Incumbent – Helena Moreno (D – Term Limited in 2023)

District Map

House District 93

Vote History

Current District

House District 93 is located in New Orleans and includes a mixture of upper and lower income neighborhoods in and around the Central Business District (locals refer to this area as the “CBD”) of New Orleans. The southern end of the district is in the Garden District near the intersection of Louisiana Avenue and Saint Charles. It then travels up St Charles to include the Superdome, the CBD, and most of the French Quarter. From there, it fans out across I-10 to take in Midcity neighborhoods roughly between St. Bernard and Canal south of City Park.

Hurricane Katrina was the catalyst for significant demographic changes: a district that was 57% black by voter registration a decade ago is now 47% black. What happened was that the Garden District neighborhoods along St Charles Avenue have maintained their population, while areas near the Superdome and the Convention Center have seen a spurt of new development that has attracted relatively affluent people who are interested in downtown living. This has resulted in a 10% increase (in absolute numbers) in the white voter population, while the number of black voters has decreased 27%.

These demographic changes, however, have not altered the political equation, as the newcomers and a substantial number of the existing white residents are politically liberal. When you combine this white liberal bloc with the 47% black electorate, you have a district that still can be counted on to give Democratic candidates about 80% of the vote in contested elections.

While these demographic changes have not created a more hospitable climate for Republicans, white candidates are now more competitive here. From 1976 until his death in 1999, Rev. Avery Alexander (who was a black Democrat) represented the district. Near the end of his tenure, he had to face competitive races and in his last three elections and never received more than 62% of the vote. He was succeeded by another black Democrat, Karen Carter Peterson (who back then was Karen Carter), who was easily re-elected here, although she made a minor political misstep: in 2006, she challenged former Congressman William Jefferson, and lost in the runoff 57-43%, although her constituents strongly supported her 66-34%.

Despite the fact that white Democrats were elected in formerly black majority districts in the Garden District and Uptown, Rep, Peterson was easily re-elected in 2007. When she vacated the seat upon her getting elected to an open state Senate seat in early 2010, there was a competitive open House seat that was illustrative of racial politics in post Katrina New Orleans. Six Democrats qualified to run, and in the runoff, black Democrat James Perry, despite having Rep. Peterson’s endorsement, was hurt when it was revealed that he had numerous parking and traffic violations, including driving without insurance and a valid driver’s license. Even though Perry brought up preferential treatment issues related to an accident his opponent, newscaster Helena Moreno, was involved in, he lost to Moreno 56-44% in the runoff. What was illustrative about the this vote was the racial breakdown between the primary and runoff. Even though Perry improved on his showing in the black precincts from 35-10% to 76-24% in the runoff, his standing in the white precincts plunged from 35-38% in the primary to 20-80% in the runoff (this is where the legal issues clearly hurt). Combine that with the fact that the fact that the runoff electorate was 61-34% white, and you have a situation where white Democrats can compete in New Orleans again. (UPDATED 9/9/2011) Rep. Moreno is allowed to serve three more terms, and was re-elected without opposition in 2011.

New District

Redistricting caused the elimination of several districts in Metro New Orleans, and it didn’t help that District 93 was 29% under populated. Combine that with the fact that you had three non black Democrats representing formerly black majority districts in New Orleans. The way the redistricting puzzle was solved in this part of New Orleans was the elimination of District 95 (represented by recent party convert Walker Hines), since its representative was not seeking re-election. And with Districts 91 (represented by Walk Leger) and 93, the lines were shifted for each district to regain its black majority status.

In the case of District 93, you had a smoothing of the district lines to the portion of the district outside of the Garden District (where the lines were largely kept intact) now includes precincts on both sides of I-10 between the Superdome and Elysian Fields. These changes (which involved trading precincts among four neighboring House districts) increased the black voter registration from 47 to 61%

(UPDATED 9/9/2011) While the reconfigured district was a challenge to Rep. Moreno (in prior races, she did not run strongly in the black precincts), she was re-elected without opposition in 2011, although the 61% black majority creates an electoral base for a black opponent at some point in the future.