INCUMBENT: Darrell Ourso (Republican)

DESCRIPTION: House District 66 is mostly located in the southeastern portion of East Baton Rouge Parish, although it also travels along Bayou Manchac to pick up affluent subdivisions like Santa Maria, Country Club of Louisiana, and University Club.

DISTRICT MAP:

District Map

RED/BLUE RATING (using 2008, 2012, and 2014 elections): 75% Republican

JMCEL’s SUMMARY: East Baton Rouge Parish has been a parish in transition, as it has simultaneously become less blue collar while also becoming a racially mixed parish. We noted the political effect of demographic changes in our previous analysis of House District 101 (represented by Democrat Ted James); in this district, the transition of Baton Rouge to a more white collar metropolitan area is also apparent. For this district, in its initial creation in 1971, was a North Baton Rouge district whose focus was the ExxonMobil refinery/chemical plant. In subsequent redistrictings in 1981, 1991, amd 2001, the district steadily shifted towards neighborhoods in the southeastern part of Baton Rouge. These political changes were reflected in its House representation, as its legislator from 1971 to 1999 was former Democrat (and a conservative one at that) Woody Jenkins, whose constituency changed from a union friendly blue colllar one to a more white collar one. When the 1991 redistricting brought him into upper middle income neighborhoods like Sherwood Forest and Broadmoor, he received Republican opposition for the first time, and was only victorious in the runoff with 54% of the vote. Before his 1995 re-election, he switched to the Republican party, and was unopposed in 1995. His successor was another Republican (Mike Futrell), and Rep. Futrell served until 2005, when he was tapped to be Senator David Vitter’s statewide director. In the special election to succeed him in 2005, Republican Hunter Greene won in the runoff with 54%, and he was unopposed in 2007 and 2011. He vacated the seat in early 2015 upon his election to a family court judgeship. The 2011 reapportionment pushed the district far out into the southern and eastern fringes of East Baton Rouge Parish, and in the special election to succeed Rep. Greene, Republican Darrell Ourso was victorious in the runoff by 72 votes. Rep. Ourso is allowed to serve three terms, but first has to face re-election this fall for a full term, and given the narrowness of his victory margin, as well as some tax votes he made during the 2015 legislative session, he can expect opposition this fall.