear congressional redistricting testimony Friday

BATON ROUGE, La. (WVUE) — Louisiana lawmakers will hear public testimony Friday at the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee as they begin drafting a new U.S. congressional map. State Sen. Gary Carter, a Democrat representing New Orleans, serves on the committee and said the goal is to draft and vote on a proposed new map by Wednesday. If passed, it would move to the Senate floor for consideration.

The scramble to redraw the districts was triggered by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week that one of the state’s two majority-Black congressional districts is unconstitutional because it was based on race.

The court ruling prompted Gov. Jeff Landry to delay all U.S. House races in the May 16 election until July 15 unless the Legislature suggests a new date. The races are included on ballots, as early voting began just two days after the governor’s executive order. However, votes cast in the U.S. House races will not count, according to Secretary of State Nancy Landry.

Louisiana has six U.S. House seats. Based on the most recent census, political analyst Mike Sherman said about one-third should represent minority voters. He said lawmakers cannot draw the new map based on race, but they can set boundaries along party lines.

“I think the Voting Rights act has been weakened more with this Supreme Court ruling than with any time in its history. And I think a series of court cases are weakening Voting Rights acts, so it gives more power to legislatures to create maps. What we are seeing around the country right now is legislatures using political, partisan differences to create maps to give an electoral advantage to their own party,” he said.

The current legislative session ends June 1, and Gov. Landry said he does not plan to call a special legislative session on redistricting after the regular session.

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