Politics of Louisiana
Encyclopedia
Politics in Louisiana has always been a controversial yet interesting combination. Since statehood, Louisiana has been a traditionally conservative state full of middle-class whites and African Americans. According to a CNN
poll, about 40 percent of Louisiana voters are still politically conservative.
Louisiana has been a marginally liberal state for decades, because of New Orleans and the state's large black population. Marginal is a good description, because Democrats have won statewide elections over the years, but sometimes by narrow margins.
and a concomitant reaction against cultural liberalism, the Republican Party
gained strength in the conservative suburb
s of New Orleans and Baton Rouge and for a time in Caddo Parish. The GOP
over a long period of time drew increasing support among rural
voters elsewhere, including parts of North Louisiana and Southeast Louisiana. These patterns follow trends in other southern states as white control of state Democratic Party structures weakened and the region became more diverse and more prone to adopt the two-party behavior characteristic of most the nation.
The political balance in Louisiana will likely be affected by the post-Hurricane Katrina
exodus from New Orleans. Heavily Democratic New Orleans lost much of its population, and many of the former residents have not returned. The overall effect likely reduces Democrats' base of support in the state and could make Louisiana a Republican-leaning state in the future. Nevertheless, Democratic Lieutenant Governor
Mitch Landrieu
was elected overwhelmingly as mayor of New Orleans in February 2010.
Even in the early 20th century, Louisiana had a pocket of Republican strength centered about the sugar parishes west of New Orleans, where farmers favored the GOP
's position on protective tariffs. According to The Louisiana Elections of 1960, whose authors include the late Louisiana State University
sociologist Perry H. Howard
, from 1920, the year of the election of Warren G. Harding
as U.S. President until 1956, the reelection of Dwight D. Eisenhower
, "a number of parishes, many in close proximity, have consistently supported the Republican party at close to or significantly above the presidential Republican vote average. Apart from some of the urbanized parishes, the majority of these parishes are in south Louisiana; in fact, they form a cluster in the sugar cultivation area west of the Atchafalaya
swamp and along Bayou Lafourche
and the Mississippi River
below Baton Rouge
."."
In time, Republicanism took root in the Shreveport
-Bossier City
area of northwest Louisiana, with increasing strength added from Ouachita, Lincoln, Rapides, East Baton Rouge, and Lafayette parshes plus most of the suburban parishes about New Orleans. One of the small Republican-leaning parishes is La Salle
in North Louisiana. Still another is predominantly white West Carroll Parish.
Since the construction of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway
in the mid-1950s, the Northshore Region began demonstrating increasingly Republican leanings, first and most notably in Saint Tammany Parish, which as of 2010 has the highest percentage of Republican voters by registration in Louisiana. It was the first parish since the Reconstruction Era to make the Democrats merely a plurality and the first to experience a Republican majority.
In the 2008 elections, Louisiana sent a mixed result, with the victory of U.S. Senator John S. McCain for President and the reelection of Democratic U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu
. The other senator is Republican David Vitter
. Republicans hold six of the seven U.S. Representative seats from Louisiana. The governor is a Republican, Bobby Jindal
, but the legislature was Democratic for most of his governorship, with considerable Republican strength. By contrast, in 1960, not a single Republican served in either house of the Louisiana legislature. The first Republicans to serve in the legislature since Reconstruction were not elected until 1964, and both—Morley A. Hudson
and Taylor W. O'Hearn
—came from Shreveport. In 2010, several democrats switched parties bringing the state house under republican control. In 2011, the special election victories of Fred Mills and Jonathan Perry switched the balance of power in the state senate, leaving republican in control of the state legislature for the first time since Reconstruction. Also the party switch of Attorney General Buddy Caldwell
caused the republican party to control every statewide office.
Era in Louisiana Politics describes corruption as "a way of life, inherited, and made quasi-respectable and legal by the French freebooters who founded, operated, and left us as the governmental blueprint that is still Louisiana's constitutional and civil law." Dodd notes furthermore that some attribute the corruption to "outlaws, gamblers, and fortune hunters who came off the mountains
and down the Mississippi River
to add their flavor to the Louisiana pot. A sizable minority thinks corruption was made worse by slavery and the granting of full civil rights and privileges to blacks before these hertofore de facto
slaves could or would assume and fulfill their personal and legal responsibilities."
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
poll, about 40 percent of Louisiana voters are still politically conservative.
Louisiana has been a marginally liberal state for decades, because of New Orleans and the state's large black population. Marginal is a good description, because Democrats have won statewide elections over the years, but sometimes by narrow margins.
Rising Republicanism
In the decades following the beginning of the Civil Rights MovementCivil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
and a concomitant reaction against cultural liberalism, the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
gained strength in the conservative suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
s of New Orleans and Baton Rouge and for a time in Caddo Parish. The GOP
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
over a long period of time drew increasing support among rural
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
voters elsewhere, including parts of North Louisiana and Southeast Louisiana. These patterns follow trends in other southern states as white control of state Democratic Party structures weakened and the region became more diverse and more prone to adopt the two-party behavior characteristic of most the nation.
The political balance in Louisiana will likely be affected by the post-Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
exodus from New Orleans. Heavily Democratic New Orleans lost much of its population, and many of the former residents have not returned. The overall effect likely reduces Democrats' base of support in the state and could make Louisiana a Republican-leaning state in the future. Nevertheless, Democratic Lieutenant Governor
Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana
The Office of Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana is the second highest state office in Louisiana. The current Lieutenant Governor is Jay Dardenne, a Republican...
Mitch Landrieu
Mitch Landrieu
Mitchell Joseph "Mitch" Landrieu is the Mayor of New Orleans, former Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana, and a member of the Landrieu family. Landrieu is a member of the Democratic Party and a Roman Catholic. He is the son of former New Orleans mayor and Secretary of the United States Department of...
was elected overwhelmingly as mayor of New Orleans in February 2010.
Even in the early 20th century, Louisiana had a pocket of Republican strength centered about the sugar parishes west of New Orleans, where farmers favored the GOP
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
's position on protective tariffs. According to The Louisiana Elections of 1960, whose authors include the late Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
sociologist Perry H. Howard
Perry H. Howard
Perry Holbrook Howard was a sociologist known for his research in the field of Louisiana politics. He was a long-term professor at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, from which he received his Ph.D. in 1954. A native of Maine, Howard served for three years in the United States Navy in the...
, from 1920, the year of the election of Warren G. Harding
Warren G. Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th President of the United States . A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential self-made newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate , as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and as a U.S. Senator...
as U.S. President until 1956, the reelection of Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
, "a number of parishes, many in close proximity, have consistently supported the Republican party at close to or significantly above the presidential Republican vote average. Apart from some of the urbanized parishes, the majority of these parishes are in south Louisiana; in fact, they form a cluster in the sugar cultivation area west of the Atchafalaya
Atchafalaya River
The Atchafalaya River is a distributary of the Mississippi River and Red River in south central Louisiana in the United States. It flows south, just west of the Mississippi River....
swamp and along Bayou Lafourche
Bayou Lafourche
Bayou Lafourche, originally called Chetimachas River, is a bayou in southeastern Louisiana, United States, that flows into the Gulf of Mexico. The first settlements of Acadians in southern Louisiana were near Bayou Lafourche and Bayou des Écores, which led to a close association of the bayou with...
and the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
below Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...
."."
In time, Republicanism took root in the Shreveport
Shreveport, Louisiana
Shreveport is the third largest city in Louisiana. It is the principal city of the fourth largest metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana and is the 109th-largest city in the United States....
-Bossier City
Bossier City, Louisiana
Bossier City is a city in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, United States.As of the 2010 Census, the city had a total population of 61,315. Bossier City is closely tied to its larger sister city Shreveport, located on the western bank of the Red River. The Shreveport-Bossier City metropolitan area is the...
area of northwest Louisiana, with increasing strength added from Ouachita, Lincoln, Rapides, East Baton Rouge, and Lafayette parshes plus most of the suburban parishes about New Orleans. One of the small Republican-leaning parishes is La Salle
La Salle Parish, Louisiana
La Salle Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of 2000, the population was 14,282. The parish seat is Jena.-Geography:The parish has a total area of , of which is land and is water....
in North Louisiana. Still another is predominantly white West Carroll Parish.
Since the construction of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway
Lake Pontchartrain Causeway
The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, or the Causeway, consists of two parallel bridges crossing Lake Pontchartrain in southern Louisiana, United States. The longer of the two bridges is long...
in the mid-1950s, the Northshore Region began demonstrating increasingly Republican leanings, first and most notably in Saint Tammany Parish, which as of 2010 has the highest percentage of Republican voters by registration in Louisiana. It was the first parish since the Reconstruction Era to make the Democrats merely a plurality and the first to experience a Republican majority.
In the 2008 elections, Louisiana sent a mixed result, with the victory of U.S. Senator John S. McCain for President and the reelection of Democratic U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu
Mary Landrieu
Mary Loretta Landrieu is the senior United States Senator from the State of Louisiana and a member of the Democratic Party.Born in Arlington, Virginia, Landrieu was raised in New Orleans, Louisiana...
. The other senator is Republican David Vitter
David Vitter
David Vitter is the junior United States Senator from Louisiana and a member of the Republican Party. Previously, he served in the United States House of Representatives, representing the suburban Louisiana's 1st congressional district. He served as a member of the Louisiana House of...
. Republicans hold six of the seven U.S. Representative seats from Louisiana. The governor is a Republican, Bobby Jindal
Bobby Jindal
Piyush "Bobby" Jindal is the 55th and current Governor of Louisiana and formerly a member of the United States House of Representatives. He is a member of the Republican Party....
, but the legislature was Democratic for most of his governorship, with considerable Republican strength. By contrast, in 1960, not a single Republican served in either house of the Louisiana legislature. The first Republicans to serve in the legislature since Reconstruction were not elected until 1964, and both—Morley A. Hudson
Morley A. Hudson
Morley Alvin Hudson , was a Shreveport businessman, engineer, civic leader, and a pioneer of the modern Republican Party in Louisiana.Hudson was born in San Antonio, Texas, the son of Oscar Hudson and the former Ruth Morley...
and Taylor W. O'Hearn
Taylor W. O'Hearn
Taylor Walters O'Hearn was a pioneer in the rebirth of the Republican Party in Louisiana during the mid-twentieth century. He and Morley A. Hudson, both of Shreveport in Caddo Parish, were the first two Republicans elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives since Reconstruction. The pair...
—came from Shreveport. In 2010, several democrats switched parties bringing the state house under republican control. In 2011, the special election victories of Fred Mills and Jonathan Perry switched the balance of power in the state senate, leaving republican in control of the state legislature for the first time since Reconstruction. Also the party switch of Attorney General Buddy Caldwell
Buddy Caldwell
James David Caldwell, Sr., or Buddy Caldwell , is the Republican attorney general of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Prior to serving as attorney general, Caldwell was the district attorney for Madison, East Carroll, and Tensas parishes from 1979 to 2008...
caused the republican party to control every statewide office.
Past tolerance for corruption
Louisiana has long been known for its toleration of corruption in government Bill Dodd, former lieutenant governor and education superintendent, in his book Peapatch Politics: The Earl LongEarl Long
Earl Kemp Long was an American politician and the 45th Governor of Louisiana for three non-consecutive terms. Long termed himself the "last of the red hot poppas" of politics, referring to his stump-speaking skills...
Era in Louisiana Politics describes corruption as "a way of life, inherited, and made quasi-respectable and legal by the French freebooters who founded, operated, and left us as the governmental blueprint that is still Louisiana's constitutional and civil law." Dodd notes furthermore that some attribute the corruption to "outlaws, gamblers, and fortune hunters who came off the mountains
Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...
and down the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
to add their flavor to the Louisiana pot. A sizable minority thinks corruption was made worse by slavery and the granting of full civil rights and privileges to blacks before these hertofore de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
slaves could or would assume and fulfill their personal and legal responsibilities."
See also
- United States congressional delegations from LouisianaUnited States Congressional Delegations from LouisianaThese are tables of congressional delegations from Louisiana to the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives.-United States Senate:-United States House of Representatives:-1806 - 1811: 1 non-voting delegate:...
- List of Governors of Louisiana
- Political party strength in LouisianaPolitical party strength in LouisianaThe following table indicates the party of elected officials in the U.S. state of Louisiana:*Governor*Lieutenant Governor*Secretary of State*Attorney General*State Treasurer*Auditor /Comptroller...