Lafayette growth causes redistricting challenges
Population shifts in Louisiana are causing big changes to who your state senator may be. One particularly resistant spot to change is just outside Loreauville, and News 10 spoke to the two senators who tried to prevent it from moving.
LOREAUVILLE, La. (KLFY) – Population shifts in Louisiana are causing big changes to who your state senator may be. One particularly resistant spot to change is just outside Loreauville, and News 10 spoke to the two senators who tried to prevent it from moving.
District 22 State Senator Fred Mills admitted, "I don't want to give people false hope that this can be accomplished because this is such a statistical challenge."
A population swell in Lafayette Parish is causing a shakeup in Acadiana's state senate districts, particularly senate district 22 which will likely absorb parts of Youngsville and Broussard. To do so, all territory in St. Landry, as well as parts of Jeanerette and Loreauville, have to be given up.
"The problem is I'm at my cap," Mills told News 10. "St. Mary has to pick up some of us because I have so much of Lafayette coming in."
The constitution requires each district to be almost equal, so in Louisiana, each senate district should have 119,429 people. None can have less than 113,000 people or more than 125,000.
While areas west of senate district 22 grew by about 30,000 people, areas east of the bordering senate district 21 shrank by 40,000.
District 21 State Senator Bret Allain explained to equally redistrict, "They all had to come my way."
Allain and Mills tried to find a way to keep an outer Loreauville precinct untouched because the community feels far more connected to the Teche, but the Senators couldn't find an even trade.
A resolution that passed in 2021 prevented breaking up precincts during redistricting and several smaller precincts have combined over the past 10 years adding to the difficulty.
"With such major populations big and small in Louisiana, it's really like trying to put a Rubik cube together right now," Mills explained.
"We've done the best job that we can. I hope at the end of the day everybody understands," Allain stated. "There is no way to avoid District 21 going further into Iberia Parish than it is currently, and to deny that is a false narrative.
Both senators are going through their second redistricting process, so they've worked through shifting boundaries before. However, they have both reached their term limits, so new state senators will take the reins after next year's elections.