Once the governor and congressmen got out of the way, a new congressional district map emerged on the final day of the special session and was approved, over the standing objections of the Black Caucus and the howls of Lafourche and Terrebonne parish lawmakers. To keep two north-south districts demanded by the governor, bill author Rep. Erich Ponti, R-Baton Rouge, resolved nagging problems in Acadiana and the Florida Parishes by fixing the pain on the two big coastal parishes, putting Houma in the 1st and Thibodaux in the 6th. Congressman Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, gets 50,000 new constituents in Lafourche and 42,000 in Terrebonne, and Congressman Steve Scalise, R-Metairie, gets 46,000 and 69,000, respectively.
—Sen. David Vitter has long been a critic of the planned $1.2 billion state hospital in New Orleans, which is strongly supported by Gov. Bobby Jindal. But this week he took a shot at the project where it could hurt most, writing to ask the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to deny federal insurance of $300 million in bonds the state hopes to sell to complete the financing. Politically, some see the senator’s intensified opposition as payback for Jindal’s passing on endorsing Vitter last year. If the University Medical Center does as advertised, especially as a job-developing engine, it could be Jindal’s most tangible legacy. If not, Vitter has served notice who will be blamed.
They said it: “I started voting with the governor two weeks ago, and they haven’t won a vote since.” —Sen. Robert Adley, R-Benton
(John Maginnis publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com.)
