Francis Heitmeier (D)
Term limited in 2007
District Map

2002 Senate Race (Runoff)
Mary Landrieu (D) 17,136 (65%)
Suzy Terrell (R) 9,362 (35%)

2003 Governors Race (Runoff)
Kathleen Blanco (D) 15,351 (54%)
“Bobby” Jindal (R) 12,935 (46%)

2004 Presidential Race
George W. Bush (R) 15,765 (39%)
John Kerry (D) 23,844 (60%)
Others 287 (1%)

2004 Senate Race
David Vitter (R) 14,673 (39%)
Chris John (D) 12,035 (32%)
Others 10,937 (29%)

2006 Secretary of State Race
Jay Dardenne (R) 2,706 (26%)
Francis Heitmeier (D) 5,022 (49%)
Mike Francis (R) 1,000 (10%)
Mary Chehardy (R) 1,062 (10%)
Others 551 (5%)

2007 Governors Race
“Bobby” Jindal (R) 9,929 (47%)
Walter Boasso (D) 3,649 (17%)
John Georges (I) 6,056 (29%)
Foster Campbell (D) 1,203 (6%)
Others 315 (1%)

2007 Agriculture Commissioner Race
“Bob” Odom (D) 9,621 (49%)
Mike Strain (R) 6,599 (34%)
Wayne Carter (R) 2,482 (13%)
Don Johnson (R) 854 (4%)

When Republicans first established a presence in the Louisiana Legislature in the 1980s, its members came predominately from metropolitan New Orleans. As time went on in the late 1980s and 1990s, some of those districts, particularly within the city of New Orleans, began to trend Democratic due to increasing African-American populations.

Senate District 7 is one of a handful of state Senate districts that have actually been recaptured by the Democrats after being represented by a “first wave” of Republicans. It is centered on the Westbank, and contains all but two precincts in the Algiers section of New Orleans, portions of Gretna and Harvey in Jefferson Parish, and (added after the 2000 reapportionment) a handful of precincts in northern Plaquemines around the town of Belle Chasse. The lines were drawn with just enough African-Americans (currently 51%, up from 47% in 2003) to elect a white Democrat. The portions of the district in Algiers and in Jefferson Parish are majority African-American, and easily outvote the Belle Chasse portion of the district. The district itself has grown at a rate at about the statewide average.

The electoral performance of the district has been favorable to the Democrats, with good but not overwhelming margins. John Kerry carried the district 60-39%. New Orleans native Mary Landrieu’s 65% of the district represented a “high water mark” for Democrats, while Blanco’s 54% was a low water mark. Even though David Vitter carried the district, it was by a narrow 39-36% plurality, almost entirely due to his 75-14% margin in Belle Chasse.

Like most districts in Metropolitan New Orleans, the district’s legislative representation has been steady. Fritz Windhorst represented the district for 20 years after his initial election in 1971. He was part of the “first wave” of party switchers in 1985, and was rewarded with a 74% re-election margin in 1987. When he retired in 1991, two-term Democrat state Representative Francis Heitmeier was elected with 55% in the primary against 5 opponents. As the African-American influence in the Westbank increased throughout the decade, Heitmeier became more entrenched, with a 58% re-election in the 1995 primary, and no opposition in 1999 or 2003.

Senator Heitmeier is term-limited in 2007. Perhaps in anticipation of this, he ran for Secretary State in 2006, but finished second behind state senator Jay Dardenne, a Baton Rouge Republican, and withdrew from the runoff. Three candidates are running for his term-limited seat: Sen. Heitmeier’s brother and optometrist David Heitmeier, realtor Paul Richard, and Gretna Councilman Jonathan Bolar. Dr. Heitmeier and Bolar are Democrats, while Richard is a Republican. Though it was newsworthy that the Alliance for Good Government endorsed Richard, the African-American voting majority, as well as a labor presence in the district, makes this district a “Democratic hold.”

We see modest impact due to the hurricanes. The district was surrounded by areas to the north, south, and east that received significant flooding damage from the levee breaches, although a local mall was looted and burned allegedly from people crossing the Crescent City Connection from New Orleans into the Westbank. The district, in fact, has only had minor voter population losses since Katrina.