This piece in Roll Call mentions a couple of potential candidates on both sides to replace Charlie Melancon, who looks all but set to challenge Sen. David Vitter. It got James and me thinking: Why not take a look at all the state legislators whose districts are covered, either in whole or in part, by LA-03? So, after poring over maps and sifting through precinct results, we’ve come up with two lists – one for state senators, the other for state reps.
| Senator | Party | District | Parish(es) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crowe, A.G. | R | 1 | Plaquemines, St. Bernard |
| Heitmeier, David | D | 7 | Jefferson, Plaquemines |
| Alario, John | D | 8 | Jefferson |
| Amedee, Jody | D | 18 | Ascension, St. James, St. John the Baptist |
| Chaisson, Joel | D | 19 | Lafourche, St. Charles, St. John the Baptist |
| Dupre, Reggie | D | 20 | Lafourche, Terrebonne |
| Gautreaux, Butch | D | 21 | Assumption, Lafourche, St. Martin, St. Mary, Terrebonne |
| Hebert, Troy | D | 22 | Iberia, St. Martin |
| Representative | Party | District | Parish(es) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Badon, Bobby | D | 39 | St. Martin |
| Mills, Fred | D | 46 | St. Martin |
| Barras, Taylor | D | 48 | Iberia |
| Champagne, Simone | D | 49 | Iberia |
| Jones, Sam | D | 50 | Iberia, St. Martin, St. Mary |
| Harrison, Joe | R | 51 | Assumption, St. Mary, Terrebonne |
| Dove, Gordon | R | 52 | Lafourche, Terrebonne |
| Baldone, Damon | D | 53 | Lafourche, Terrebonne |
| Gisclair, Jerry | D | 54 | Jefferson, Lafourche |
| Richard, Jerome | I | 55 | Lafourche |
| Smith, Gary | D | 56 | St. Charles, St. John the Baptist |
| Monica, Nickie | R | 57 | St. James, St. John the Baptist |
| Aubert, Elton | D | 58 | Ascension, Assumption, St. James, St. John the Baptist |
| Lambert, Eddie | R | 59 | Ascension |
| St. Germain, Karen | D | 60 | Ascension, Assumption |
| Connick, Patrick | R | 84 | Jefferson |
| Smiley, Mert | R | 88 | Ascension |
| Willmott, Thomas | R | 92 | Jefferson |
| Henderson, Reed | D | 103 | St. Bernard |
| Hutter, Nita | R | 104 | St. Bernard |
| Wooton, Ernest | R | 105 | Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Charles |
Note that some of these legislative districts are only partly within LA-03, and therefore some of these folks might not even live in the 3rd CD and/or may only represent a tiny slice of it. Interestingly, despite this area’s conservative bent, it’s represented by quite a few Democrats at the state level. This isn’t an uncommon phenomenon in many parts of the South (look at AL-05 in 2008, for instance), so hopefully this means we have something of a bench to look to here.
Of course, these lists don’t include countless other elected officials, prominent figures, and wealthy dudes who might make a run. But they are a good starting point – former state legislators make up over half of the House (PDF). So if you know anything about any of these folks, please let us know in comments.
RaceTracker: LA-03
Thanks for this information.
I feel the logical next step for SSPers is state-level races, especially as they relate to redistricting. I’ve been considering trying to make a redistricting plan for House, State Senate and State House races, but am still trying to decide upon a state that’s suitable for a test case (ie small, with Democratic control of redistricting, and preferably one where the lines can be moved about.)
Since state legislators decide the process and are at least as concerned about protecting themselves as about remapping it at a federal level, I think this is where we have the most potential – although it’s probably also the area where Maptitude is farthest ahead of Dave’s Redistricting App, since it contains more precinct data.
Does anybody have a suggestion where a good state to try this would be? I was considering Michigan, but with my work ethic that’s likely to take months, and it’ll be problematic because I don’t know the political culture of the individual regions. And is anybody else working on something similar already?
But that doesn’t mean that there are a lot of Democrats that most Democrats would want in DC. Some of these people could become Southern Republicans (like, for example, Wooton did IIRC) and you might not notice any difference in them. So let’s not propose nominating people like Smith and Baldone.
The people who I assume could most easily raise the money here and who have at least okay voting records would be Chaisson and Alario. But Chaisson is busy as Senate President, and given the great power he has had in the state (a former House Speaker who after 30-something years there recently moved to the Senate) I don’t know that Alario would be particularly interested in leaving Baton Rouge.
Butch Gautreaux might be a possibility. I think he’s moved fairly far to the right in recent years – but those on the left (or economic conservatives) might appreciate that years ago he was the only senator to vote against funding to paint “God Bless America” and the US flag on the top of the Superdome.
I don’t know much about senators Dupre and Amedee or most of the House members.
is certainly a great name for gettuing the cajun and bubba votes:)
Bobby Boucher. Waterboy extraordinaire ;). But really…he cant be any more dumb than Diaper Dave ;).
that don’t follow state politics much, (one reason why there’s no transparecny almost), I know little about most of these people. Joel Chaisson is the perfect candidate, and his Senate district covers some of toughest parts of the district.