Louisiana's 1st congressional district

Louisiana's 1st congressional district
Louisiana's 1st congressional district - since January 3, 2013.
Current Representative Steve Scalise (R–Jefferson)
Cook PVI R+23[1]

Louisiana's 1st congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The district comprises land from the northern shore of Lake Pontchartrain south to the Mississippi River delta.

The district is currently represented by Republican Steve Scalise.

History

Prior to 1974, the 1st Congressional District was entirely south of Lake Pontchartrain. As a result of population changes reflected n the 1970 U.S. Census and a concern to ensure that the 2nd Congressional District was majority African American. This was to comply with the Voting Rights Act, passed in 1965 to enforce constitutional rights of minorities in voting, including the opportunity to elect a representative and to redistrict after censuses.

In 1974, the state legislature redefined the 1st Congressional District, dropping its precincts south of the lake and adding St. Tammany Parish, which borders Lake Pontchartrain on the north, from the 6th Congressional District. Subsequently, the 1st Congressional District acquired Tangipahoa and Washington parishes, both north of the lake, from the 6th Congressional District.

Correspondingly, the 1st Congressional District shed conservative St. Bernard Parish and other areas south of the lake to the 3rd Congressional District from 1984 through 2013. Overall, the 1st Congressional District has become a very safe district for the Republican Party.[2] Before the 1960s, it was controlled by Democrats, but conservative whites realigned with the Republican Party.

The number of registered voters north of the lake is, as of 2008, slightly higher than south of the lake; however, the 1st Congressional District has yet to be represented by a resident from north of Lake Pontchartrain.[3] The reformulation of the 1st Congressional District so that it virtually surrounds "the nation's second-largest saltwater lake" has generated a local joke that in the 1st Congressional District of Louisiana, the voters are outnumbered by the fish.

The seat was held by former Governor Bobby Jindal. Republicans have held the seat since 1977. That year Bob Livingston won a special election after Richard Alvin Tonry, who won the seat in 1976, was forced to resign the seat and lost the Democratic primary in the special election.

From 2003 to 2013, the district comprised mostly land on the North Shore and South Shore of Lake Pontchartrain, although it also contained areas west of Lake Pontchartrain. The district included some or all of the following parishes: Washington, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Jefferson, Orleans and St. Charles. It also included the cities of Hammond and Slidell and most of the western suburbs of New Orleans, including Metairie and Kenner, along with a small portion of the city itself. The district had the lowest percentage of African-American residents among the state's six-district Congressional delegation.

In 2013, St. Bernard and neighboring Plaquemines Parishes were returned to the First District after nearly 30 years in the Third. The First also picked up much of Lafourche Parish and the southernmost portion of Terrebonne Parish for the first time.

List of representatives

Representative Party Years Electoral history
District created March 4, 1823
Edward Livingston Jacksonian D-R March 4, 1823 –
March 3, 1825		 [Data unknown/missing. You can help!]
Jacksonian March 4, 1825 –
March 3, 1829
Edward Douglass White Sr. Anti-Jacksonian March 4, 1829 –
?????, 1834		 Resigned
Vacant ??????, 1834 –
??????, 1834
Henry Johnson Anti-Jacksonian ????, 1834 – March 3, 1837 [Data unknown/missing. You can help!]
Whig March 4, 1837 –
March 3, 1839
Edward Douglass White Sr. Whig March 4, 1839 –
March 3, 1843		 [Data unknown/missing. You can help!]
John Slidell Democratic March 4, 1843 –
November 10, 1845		 Resigned
Emile La Sére Democratic January 29, 1846 –
March 3, 1851		 [Data unknown/missing. You can help!]
Louis St. Martin Democratic March 4, 1851 –
March 3, 1853		 [Data unknown/missing. You can help!]
William Dunbar Democratic March 4, 1853 –
March 3, 1855		 [Data unknown/missing. You can help!]
George Eustis Jr. Know Nothing March 4, 1855 –
March 3, 1859		 [Data unknown/missing. You can help!]
J. E. Bouligny Know Nothing March 4, 1859 –
March 3, 1861		 Bouligny opposed Louisiana's secession and remained in Washington during the American Civil War. He never retook residency in Louisiana.
Vacant March 4, 1861 –
December 3, 1862		 (Civil War)
Benjamin Flanders Unionist December 3, 1862 –
March 3, 1863		 Remained seated for his term during War
Vacant March 3, 1863 –
July 18, 1868		 (Civil War –
Louisiana under occupation)
Jacob Hale Sypher Republican July 18, 1868 –
March 3, 1869		 [Data unknown/missing. You can help!]
Vacant March 3, 1869 –
November 7, 1870		 Contested election of Louis St. Martin and Jacob Hale Sypher, House decided neither candidate entitled to seat
Jacob Hale Sypher Republican November 7, 1870 –
March 3, 1875		 Sypher's 1872 re-election was successfully contested by Effingham Lawrence: Sypher lost, but only after the original returns were certified in his favor; after protracted court intervention, Lawrence was declared elected, but just one day (March 4, 1875) remained in the 1873-1875 term, and in the meantime Lawrence had lost the 1874 election to Democrat Randall Lee Gibson.
Effingham Lawrence Democratic March 4, 1875 –
March 4, 1875		 Successfully contested Sypher's election, then retired after one day in office—the shortest service ever by a member of the House of Representatives.
Randall Lee Gibson Democratic March 4, 1875 –
March 3, 1883		 Resigned from House on election to U.S. Senate.
Carleton Hunt Democratic March 4, 1883 –
March 3, 1885		 [Data unknown/missing. You can help!]
Louis St. Martin Democratic March 4, 1885 –
March 3, 1887		 [Data unknown/missing. You can help!]
Theodore Stark Wilkinson Democratic March 4, 1887 –
March 3, 1891		 [Data unknown/missing. You can help!]
Adolph Meyer Democratic March 4, 1891 –
March 8, 1908		 Died
Vacant March 8, 1908 –
November 3, 1908
Albert Estopinal Democratic November 3, 1908 –
April 28, 1919		 Died
Vacant April 28, 1919 –
June 5, 1919
James O'Connor Democratic June 5, 1919 –
March 3, 1931		 Lost renomination
Joachim O. Fernandez Democratic March 4, 1931 –
January 3, 1941		 Lost renomination
Felix Edward Hébert Democratic January 3, 1941 –
January 3, 1977		 Retired
Richard Alvin Tonry Democratic January 3, 1977 –
May 4, 1977		 Resigned after conviction for vote buying
Vacant May 4, 1977 –
August 27, 1977
Bob Livingston Republican August 27, 1977 –
March 1, 1999		 Resigned
Vacant March 2, 1999 –
May 29, 1999
David Vitter Republican May 29, 1999 –
January 3, 2005		 Retired to run for U.S. Senator
Bobby Jindal Republican January 3, 2005 –
January 14, 2008		 Resigned to become Governor
Vacant January 14, 2008 –
May 3, 2008
Steve Scalise Republican May 3, 2008 –
Present		 First elected to finish Jindal's term

Recent Election Results

2002

Louisiana's 1st Congressional District Election (2002)
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican David Vitter* 147,117 81.47
Republican Monica L. Monica 20,268 11.22
Republican Robert Namer 7,229 4.00
Libertarian Ian P. Hawxhurst 5,956 3.30
Total votes 180,570 100.00
Voter turnout %
Republican hold

2004

Louisiana's 1st Congressional District Election (2004)
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Bobby Jindal 225,708 78.40
Democratic Roy Armstrong 19,266 6.69
Democratic Vinny Mendoza 12,779 4.44
Democratic Daniel Zimmerman 12,135 4.22
Democratic Jerry Watts 10,034 3.49
Republican Mike Rogers 7,975 2.77
Total votes 287,897 100.00
Voter turnout %
Republican hold

2006

Louisiana's 1st Congressional District Election (2006)
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Bobby Jindal* 130,508 88.11
Democratic David Gereighty 10,919 7.37
Democratic Stacey Tallitsch 5,025 3.39
Libertarian Peter L. Beary 1,676 1.13
Total votes 148,128 100.00
Voter turnout %
Republican hold

2008

Louisiana's 1st Congressional District Special Election (May 3, 2008)
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Steve Scalise 33,867 75.14
Democratic Gilda Reed 10,142 22.50
Independent R.A. "Skip" Galan 786 1.74
Independent Anthony Gentile 280 0.62
Total votes 45,075 100.00
Voter turnout %
Republican hold
Louisiana's 1st Congressional District General Election (2008)
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Steve Scalise* 189,168 65.68
Democratic Jim Harlan 98,839 34.32
Total votes 288,007 100.00
Voter turnout %
Republican hold

2010

Louisiana's 1st Congressional District Election (2010)
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Steve Scalise* 157,182 78.52
Democratic Myron Katz 38,416 19.19
Independent Arden Wells 4,578 2.29
Total votes 200,176 100.00
Voter turnout %
Republican hold

Historical district boundaries

2003 - 2013

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Partisan Voting Index Districts of the 113th Congress: 2004 & 2008" (PDF). The Cook Political Report. 2012. Retrieved 2013-01-10.
  2. ↑ Cook Partisan Voting Index
  3. ↑ Several residents of the northlake area (eastern Florida Parishes) served in Congress to represent the 6th Congressional District before it ceded territory to the 1st Congressional District.

Coordinates: 29°39′59″N 89°53′34″W / 29.66639°N 89.89278°W / 29.66639; -89.89278

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