La. lawmakers spend recess trying to ensure political survival

Several Louisiana lawmakers are spending the congressional recess trying to ensure their political survival in 2012.

The state will lose one of its seven House seats before the next election, and several members of the congressional delegation were at the state capitol this week, staking out their turf and voicing support for a plan that would put one of the delegation’s newest members at risk.

{mosads}The plan would force freshman Rep. Jeff Landry (R-La.) into a district with Rep. Charles Boustany Jr. (R-La.), with the final boundaries favoring the four-term incumbent.

Republican Reps. Boustany, Rodney Alexander, Bill Cassidy and John Fleming have all come out in favor of that idea, which would result in a new 3rd district encompassing much of the territory currently represented by Boustany, leaving Landry at a disadvantage and helping clear the path for the senior members of the delegation.

The other freshman member of the delegation — Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) — should be safe no matter what. Leaving his majority-minority district intact will help ensure the new map doesn’t run afoul of the Voting Rights Act.

Boustany, Alexander, Cassidy and Fleming were at the Louisiana statehouse this week as the state Senate’s redistricting committee met, while Landry opted not to make an appearance before the committee.

“Congressman Landry spent the day in his district, meeting with constituents while others were trying to dictate what the Legislature should do,” said Brent Littlefield, a Landry political consultant.

The Louisiana Legislature is in special session to hammer out new maps for state legislative and congressional districts.

While the senior members of the delegation are trying to make a case that momentum is behind a plan that would preserve the state’s two north-south congressional districts, while carving up Landry’s 3rd district, it might not be quite that simple.

Observers say there are emerging divisions between Louisiana’s state House and Senate over the congressional plan, with some members of the state House coming out against keeping the two north-south districts intact.

“It’s going to come down to a lot of horse trading around the House, Senate and congressional plans, and with Republicans in the [state Senate] majority, they’re going to come out ahead on at least two of those plans,” said Jeffrey Sadow, a political science professor at Louisiana State University. “My prediction is that they’re not going to give up the congressional plan.”

While the plan favored by a majority of the state’s congressional delegation emanates from the state Senate, Sadow noted that state House lawmakers from southern Louisiana could complicate matters.

“A majority of the population lives in the southern part of the state,” he said. “So there’s a number of state legislators who might not be sold on what [the state Senate] wants to do.”

A source close to Landry insists that a map favoring Boustany is far from a foregone conclusion at this point, pointing to an abundance of maps that have been put forward and the objections of some state lawmakers to leaving the two north-south districts intact.

Part of the worry for Alexander, a five-term lawmaker, and Cassidy, a two-term lawmaker, is a proposal that could pit them against one another in 2012. A map that formulates just one northern district in the state, for example, could force the two Republicans into a primary battle — something Alexander, the state’s longest-serving congressman, isn’t likely to accept.

Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) has already been pulled into the fight. While he’s on record supporting a plan that leaves the state’s northern districts intact, he called Landry earlier in the week to personally deny a report that he’s on board with the rest of the plan being advocated by a majority of the delegation.

State lawmakers had originally hoped to vote on a congressional plan before the special session wraps in early April, but divisions make that appear less and less likely.

Tags Charles Boustany John Fleming

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