The state Senate has approved a new Congressional district map that maintains the status quo and that’s just one majority-minority district. Baton Rouge Senator Cleo Fields authored an amendment that created a second-majority Black voting district by taking voters from Representative Julia Letlow’s 5th district.
“I’m just giving this to show you can do it, I’m showing you that the Voting Rights Act demands it and it’s compact, it’s precise, and complies with the law,” said Fields.
But Fields amendment failed on a party-line vote, 27-12. Republican Slidell Senator Sharon Hewitt says Fields’s proposal would actually dilute the black vote in the two majority-minority districts he’s trying to create.
“And so you can very likely in an attempt to create a second district, you can put the current majority district in jeopardy and end up with no majority representation whatsoever,” said Hewitt.
Black lawmakers argue that 33-percent of the state’s population is African-American, therefore two of the state’s six congressional districts should be majority-minority, if not it violates the Voting Rights Act.
Hewitt disagrees and says a law firm hired by the Legislature has told them that her proposed map is legal. But New Orleans Senator Karen Carter Peterson wanted to know more about this law firm.
Hewitt: “Our lawyers, the lawyers that I’ve spoken to believe that it complies with the Voting Rights Act.”
Peterson: “Do you mind telling me what lawyer told you that?”
Hewitt: “A lawyer with Baker Hostetler.”
Peterson: “Do you mind telling me his or her name?”
Hewitt: “Why does it matter”
Hewitt later identified lawyer at Kate McKnight.
Comments