BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Multiple congressional maps were brought up in the House and Governmental Affairs Committee on Thursday as representatives made another push to create a second majority-minority district. But there was a lot of scrutiny around the data that led to their conclusions of how the districts would vote in future elections.
There have been multiple calls by Republicans to see the data groups like the NAACP Legal Defense Fund are using to prove a second majority-minority congressional district would perform.
“I think it would be helpful for the committee if we had an opportunity to analyze exactly the same types of data that you used to analyze to help make our decision as well,“ Rep. John Stefanski said.
Representatives pushed back saying the nonprofit has limited resources and funding. They urged the opposition to do their own analysis to prove their belief that a second would not elect a candidate of their choice.
The NAACP Legal Defense Fund used information from recent races like the Secretary of State, the gubernatorial race, and presidential elections. It is all public record information and Louisiana is one of the few states that gather voter information broken down by race.
“But that makes that data even more robust to plug into these formulas, these calculations that again are not secret, they’re widely accepted by courts,” said Victoria Wegner, attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. “So all of that is certainly available. I think we’ve provided how our expert has analyzed it. We’d welcome anyone that you’re working with to analyze it as well.”
Passionate speeches were given around the background of the state’s previous efforts to stifle Black voters with various suppression efforts. Advocates urged the lawmakers to allow even the debate of a second map option to go to the full House for debate.
“Which side did you stand on? And don’t allow another 149 years of pain and trauma. Go on,” said Davante Lewis, director of Public Affairs and Outreach for the LA Budget Project.
Each of the maps filed by Democrats looked to create a second majority-minority district. They claim with two-thirds of the state being Black, then two of the six congressmen should be able to be the candidate of choice by minorities.
Representative C. Denise Marcelle argued New Orleans and Baton Rouge should be in separate districts since they are different demographics. It was a common comment brought up in the legislative redistricting roadshow.
“I think it would be unconscionable of us to vote in a different manner, to not even allow these types of bills to be heard where there is another choice,” Rep. Marcelle said.
In the end, the democratic congressional maps failed in committee. Two more congressional bills by Democrats will be heard Friday.
On the House floor, HB1 was debated — which is the Speaker of the House’s congressional map. It does not create a new majority-minority district and sticks close to the “traditional boundaries” of the districts as they are now. Rep. Marcelle pushed Rep. Tanner Magee to answer if there was an attempt to make another minority district at all. He said there were many efforts to draw different lines but could not present a draft where a second minority district was attempted by the leadership. In the end, HB1 passed the House with a vote of 70-33.