INCUMBENT: Jeff Arnold (Democrat)

DESCRIPTION: House District 102 is a Westbank district located in the Algiers section of New Orleans (Algiers is what you see when you look across the river from downtown New Orleans), and it contains all of Algiers except for three precincts off General DeGaulle.

DISTRICT MAP:

District Map

RED/BLUE RATING (using 2008, 2012, and 2014 elections): 79% Democratic

JMCEL’s SUMMARY: House District 102 (like several other House districts) is an anomaly: while it has a solid (66%) black voter registration and has a noticeable white liberal constituency, it has elected politically ambitious white Democrats for years whose occupants tend to move on to other offices. Since 2002, it has elected (and re-elected) Democrat Jeff Arnold with at least 61% of the vote – he was re-elected with 81% of the vote in 2011. Rep. Arnold is term limited this year; it’ll be interesting to see whether another white Democrat succeeds him, given that in last year’s New Orleans City Council races, a black Democrat was elected here, and she received 64% of the vote from District 102 precincts.