Incumbent – Chuck Kleckley (R – Term Limited in 2015)

District Map

House District 36

Vote History

Current District

House District 36 is a rectangular-shaped district covering the southern suburbs of Lake Charles on both sides of the Calcasieu River. Its approximate boundaries are I-10/I-210 on the north, the Cameron parish line on the south, the town of Vinton on the west, and Tom Hebert Road on the east.

Demographically, this is nearly an all white district, although the black voter registration, which was 6% a decade ago, is now 8%. This is typically a Republican district in elections, and in recent years, the Republican tendencies have strengthened to the point that they can count on at least 70% of the vote here in elections.

Like many districts in Louisiana outside of Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Democrats used to be elected here until fairly recent memory. For 20 years (from 1968-1988), Conway LeBleu represented the area. He was succeeded by Democrat Randy Roach in 1988, who was one of several young reformers elected during the Roemer administration. He served for two terms and is now Mayor of Lake Charles. In the 1995 open seat election, another Democrat, Dan Flavin, was elected, but he switched to the Republican Party in 1997 and was easily re-elected in 1999 and 2003. He resigned in the middle of his term in 2005, and Republican police juror/businessman Chuck Kleckley was elected without opposition in the special election and in the 2007 elections. He is allowed to serve one more term.

New District

Redistricting in southwest Louisiana was noncontroversial. The demographics only supported one black majority seat (which was District 34), and District 36 was 15% over populated. All of the precincts west of the Calcasieu River were moved into District 33 (represented by Democrat Mike Danahay). East of the Calcasieu, District 36 absorbed two precincts north of I-210 from District 35, while shedding a precinct near Tom Hebert Road to District 34. These changes slightly increased the black voter registration from 8 to 9%, but this is still a heavily Republican district that shouldn’t give Rep. Kleckley or any other Republican any problems, (UPDATED 9/8/2011) and Rep. Kleckley was unopposed for re-election in 2011.