The state House and Senate signed off on a congressional redistricting plan Wednesday afternoon — just hours before the scheduled close of the special session — that largely preserves the power bases of the five incumbent congressmen and leaves freshman U.S. Rep. Jeff Landry, R-New Iberia, on the outside looking in.
The plan (see map below), which must be approved by Gov. Bobby Jindal as well as the U.S. Department of Justice, also makes strange bedfellows among far-flung communities with little in common culturally. Assuming the map is approved, residents in Opelousas will have to turn to Rep. Rodney Alexander in Monroe when they need help from their congressman. And residents in Ville Platte will be calling on Rep. John Fleming in Shreveport.
The biggest loser, however, appears to be Landry, who won a seat in the U.S. House representing what is currently the 3rd Congressional District. That district will more or less be absorbed into the districts currently represented by Rep. Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette, and Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Metairie. The former’s southwest Louisiana district will remain largely intact, spreading eastward to take in Landry’s home parish of Iberia as well as St. Mary, which are now in Landry's 3rd Congressional District. Currently the 7th District, Boustany’s new district will become the 3rd District next year. Scalise’s 1st District spreads south and west to take in Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes, where Landry campaigned heavily in his win last fall over former state House Speaker Hunt Downer.
The short of it is, if Landry wants to run in the new 3rd Congressional District against Boustany next year, assuming Boustany seeks re-election, the freshman congressman have to campaign in unfamiliar territory. Boustany is in his fourth term, having faced no opponents in the last election.
Politico echoed the sentiment that the map favors Boustany:
The final plan, which Jindal said Wednesday he will sign into law, is viewed as a win for Boustany, who will keep his Lake Charles and Lafayette population centers. Landry, a tea party backed freshman, will find himself in largely new territory and without a significant portion of his current district, No longer in Landry’s district are Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes.
Read more in today's Advocate.
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
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