At 4:25 a.m. Wednesday, following a marathon overnight hearing, a Senate committee approved new Congressional maps for Louisiana, sending the bill to the full Senate.
A bill eliminating one of Louisiana’s two majority-Democratic districts advanced from a Senate committee on a 4-3 vote early Wednesday morning following more than nine hours of testimony, setting the stage for Republican voting majorities in five of the state’s six congressional districts.
The vote, which came at 4:25 a.m. Wednesday, amid a packed hearing room filled with bleary-eyed participants, is the next step in a tense redistricting battle following a Roberts Court "decision" on April 29 declaring one of Louisiana’s two Democratic districts unconstitutional for racial gerrymandering.
The 5-1 map created by Senate Bill 121, authored by GOPer Sen. Jay Morris, was one of two presented to the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. The other bill, SB 407 by Sen. Edward Price, D-Gonzales, which failed on a 4-3 vote, would have maintained two Democratic-majority districts.
