Incumbent – Brett Geymann (R – Term Limited in 2019)

District Map

House District 35

Vote History

Current District

The Lake Charles area is a political anomaly. While it historically voted Democratic in national and statewide elections, its legislative delegation tended to be conservative. House District 35 includes parts of Lake Charles, the northern fringe of Calcasieu Parish, and the southern portion of Beauregard Parish. It has a low (11%, up from 9% in 2003) black voter registration.

This is a district that historically has leaned Republican; in recent years, the Republican tendencies have strengthened, as both Jay Dardenne and David Vitter received over 70% of the district vote in the 2010 elections. Within the district, there is some political variation: the district’s portion of Beauregard Parish and the Moss Bluff area north of Lake Charles are the conservative anchors (David Vitter received 78% of the vote here) and account for 54% of the registered voters in the district. The precincts around the industrialized area of Westlake cast another 29% of the vote. They lean conservative but tend to be more of a swing area: “Bobby” Jindal received 53% of the vote here, while David Vitter received 68%. The remaining 17% of the vote is cast in Lake Charles. These precincts are 32% black and tend to split 50/50 – neither “Bobby” Jindal nor David Vitter got more than 56% of the vote here.

Curiously, this was one of the first districts to vote for Republicans in legislative races outside of Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and Shreveport. Republican Vic Stelly upset a Democratic incumbent here in the 1987 runoff. After his 1991 re-election with 63% of the vote, he was unopposed in 1995 and 1999. He retired in 2003 after getting voters to adopt the “Stelly plan” which swapped sales taxes on food and drugs for higher income taxes for upper-income taxpayers (the tax hiking portions of this plan have since been repealed). In the open seat race that ensued in 2003, Republican Brett Geymann was victorious in the primary 54-31%. Like other Republicans who’ve carried the district, he carried the Beauregard Parish/Moss Bluff precincts with 56-58%, eked out a narrow 51% victory in Westlake, and received about 40% of the vote in the Lake Charles precincts. He was unopposed in 2007 and is allowed to serve two more terms.

Proposed District

Redistricting in southwest Louisiana was relatively simple. The demographics weren’t there to create additional “majority minority” seats, and District 33 was 10% over the population of the “ideal” district. Adjustments were made that made the district even more conservative (the black voter registration dropped from 11 to 9%). In Beauregard, very conservative territory around Longville was added (David Vitter received 75% of the vote there), while several Democratic precincts in Lake Charles were removed. These adjustments reduced the Lake Charles portion of the vote from 17 to 11% and made a safe seat for Rep. Geymann (or any other Republican, for that matter) even safer.   (UPDATED 9/8/2011)  In fact, he was unopposed for re-election in 2011.