Louisiana lawmakers will begin the process of drawing new congressional maps next week, and for the president of the state senate, the mission is to pass a map that will satisfy the federal courts before the end of the legislative session.
"At the end of the day, the goal is to not get sued again and to finally put this to bed," Sen. Cameron Henry (R-Metairie) said. "We have several bills that we can use. The bills will start in the Senate."
Louisiana Senate President Cameron Henry says six senators prefiled redistricting bills ahead of the session in anticipation of the Supreme Court's decision ruling the state's current congressional districts unconstitutional. Henry told WWL's Tommy Tucker that some legislators in particular are taking an interest in the redistricting process.
"Specifically, the folks that are running for Congress or are interested in running for Congress or are interested in running for Congress are really diving into those (proposals), and we'll see what comes up on Monday or Tuesday," Henry said.
Those proposals, Henry said, will assuredly eliminate at least one of the state's two Democratic districts, both of which have majority-Black populations.
"I think we could have a 5-1 (Republican to Democratic districts) map. We could possibly have a 6-0 map," Henry said. "I think we're going to go back and look at where we started from before we moved (the invalidated map) and start with the 5-1 and see if that would pass (constitutional) muster."
Henry says he anticipates more lawsuits surrounding the congressional elections, lawsuits that could further tie up the election process.
"I believe we'll probably get sued for moving the election. We'll get sued for not moving the Senate election as well, and whatever map we pass will get sued there as well," Henry said. "I can envision this election cycle is going to be very frustrating for voters."
