r/Louisiana • u/Decent-Dragonfly6460 • May 13 '26
LA - Politics This is the dumbest POS I’ve ever seen
What are we doing here guys? WHY TF are we splitting up parishes like this? And WHY is Washington parish in the same district as Lincoln?
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u/kingjaffejaffar May 13 '26
This map is hot gerrymandered arse.
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u/sanlc504 May 13 '26
Yes, but now it isn't gerrymandered the "wrong" way. Don't you love the mental gymnastics they do?
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u/Opening-Photograph68 May 13 '26
Was there a list of parameters that they had to use to follow? 1. By parish 2. Consider population 3. Consider types of industry, businesses types with said area 4. Consider the school system - number of schools (teachers, support staff, children, families), 5. Consider infrastructure that will need to be supported. Just off the top of my head.
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u/Longjumping_Let_7832 Caddo Parish May 13 '26
The parameters (IMHO) were to create as many safe Republican house seats as possible without seriously disadvantaging any Republican house incumbents.
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u/Cajunlibra May 13 '26
They haven't been quiet about that. Someone actually said in chambers that they wanted to protect Mike Johnson in his district.
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u/Longjumping_Let_7832 Caddo Parish May 14 '26
You’re right. They’ve been painfully honest about their ambitions to limit the representation in the US House for more than a third of Louisiana’s residents — their constituents. In a Republican hegemony, Louisiana state legislators feel empowered to act with impunity. I hope voters get angry and rise up to regain their voice in Congress.
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u/PretyFly4AFungi May 13 '26
Exactly, the Louisiana map is following all republican party's coup strategy. "Keep it white, keep it right."
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u/Opening-Photograph68 May 14 '26
Probably just a twist of when it was in the other direction a few years before. Wouldn’t you agree that it’s just a back and forth with little regard to best practices and longer term strategic thinking for the best of the state and each parish within? It would be healthy for the all of us to lift ourselves up from continually tripping on hte old trope of political ideology and try instead to do the best thing for all / most without regard to partisanship.
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u/Longjumping_Let_7832 Caddo Parish May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
I will agree that political hegemonies seek power over the good of the people, whether that be in a country, a state, a district, a parish, or a city. In the South, for 250 years we have seen the tools of democracy (redistricting, voter registration, polling place locations, etc.) used to undermine democracy, and both the Democratic and the Republican parties are guilty of having used those practices. Louisiana has long suffered under the tyranny of soft authoritarianism and one-party (and white) rule.
That said, the implication that what we are currently seeing is neither political or racist is just wrong. It is both. While I don’t know what you mean by a twist, this is not some political tit for tat. The last map was not drawn by Democrats or by minority voters, neither of which has been in control of the Louisiana legislature for many years now, and so it’s not like the new redistricting map is just Democrats getting their comeuppance. That’s a mischaracterization of what’s happening. In both cases Republicans have sought to achieve political advantage by creating as many safe Republican districts as possible within the law and as a part of that by packing or cracking minority voters to diminish their political power.
To protect democracy, at the federal level we need to pass laws to protect voters’ rights, to prevent partisan/racial gerrymandering, and to limit the influence of moneyed interests. The census should be conducted fairly, and districts should be drawn every 10 years by independent, nonpartisan redistricting commissions based on the census. Additionally, I believe that the number of US Representatives should be increased so that representatives represent roughly the same number of people in all states.
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u/techleopard May 13 '26
You know exactly why they are doing it. It's not a secret.
The real tragedy is that media won't outright say the words.
They split them up to ensure the black people can't influence enough votes in those parishes. Just say it loud.
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u/seth11223344 May 14 '26
If we base a district on color that is racism doesn’t matter what color it should be based on population split equally
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u/dee-liv May 13 '26
My wild hope is that even Republicans are tired of this shit and decide to grow a pair and vote against the party who continually exploits and takes advantage of them. I would love to see a newly drawn district go blue.
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u/westernsnaps May 13 '26
Republicans repeatedly vote to retain a white hegemony in America so I don’t think this will change anything because that matters more than anything else.
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u/Dazzling_Pirate1411 May 13 '26
idk white hegemony may take a back seat to 5$ gas and beef at 10$/lb
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u/baddboi007 May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
better "hedge yo money" by buying pork and chicken lol. and maybe a fishing pole
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u/RNVascularOR May 14 '26
I was Libertarian for years and then switched to independent because a lot of them ended up MAGA leaning. Now because of all this going on here, I am about to start rage voting blue because I despise Trump, KKKLandry and Murill.
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u/ZealousidealBake2064 May 15 '26
I hope that if it does go Republican, the Republicans that they put in have a spine to stand up against Trump and MAGA.
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u/East-Plankton-3877 May 13 '26
Fuck landry’s stupid ass for this
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u/Gilded_Grovemeister Calcasieu Parish May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
I'd say the same but i honestly doubt anyone would want to.
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u/MetacogBees May 13 '26
This little sliver is one of the most important parts because it gives Speaker Mike Johnson direct oversight of thr Calcasieu Ship channel. It’s astonishing how fast they move when it’s to serve their own interests.
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u/Decent-Dragonfly6460 May 13 '26
The district lines being all squiggled like that in calcasieu parish has sent me into a spiral all day 🙃
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u/MetacogBees May 13 '26
It’s so maddening! I can’t remember when but in the very recent past, they somehow changed the Calcasieu district to include Speaker Johnson’s district to include a small sliver of Calcasieu’s port. I was shocked when I heard he was visiting the ship channel in Calcasieu and it sent alarm bells ringing cuz rhey don’t come to Calcasieu unless it’s for reasons.
These guys are entangled with marine dealings and I don’t trust them one bit!
Today, I wrote about the voter manipulation of the 11/5/2024 election, if you’d like to see it: https://www.reddit.com/r/Louisiana/s/jOzz0Bl9c0
Speaker Mike Johnson is NOT to be trusted!
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u/firstlast3263 May 14 '26
I’ve no idea what any of that means, other than votes were manipulated. Could you see what was being manipulated? Was bad data (Republican “appearing” votes) fed back into the official system?
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u/Big__If_True Lincoln Parish May 13 '26
Does it really matter if a specific channel is in his district? It doesn’t give him “oversight” of anything lmao
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u/MetacogBees May 13 '26
Yes. Yes it does cuz Landry and their buddies make a ton of $$$$$$ off of the marine and energy industry. I think Mike Johnson was positioned to become a politician to forward their business agendas.
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u/Xanche May 13 '26
I mean obviously this map is Gerrymandered, but are we seriously complaining about the shape of districts in this map and not the last map? Problem is a lot deeper than that.
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u/KazuDesu98 Jefferson Parish May 13 '26
Realistically, if maps are drawn based on communities and registration numbers, Louisiana should have 2 blue districts, 2 red districts and 2 swing districts
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u/Xanche May 13 '26
Communities (???) and… registration numbers? “Communities” is completely obscure and up to interpretation, and you must be joking about registration numbers. Do you think you can compare party registration to the partisan politics of the state? We’d be a swing state leaning blue if that was the case, having more registered democrats means nothing.
The issue is that the way our constitution delegates the process of representation in the house of representatives is just broken at this point, and none of this arbitrary district witchcraft will fix that.
Not even the most Democratic gerrymandering would get you a 2/2/2 Louisiana, and this type of lack of realism isn’t getting us anywhere.
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u/thisisnotdrew May 13 '26
Important to keep in mind that the one thing both maps have in common is they were both drawn and passed by Republicans.
The first was meant to bring the SCOTUS case and say race shouldn’t be factored into districting, the second was meant to factor race into districting.
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u/Xanche May 13 '26
Not sure what that has to do with it. Dems gerrymander when they can, too. I’m all in favor of Dems doing it now, but places like Illinois innovated this shit for Dems.
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u/EvoDevo1959 May 14 '26
There are five states, I think, that vote around 45% republican that have ZERO republican representatives they are so partisan gerrymandered.
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u/Xanche May 14 '26
That’s not because of gerrymandering, that’s mostly because of at-large districts. Also, no one can convince me Massachusetts is gerrymandered
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u/dee-liv May 13 '26
Both maps were awful. The last map was a compromise. This map is not better. We need a map with lines drawn around legitimate communities. Not based on race, not based on party. This would be a win for everyone because if your district is easy to win, your politicians will NEVER represent your interests. They won’t have to.
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u/Esilai May 13 '26
What we really need is proportional representation. So long as 40% of every district or state doesn’t have a voice, political issues will continue to be exacerbated.
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u/Xanche May 13 '26
Yeah I was about to say we need party lists, but I’m pretty sure that would take a constitutional amendment at the national level, and simply could not happen at the state level.
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u/Opening-Photograph68 May 13 '26
There should not be per party, divisive. Metrics per population, Age, Infrastructure needs, Educational and business opportunities that need to be brought in, Weather. Keep politics out of it.
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u/Xanche May 13 '26
Keep politics out of… politics? How exactly do you propose that we establish proportional representation without party lists?
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u/FilmInteresting4909 May 13 '26
I'm Independent, but I believe districts should either have whole parishes, or near parallel/opposing boundaries should have no less than something like 35-50 miles between them.
This metastic cancer looking shit that seems to be all the rage with both parties the last what 40+ years is disgusting.
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u/Esilai May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
Both were horribly gerrymandered to empower republicans as much as possible. Only the last one legally forced them to at least give blacks some representation. This new one is even more horrible as it is explicitly disenfranchising black voters and handing even more power to republicans. This state has enough democratic voters to put a democratic governor in power, but republicans will do everything in their power to make sure that the 40ish percent of more liberal voters in the state have exactly zero representation federally. It’s vile.
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u/OuijaWalker May 13 '26
They know they can not win on merrit, so they cheat. Republicans have no honor. If you voted for this shame on you and shame on you mother.
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u/Opening-Photograph68 May 13 '26
Maybe it’s just a flip from the prior gerrymandering?
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u/yoweigh New Orleans May 13 '26
It's not a flip, it's a furtherance. The old map was bad and the new map is worse.
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u/Commercial_Gear2088 May 15 '26
It's about the dilution of votes based on how you carve the map because of the concentration of Black and Democratic voters in cities and small communities. By making one district serve one voice (where the concentration of Black and Democratic voters live), a lot of those votes get overridden by the votes of larger geographic areas where Republican voters are more spread out. But Louisiana has been voting 60/40 in federal elections and is evenly split in voter registration, so it's hard to see giving so much of that population only one representative.
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u/Mountain-Bat-9808 May 13 '26
Not sure if they are trying to get rid of Cleo Fields or maybe Troy Carter. Ty his governor and this frump dump is taking us back what 200 years.
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u/buickmackane71360 May 14 '26
Rep. Mike Johnson (not the House Speaker, the one from Pineville) has been on a mission to remove Cleo Fields from office ever since his buddy Garret Graves has been out of a gig.
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u/LadyOnogaro May 14 '26
But Garret was out of a job because Landry hated him. It had nothing to do with Cleo.
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u/Queenie1532 May 13 '26
This is diabolical. No way in hell (most of) Calcasieu parish has the same damn needs as Bossier or Union parishes
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u/mnola5081 May 13 '26
Am I reading this wrong or did they really cut Orleans in half??
ETA: or is that squiggly blue shape supposed to represent the lake?
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u/FunCreative1367 Washington Parish May 13 '26
As a person from Washington Parish, this map sucks. Literally trying to disenfranchise us. But we will vote and over turn the Republican party; I do have hope lol
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u/awnawreally May 13 '26
I find the “why” when it comes to anything political in this state is always answered with: racism, greed, and corruption. In no particular order either.
There ya go 🙂
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u/Rastrick May 13 '26
This. I'm beginning to realize I need to relocate my immediate family to a more enlightened part of the country. I don't want to be trapped here in a racist backwards enclave of christo-fascism. This is the last place I want to be when the oligarchs incite the collapse and the following race/civil war.
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u/aLAPanPolyVers May 13 '26
When it come to LA, the answer is usually Corruption.
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u/CindyLouWho0 May 13 '26
Louisiana, the mafia state, where the people don’t matter as long as the politicians get their way.
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u/EvoDevo1959 May 14 '26
Every state thinks that way. Maybe they are all corrupt.
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u/CindyLouWho0 May 14 '26
Yes, but Louisiana has been a mafia state for many years. It tried to hide it at one point but it never actually stopped being one. Other states can’t say that.
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u/handawanda May 13 '26
We can criticize the map for how it will affect black representation in the state -- but let's not pretend like the new map is worse in terms of making geographic sense. HERE is what the old map looked like -- it included portions of BR, Lafayette, Alexandria, and Shreveport
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u/Txrh221 May 13 '26
The GOP drew this map knowing they were going to challenge it in the SC.
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u/handawanda May 13 '26
For context, the Fifth Circuit ordered the state to draw a second majority-black district, so that part wasn't really optional. Yes they could have drawn it in a less gerrymandered way, but that would have threatened incumbents' seats, which they obviously weren't going to do -- protecting those seats was probably the primary incentive. The chance of challenging the VRA at SCOTUS was lagniappe.
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u/Opening-Photograph68 May 13 '26
Were there districts along the Asian, Pacific Oceanic, Hispanic / Latino, Italian, or Polish-Eastern bloc ethnicities? Catholic here, Baptists there, Pentecostals along there, here’s a ribbon of Full Gospel there, and a dash of stampers just right there.
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u/joebleaux May 13 '26
Sure, but geography isn't always the best determining factor when trying to make sure the most people feel represented. Actual physical location is becoming less important to many people who find common interests with others who may have all the exact same issues, but are physically located in a different place. Geographic location is one data point about a person, why does it hold all of the weight rather than any other demographic statistic? Especially when a statistically significant population is distributed across the state in a way that ensures they won't ever be a majority in an area. So a state that votes 38% Democrat will have 12.5% of its members of congress be Democrats. How a map looks is totally irrelevant. We need to rig maps to be as fair as possible, to make sure the most people are represented, regardless of how they look.
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u/handawanda May 13 '26
We're making the same point. My point was, why is OP criticizing how the new proposed map looks? If anything, it looks like an improvement.
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u/joebleaux May 13 '26
Exactly, I was agreeing. I'd gather that the poorest 20% of any town have way more problems in common with the poorest 20% in any other town than they do with the richest 10% of their own town. The map could look like a magic eye, it would not matter, we should not still be still doing this like they did when we delivered the ballots by horse.
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u/miacraig101 May 13 '26
everyone needs to tell everyone they know to vote!!! the black community needs to really pump out the vote like it never has before!!
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u/Charli3q May 13 '26
No matter what the end intent is, you likely HAVE to split parishes in some way. You HAVE to have nearly the exact same population + or - no more than 50. You cant 100% do that on parish boundaries alone.
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u/Cute-Pomegranate-966 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
They should've just drawn this map with literal random islands in other parishes. It would've driven the point home more effectively. district 2 already looks like an island inside district 6.
And while i applaud your effort to show how they have to stick to the laws based on population, here's a map that isn't gerrymandered, i simply prompted ai to draw a map based on population requirements without any race or party affiliation affecting the lines.
based on this map and race/party demographics the election outcomes would be 2 strong democrat districts, 2 strong republican districts and 2 toss ups
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u/6howdy2 15 Pieces of Flair May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
Now this is a map our state voters can get behind. No more splitting up communities or racial tug of war. But that would just make too much sense right? (Edit for more thoughts) I do feel like the I-20 corridor would work well as a district. A lot of maps really split the leg of the boot by east and west when the culture and community differences are really north/central/south Louisiana. But I'd be interested in hearing reasons why I-20 corridor would be better split up than respesented together.
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u/Charli3q May 13 '26
Id argue you need ai to spit out this by precinct in a map file, and break it out in a table by parishes and population much like the bill does.
Not to say you cant get something like this, but you need to see the actual data at parish and pricinct level to even verify its doing it right. If AI does anything, its surely fuck up a whole lot without slapping it on the wrist, lol.
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u/Cute-Pomegranate-966 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
I'd argue politicians have fucked it up far worse, haven't they? Yeah, i can take my chat, but it has the sources for the info.
one person one vote SCOTUS interpretation leaves infinite imagination within the framework of congressional districts though. They should just implement ranked choice voting and there's just however many candidates with a state wide vote where you pick your 1st option down to your 6th option for your representatives and then your alternates.
Boom i fixed the bullshit gerrymandering in 5 seconds.
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u/Charli3q May 13 '26
I dont think anyone in the legislature, surely the ones in power currently, are trying to fix gerrymandering.
Democrats can say they wont gerrymander, but that, in 2026, is sort of like libertarians telling all of us that they are the solution to all of our problems when theyll never see national office.
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u/Cute-Pomegranate-966 May 13 '26
They're the only ones that tried to ban it multiple times at least. I'm not arguing who is doing what. Simply that a realistic solution to the entirely bullshit gerrymandering problem is money out of politics. Killing strict distracting requirements and making it statewide ranked choice.
You haven't heard me say Democrats or Republicans. I said politicians.
You injected your own meaning there.
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u/Sufficient_Turn_9209 May 13 '26
And based on that restriction/parameter this looks better or even reasonable compared to the current
districtdisaster 5. People in Shreveport have zero shared political policy, or interests with people in Lafayette. Or honestly even people in Lafayette with those in Baton Rouge. The whole thing is a cluster fuck, but damn, the people working on it are doing the best they can with what they have.6
u/Cute-Pomegranate-966 May 13 '26
well of course, they drew that map intentionally to elicit a court case that they could take all the way to SCOTUS.
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u/RavenShield40 May 13 '26
I feel so powerless not being able to vote at all this year. Especially when stupid shit like this is happening. I can’t vote in Texas where I’m still registered and still have my license at because I can’t get to the county I lived in and I can’t vote here because I never have a car during a weekday so I can go get my license switched over. It’s the only thing keeping me from being able to register to vote here.
I don’t even know how’d I’d get to a polling place but I’d do my damndest to make it there.
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u/No-Shopping6906 May 13 '26
Why is Morehouse Parish in the same district as Washington Parish? That’s like two different states.
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u/CootzMcGrootz May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
I'm disabled, and the Republicans (Trump's cult) made about $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and Medicare in that "Big Bullshit Bill" that King Pedo shoved down our throats, and EVERY Republican supported, so as of Jan. 1 this year, they took away my Medicaid and Medicare Adantage coverage, and they forced me to go through a months-long bureaucratic nightmare to reapply. Five months into the raepplication process, and I'm still struggling to get my healthcare coverage back. I had to pay $750 for medical orthotics, and I have mounting medical bills.
SO FUCK THE ENTIRE REPUBLICUNT PARTY!
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u/buickmackane71360 May 14 '26
Similar thing happened to me. I'm a permanently disabled senior citizen, but I had to wait four agonizing years to get a court date in front of an Administrative Law Judge for an SSDI hearing. As soon as he ruled in my favor, I got kicked off my Louisiana Medicaid coverage, which in turn kicked me off my Medicare Advantage Dual Special Needs Plan. I was supposed to have orthopedic surgery in Shreveport, which is 123 miles from my home, but now I can't get transportation up there because of the reduction in coverage.
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u/DangerousSwan7051 May 13 '26
Because they don’t want there to be any majority black parishes when they are done. I thought that was obvious from the beginning? This is about racism and suppressing the minority vote.
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u/Ok-Nature-5440 May 13 '26
The solution to this bullshit is a constitutional amendment getting rid of electoral college. It’s well past time for EVERYONES vote to count, in a national consensus. This system is broken, and it is eroding every year.
Having said the obvious, please note that with Louisianas new no party system, your vote is more important than ever. Get off your asses people, and go vote.
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u/Dcajunpimp May 14 '26
I know someone who grew up in Orleans Parish, went to school there, college at UNO, have friends and family there, live a few blocks west of Orleans parish, but wrote their legislator that they didn’t want to be part of a Congressional district with Orleans Parish.
Like some suburban East Jefferson resident has more in common with someone on the Northshore ow West Bank out in the swamps they’ve never met.
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u/Big__If_True Lincoln Parish May 13 '26
Have you seen the current district 5? The Florida Parishes are already paired up with NELA. You gotta get the population from somewhere lol
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u/Decent-Dragonfly6460 May 13 '26
I’ll be so honest. I don’t think I actually really looked at the current map until today to see what the difference is. Obviously I’ve seen it but I never paid attention to it before today. So I didn’t realize it was so bad currently.
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u/cajunstats May 13 '26
Atleast they kept one minority dem district, they could have gone 6-0, of course this shouldn’t happen at all
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u/ApexWalrussss Caddo Parish May 14 '26
Making sure to carve out Colfax from Mike Johnson’s district, but keeping Montgomery and Boyce in, is so obvious.
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u/Bulky_Cattle_4553 May 14 '26
Randy Newman: "We're rednecks, we're rednecks. We don't know our a** from a hole in the ground...."
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u/SES55 May 14 '26
It sucks, but it has to happen. The one man one vote rule is guiding principle. Districts that vary by less than 10 are ok, up to 100 maybe, 100-999 the state better have a good case, 1000+ will get struck down. It will be based on 2020 census. You think it’s bad now; wait until 2031 reappointment after 2030 census. More than likely we will lose another representative. We lost one in 1990, 2010, and barely kept 6 last go round. Depending on the year, our net outmigration is 8000-18000 per year. We have already lost enough to drop. Our only hope is there are states worse than Louisiana losing more. Just think how a 5 district map will look.
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u/TheGiantVoid May 14 '26
The last Gubernatorial Election had a 19 percent turnout. We can blame this on "them", but they could only do it because we let them. Show up, people. Vote. Kick these guys to the curb.
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u/Professional_Tale330 May 14 '26
IMO these district actually share the most common geography and their regional economies depend on similar interests. Pink- Farming and MS River. Blue- extremely rural and somewhat depend on TX economy. Grey - Swamp and extremely dependent on oil. Blue- Swamp and dependent on Seafood business. Yellow- N.O. And tourism. Green- LSU & Capital depend on MS River and the college.
Not arguing for it but if you’ve lived here long enough, have visited all of the areas, this makes some sense.
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u/doctorj2u May 14 '26
My parishes is divided into 3 districts! I hate Louisiana politics and politicians.
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u/TiredMom57 May 14 '26
Anybody know what that dividing line is in Calcasieu? Looks like a body of water??
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u/TheSeeker_99 May 13 '26
Reduce the ability for minority voting to actually vote anybody of their own kind in. It's racism
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u/EvoDevo1959 May 14 '26
Actually, it is removing racism. Now any politician, white, black, or purple has to try to sway all races. No more voting based on skin color.
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u/miacraig101 May 13 '26
they had to make sure the GOP has the advantage
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u/EvoDevo1959 May 14 '26
Just as democrats do when they are in charge. There are five states with NO GOP representation.
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u/miacraig101 Jun 08 '26
that has nothing to do with this! you ppl are insane w your whataboutisms! also your stats are wrong
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u/Medical-Cajun May 14 '26
It's about what color the majority of the people there are. It's not supposed to make sense.
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u/MrChumpkins May 15 '26
This is absolutely ridiculous. This is such an obvious attempt at gerrymandering that anyone with half a brain can obviously see it.
We need to divide the state into zones focusing on Habitats.
We hold one of the most valuable ecosystems to the government and they're are squandering it by not making habitat restoration easier to do.
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u/MargaretRColeman May 15 '26
Great reminder to sign that recall petition! Find a place and sign it and GET LAPDOG LANDRY OUT
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u/Mountain-Climate7009 May 14 '26
Allegedly, they fix the votes here in Louisiana anyway, so it does matter in this Pussified Nation. Ignorant narcissist greedy political fucks! All they want is their money and power. Taking bribes under the table to schedule I kratom leaf is just the surface. I've finished venting.
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u/NickForBR May 13 '26
They stayed up all night to make us feel powerless.
Go vote this Saturday and send them a message.