Patrick Connick (R)
Term limited in 2019
District Map

2002 Senate Race (Runoff)
Mary Landrieu (D) 4,502 (47%)
Suzy Terrell (R) 5,087 (53%)

2003 Governors Race (Runoff)
Kathleen Blanco (D) 4,523 (41%)
“Bobby” Jindal (R) 6,563 (59%)

2004 Presidential Race
George W. Bush (R) 10,016 (64%)
John Kerry (D) 5,483 (35%)
Others 130 (1%)

2004 Senate Race
David Vitter (R) 9,153 (61%)
Chris John (D) 3,361 (22%)
Others 2,478 (17%)

2006 Secretary of State Race
Jay Dardenne (R) 1,115 (25%)
Francis Heitmeier (D) 1,386 (32%)
Mike Francis (R) 508 (12%)
Mary Chehardy (R) 1,076 (25%)
Others 266 (6%)

2007 Governors Race
“Bobby” Jindal (R) 5,937 (64%)
Walter Boasso (D) 1,097 (12%)
John Georges (I) 1,797 (19%)
Foster Campbell (D) 398 (4%)
Others 98 (1%)

2007 Agriculture Commissioner Race
“Bob” Odom (D) 3,526 (40%)
Mike Strain (R) 3,486 (40%)
Wayne Carter (R) 1,404 (16%)
Don Johnson (R) 398 (5%)

In Metro Orleans, parish boundaries are technicalities, as Orleans and Jefferson Parishes both straddle the Mississippi River. The West Bank has historically contained more blue-collar and black Democratic suburbs, although Republicans are competitive here – they currently hold two (and will soon hold three) House seats in the area.

District 84 is a Westbank district comprised of Marrero and areas directly south, where subdivisions fade into swamp where Jean Lafitte used to operate. It is the whitest Westbank district (16% black) that has grown slightly faster than the statewide average, and it typically gives Republicans 60-65% support – Suzy Terrell’s 53% was low for a Republican, but she was running against New Orleans native Mary Landrieu.

The district has a history of supporting Democratic incumbents, with seriously contested races only when the seat was vacated. When J. Chris Ullo left to run for the Senate in 1987, he was succeeded by Steve Theriot, who retired in 1995 to run for State Treasurer. N.J. Damico then succeeded Theriot in a kind of comeback: he had represented a neighboring district in Harvey for years until he was soundly defeated by a black candidate after 1991’s redistricting gave his former district a black majority. Other than the open seat races in 1987 and 1995, Theriot and Damico were re-elected by comfortable margins or were unopposed.

With the seat opening up in 2007 due to term limits, we would normally have rated this race as a toss-up, because the district has a Republican voting history, but has never elected a Republican to this seat before. However, only Republican Patrick Connick qualified for the seat, and is now the representative-elect.

We see modest impact to the district due to the hurricanes. Hurricane Katrina brought wind, rain, power outages, and some displacement, but Jefferson Parish started its recovery process fairly early and quickly. The greatest damage actually came from storm surges spawned by Hurricane Rita that affected the southernmost portion of the district. Since the affected area was rural, we see that the longtime residents will likely return and rebuild as soon as they can.