A Baton Rouge lawmaker unloaded on his colleagues in the Louisiana House after his proposal to add a second majority-Black district to the state’s Supreme Court map was tabled without debate. Republican Barry Ivey says he’s learned if legislation doesn’t have the backing of deep-pocketed special interest groups it will not pass…
“We squash debate, we don’t debate issues,” he said. “We have everything preplanned, organized. Look, we’ve got the political machines operating all the time.”
Ivey, who has been in the state legislature since 2013, says it’s unlikely he’ll file another bill.
The major debate in the redistricting session is whether Louisiana should add majority-minority districts to its political maps because the Black population has grown since the 2010 census. The Republican led-Legislature is maintaining the status quo in all the maps that are advancing and Ivey is frustrated…
“It’s about keeping the status quo that’s the most failed status quo in the nation,” said Ivey. “Because we don’t want to upset the apple cart. We don’t want to make a judge upset.”
Ivey says the redistricting session is a microcosm of why the state ranks at the bottom in so many rankings because the House is too stupid to work together…
“I’ve told people this institution is the laziest group of people I’ve ever worked with,” added Ivey. “Because it’s true. Because we’ve got problems everywhere and we don’t want to solve them.”
Alexandria Republican Lance Harris says life does not give you what you want, it gives you what you deserve.
Covington Representative Mark Wright made the motion to table, he says being told by Ivey that the House is stupid, lazy, racist, and corrupt because they vote against his bills is unacceptable and narcissistic. Wright says he made the motion after Ivey couldn’t say how he voted last year on legislation to expand the number of Supreme Court justices. Wright says he couldn’t take Ivey’s bill seriously.
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