Jeffrey Schwartz / CC
BATON ROUGE – Lawmakers failed to pass a congressional map with two Black majority districts despite a June 20th court-ordered deadline. Political Analyst Bernie Pinsonat believes the Republican majority legislature is counting on the appeals court to approve their current map with only one Black majority district.
“I think the legislature is gambling on the 5th Circuit will eventually give them what they want. I’m not so sure they’re worried about their image right now, most of the Republican voters in the state are probably with them,” said Pinsonat.
Five different congressional maps were filed in the special session and two of the maps sponsored by Democrats, failed to make it out of committee after hours of emotional pleas from Black lawmakers.
The one map that did go to the floor with two Black-majority districts by Port Allen Republican Senator Rick Ward did not have enough votes to pass in the Senate. Pinsonat said Republicans are rolling on the dice on the appeals court ruling scheduled for July.
“But the appeals court I guess is what the ultimate goal is, it has to be,” said Pinsonat.
The Senate did debate Ward’s bill for two hours, but the map did not have the minimum 20 votes needed to advance. Even though a third of the state’s population is Black, Pinsonat said in reality is difficult to map out a second district that’s 52 to 56% majority Black.
“Which is really close when you have 52, 54, 56%, then you could actually have a Black congressman who could lose as we saw with Joseph Cao years ago,” said Pinsonat.
Because the legislature failed to meet the June 20th deadline issued by U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick, she’s ordered attorneys to submit maps for her to consider for a June 29th hearing. Pinsonat said but a map chosen by Dick could be overturned if the appeals court approves the map Republicans approved in February.
“This is a Republican state. The Republicans are digging in, the federal judge is digging in and where this ends up, I don’t think anyone has the slightest clue right now,” said Pinsonat.
Governor Edwards issued a statement that said, “It is disappointing that after every opportunity to do the right thing and create a second majority African-American Congressional district as ordered by the U.S. Court for the Middle District, the Legislature has once again failed to do so.”
Edwards also pointed out the irony of the legislature’s failure to approve a map with two Black majority districts on the anniversary of Juneteenth.
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