In this installment, we would like to discuss the changes to House and Senate districts in the Florida Parishes with the strong caveat that there may still be last minute changes to the lines by either chamber. There is also the ever present possibility of a gubernatorial veto, and the Justice Department could still reject […]
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RSS feed for this sectionLouisiana Legislative Redistricting 2011 – Introduction
Every 10 years, states are required to redraw the districts lines for federal, state, and local officeholders. Because Louisiana is one of four states (Virginia, New Jersey, and Mississippi are the others) to have legislative elections this year, redistricting of legislative districts takes on an added urgency this year.
Congressional Redistricting in Louisiana – a modest proposal
The loss of a Congressional seat in Louisiana has complicated the redistricting picture. We have considered the “will of the people” as reported by the media in public/committee hearings, and as such, we have a Congressional reapportionment plan that attempts to please as many of the critics as possible. Specifically, we have heard the following feedback:
Louisiana legislative special elections – GOP controls both houses
Race analysis Tonight, a special election in Acadiana gave the GOP control of both houses of the Louisiana for the first time since Reconstruction. State Representative Jonathan Perry (R-Kaplan) was victorious over Democrat and police juror Nathan Granger by a 52-48% margin, despite Granger’s having a significant financial advantage. This victory was especially impressive, considering […]
The “Obama plunge”, 2012 edition
Last fall, the GOP scored a historic 63 seat gain in the House (picking up 66 Democratic seats while losing 3 Republican seats). We had predicted this political earthquake as far back as the upset victory of Scott Brown in Massachusetts a year ago, using a set of criteria called the “Obama plunge” (explained in […]
Some thoughts about redistricting
Yesterday, the Census released information detailing how the House of Representatives is to be apportioned between the states. To no one’s surprise, Louisiana is slated to lose one of its its seven House districts, due to lower than normal population growth that has been occurring since the 1980s.
2010 Midterm results: Part 6(C) – Another way of looking at U.S. House races
Now that the last House race (a Democratic held seat in New York that narrowly stayed in the Democratic column) has been settled, the House will now have 242 Republicans and 193 Democrats, which means that the GOP gained a net of 63 seats. We would like to revisit the issue of the Democrats’ hopes […]
2010 Midterm results: Part 6(B) – 2012 Presidential Race
In our prior posting about the House races, we briefly analyzed the 2012 Presidential race through the lens of the electoral behavior of each state during midterm elections. We noted that “….At a minimum, the states which voted for McCain in 2008 are very unlikely to switch to Obama in 2012. States in the interior […]
2010 Midterm results: Part 6 – U.S. House races
From the Republicans’ perspective, the “crown jewel” of the 2010 midterm elections was the recapture, by a significant margin, of the U.S. House of Representatives. This house of Congress has been under Democratic control since 2007, and since 1955 has been Democratic controlled for 44 of the last 56 years. Few pundits, however, have bothered to delve into […]
2010 Midterm results: Part 4 – Louisiana Senate race
The seemingly eternal Senate race that started in the summer of 2009 between David Vitter and Charlie Melancon has finally ended, and the verdict of the voters was clear: anything that smacked of President Obama and/or his Democratic policies was soundly rejected in most parts of state. While Senator Vitter always maintained double digit leads […]