INCUMBENT: David Heitmeier (Democrat)

DESCRIPTION: Senate District 7 is located in the Westbank and includes parts of three parishes: (1) all of the Algiers section of New Orleans except for a few precincts along the Mississippi River directly facing the Riverfront, (2) most of Gretna and Woodmere in Jefferson Parish, and (3) precincts in and around Belle Chasse in Plaquemines Parish. This was a district that has within the past decade become a black majority district.

DISTRICT MAP:

District Map

RED/BLUE RATING (using 2008, 2012, and 2014 elections): 68% Democratic

JMCEL’s SUMMARY: When Republicans first established a presence in the Louisiana Legislature in the 1980s, the bulk of its membership came from metropolitan New Orleans. As time went on, however, some of those districts that were longtime Republican beachheads (particularly those in the city of New Orleans) began to trend Democratic due to a combination of a more decentralized black voting base and a emerging bloc of white liberal voters.

Senate District 7 is one of a handful of state Senate districts that the Democrats actually “recaptured” from the Republicans, and this happened in 1991. The last time the lines were drawn was in 2001, and at that point, 46% of registered voters were black. By the 2010 Census, 53% of the voters were black, and not a single precinct was changed during reapportionment – the district has a 56% black majority today. The black majority gives the district a Democratic voting majority, which is further augmented by a white liberal voter bloc in Algiers that easily outvotes any conservative sentiment in suburbanizing Plaquemines Parish or remaining conservative sentiment in Jefferson Parish.

Legislatively, the Democratic trend here has been reflected in its representation: in 1991, Democratic state representative Francis Heitmeier was easily elected in the primary when a Republican incumbent retired, and he eventually entrenched himself to the point that he was unopposed in his last two re-election races. Term limits ended his Senate tenure in 2007, and his brother David easily defeated a Republican with 63% of the vote in the runoff. Sen. (David) Heitmeier was unopposed in 2011 and is allowed to serve one more term, (REVISED 9/3/2015) although he decided against qualifying for re-election. Given the district’s black voting majority (which is approaching 60%,) there is the potential for a credible black opponent, and it’s worth noting that a black candidate in 2014 was elected to the New Orleans City Council from a district that contains Algiers.