INCUMBENT: Franklin Foil (Republican)

DESCRIPTION: House District 70 is located in south Baton Rouge and includes neighborhoods between Highland and Perkins Roads from the south gates of LSU all the way down to the outskirts of the Country Club of Louisiana. The overall tone of this district is upper middle income/white collar professional, although the district also contains the middle income black neighborhood of Mayfair and the lower to middle income black neighborhoods along Gardere Lane.

DISTRICT MAP:

District Map

RED/BLUE RATING (using 2008, 2012, and 2014 elections): 59% Republican

JMCEL’s SUMMARY: The population growth in the southern periphery of East Baton Rouge Parish is best exemplified by House District 70, which has seen a considerable reshuffling of its district lines each time they are redrawn – it once covered all of the southern parts of the parish and even went into Livingston Parish in the 1980s. Today, the district is more compact, and its tone is set by settled neighborhoods like Plantation Trace, Southdowns, Pollard Estates, Kenilworth, and Oak Hills, although there are still pockets of new development like the Rouzan development and subdivisions/apartment complexes rapidly sprouting along Burbank Drive. Politically, this is a Republican district that has been held by Republicans ever since its last representative (Carl Crane) switched to the Republican Party in 1984 as a protest against the massive tax increases that were pushed through the legislature by former governor Edwin Edwards. The Republican tone here, however, is more moderate than in most other Republican held districts, and is a Republicanism focused more on economic than social issues. In fact, this district will vote Democratic if its residents perceive that the Republican candidate is too outspokenly conservative. This political independence is why former Representative Crane more often than not had spirited competition from Democratic opponents between 1987 (the first election cycle after he switched parties) and 1999. Because in addition to the district’s 24% black voter registration, the Democratic voter base also comes from a noticeable and articulate white liberal voter constituency that tends to reside in neighborhoods closer to LSU. Rep. Crane was term limited in 2007, and in a spirited race to succeed him, Republican attorney/Navy veteran Franklin Foil was elected in the runoff against a Republican with 53% of the vote after trailing 40-49% in the primary. He was comfortably re-elected with 77% of the vote in 2011, and is allowed to serve one more term. He shouldn’t have re-election problems, but the Democratic voter base in the district (Barack Obama received 39% of the vote, while 42% supported Mary Landrieu) is something anyone representing the district needs to be cognizant of.