Senators have rejected a congressional redesign plan backed by Gov. Bobby Jindal that would maintain two north Louisiana-based seats and instead backed a competing version at odds with the map approved by the House. With a week left in the special redistricting session, the Senate and House bills to divvy up the state’s six congressional districts take vastly different approaches.
The House voted Monday to maintain the current two north Louisiana-based districts, one anchored in Shreveport and the other containing Monroe and Alexandria. The Senate voted 23-15 today to reconfigure them into a north Louisiana district stretching along Interstate 20 and including Shreveport and Monroe and a central Louisiana district—in a map pushed by Senate President Joel Chaisson, D-Destrehan. Earlier, a bill by Sen. Neil Riser, R-Columbia, which would maintain the two northern districts, failed in a 19-20 vote.
