House District 104

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.

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.