So much for peace in the House
by Stephanie Grace - Times-Picayune (excerpt)

A few weeks before the special legislative session on redistricting, a handful of lawmakers visited The Times-Picayune to talk about the process. House Speaker Jim Tucker, the Algiers Republican whose name would appear on the bill to redraw district lines for his chamber, led the delegation. Joining him were two members of the House and Governmental Affairs committee that would initially hear the bill, Kenner Republican Tony Ligi and New Orleans Democrat Jared Brossett. The trio's explicit message was that redistricting would not be driven by protection of specific incumbents' districts. A second, implicit message, reinforced by the group's own diversity, was that it also wouldn't be driven by partisanship or turf. Nor would it be governed by race, except as dictated by the federal Voting Rights Act, which mandates that any plan protect minority voting strength and have no discriminatory intent or effect. The exercise would be difficult and emotional, the three acknowledged. But, between that federal law and a requirement that new districts have roughly equal populations -- which, due to post-Katrina population shifts, would inevitably cause more upheaval than in a typical year -- it would have to be "numbers driven," Tucker said. It didn't take long for that prediction, along with the good will and common purpose on display that day, to unravel. Instead, the debate quickly took on personal, partisan, regional and racial overtones -- never more so than Tuesday, ironically, during a House floor debate over a proposed amendment bearing Ligi's name.