District Map

 

House District 104

Voting History


2008 President
  Current District New District
John McCain (R) 5496 (71%) 13839 (73%)
Barack Obama (D) 2075 (27%) 4789 (25%)
Others 218 (3%) 325 (2%)

 

2008 Senate
  Current District New District
Mary Landrieu (D) 4321 (57%) 7250 (39%)
John Kennedy (R) 3011 (40%) 10730 (58%)
Others 217 (3%) 487 (3%)

 

2010 Senate
  Current District New District
David Vitter (R) 2713 (57%) 8975 (71%)
Charlie Melancon (D) 1757 (37%) 2943 (23%)
Others 327 (7%) 690 (5%)

 

2010 Lt Governor
  Current District New District
Jay Dardenne (R) 2751 (58%) 9027 (72%)
Caroline Fayard (D) 1991 (42%) 3529 (28%)

Current District

House District 104 was located in St. Bernard Parish and contained most of Chalmette and Meraux. The district had a relatively low (14%, up from 7% in 2003) black population, and most of that was concentrated in the town of Meraux and in a handful of precincts in Chalmette. Demographically, the district was blue collar suburbia that tended to support Republicans in national and statewide elections, with one major exception – Senator Mary Landrieu’s efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (which devastated St Bernard Parish) was recognized by her getting 57% of the vote in her 2008 re-election campaign. This level of support was a full 30 percentage points ahead of Barack Obama, who was also on the ballot.

Despite the Republican tendencies in statewide elections, Democrats represented the district for years. It wasn’t until a special election in 2000 that a Republican (Nita Hutter) was elected, and even then, she only won the runoff with 51% of the vote. She was re-elected more comfortably with over 60% of the vote in 2003 and 2007.  Term limits forced her to retire this year.

Proposed District

Population losses in Saint Bernard, Orleans and Jefferson Parish made redistricting a tricky proposition for the area: the district ended up having 51% less population than needed for a state representative district after the 2010 Census. Combine that with the fact that you had a term limited representative, and you had a district that was an obvious candidate for elimination. In fact, all that had to be done was to add the entire district to a neighboring district held by freshman Democrat Reed Henderson, whose own district was 45% under populated.

The new district has been relocated to a rapidly growing portion of St Tammany Parish roughly between Mandeville and Slidell. It has a low (12%) black voter registration, and typically turns in over 70% support to Republican candidates. This district should go Republican this fall without much fuss.