Yesterday Republican lawmakers detailed their opposition to creating a second majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana, amid threats from civil rights groups who say failing to boost minority representation could result in costly litigation.
Slidell’s Senator Sharon Hewitt, the chair of the upper chamber’s redistricting committee, said it is not possible to draw two majority-Black districts with margins in either district to ensure that minority voters would have the opportunity to elect their candidate of choice.
Some civil rights groups said that is not true.
They say they hired experts to analyze Louisiana’s racial voting patterns across several past elections and determined that there are at least half a dozen ways to draw a congressional map with two Black-opportunity districts.
Several versions of those proposals were introduced by Senate Democrats.
The fight over redrawing Louisiana’s six congressional districts is expected to attract the most attention as the Legislature works through a special redistricting session to draw new district lines for state representatives and senators, state school board members, state utility regulators, and, maybe the state Supreme Court justices.
