Gov. Edwards: Call redistricting session now

The critical need for Governor John Bel Edwards to call a special session before the end of his term took on an even stronger importance in federal court last Monday (November 27).

Previously, the question of where a second African-American majority congressional district should be drawn – and how – motivated many to ask the Democratic governor to act before Republican Jeff Landry took office. U.S. District Chief Judge Shelly Dick ruled that such a seat would have to be drawn by January 30, 2024, and improvement on the previous date of January 15, but still only three weeks after the new governor takes office.

Last Monday at Russell B. Long Federal Building in Baton Rouge, attorneys for civil rights groups upped the proverbial ante, arguing before Judge Dick that the current Louisiana state legislative map violates the Voting Rights Act by diluting Black votes. Redistricting in 2022 created only one additional state legislative majority-Black district, where the lawsuit (brought by Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute, the Louisiana State Conference of the NAACP and several Black Louisianans) contends it should have created six to nine more majority-Black districts in the House and three more in the Senate. While La. Caucasian voters comprise 58 percent of the voting age population, they control outcomes for 70 percent of legislative seats, the lawsuit contends.

Dick is expected to rule within a week, and current La. Attorney General and Governor-Elect Jeff Landry has vowed to fight any redistricting changes to the U.S. Supreme Court. Gov. Edwards could forestall all of this by immediately calling a legislative special session to redraw both the state’s congressional and legislative districts. Admittedly, there are logistical challenges. Christmas is upon us, and the legislative chambers are under construction. Yet, the current Democratic governor, who supports greater African-American representation in both Congress and the state Legislature, has the chance to cement his legacy by issuing such a call. Should Dick again rule in favor of redistricting for the state House and Senate, Edwards would be armed with a legal ruling that the GOP supermajority could not refuse.

In addition, Edwards would be countering a move of political revenge which holds the side-effect of potentially weakening African-American representation in the mostly Orleans-based 2nd Congressional District. Gov.-elect Landry has openly voiced his disdain for Garret Graves. The 6th District congressman endorsed Landry’s GOP gubernatorial opponent, Stephen Waguespack, and Graves likewise angered 1st District Rep. Steve Scalise by expressing doubts on his bid for speaker. Revenge floats in the air of Baton Rouge, and so Landry leans towards redrawing Graves’ district into a Black majority rather than the more logical 5th Congressional District, held by Julia Letlow. The 6th District possesses 24.2 percent African-American voter registration versus 35.5 percent in the 5th District.

In other words, it is easier to draw a Black majority seat along the historic African-American communities which stretch from the Florida Parishes to Monroe than to redraw the Baton Rouge metro. (Notably, Mississippi boasts of one of the only rural Black majority seats running just along the other side of the river. The two congressional seats essentially could mirror one another.)

Redrawing Graves’ seat could likely require the Legislature to shave some Black neighborhoods out of Troy Carter’s 2nd Congressional seat, which runs into East Baton Rouge Parish, in order to maintain some semblance of geographic consistency and not affect the other congressional lines. That could reduce African-American voter registration in the 2nd District from just over 52 percent to as little as 48.5 percent – as Black majority seats legally can fall below 50 percent and still qualify. Moreover, no guarantee exists that Landry would allow the 6th District to achieve a true Black majority, with the result that redrawing Graves’ seat could potentially create two Democratic seats eventually held by Caucasians. Better that John Bel Edwards oversees this process, both congressional and legislative, than his Republican successor.

This article originally published in the December 4, 2023 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.