The Washington Post - 16.11.2019

A10 eZ re the washington post.saturday, november 16 , 2019

BY TIM CRAIG

NEW ORLEANS — Isiah Peterson
sounds just like the sort of voter
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards
can count on to support his re-
election bid.
Peterson is black, usually votes
for Democratic candidates and
thinks Edwards (D) has done a
relatively good job in his first
term in office. Most of all, when
Peterson thinks of Edwards’s Re-
publican opponent, Eddie Ri-
spone, he sees an image of the one
politician he really can’t stand.
“I don’t like Donald Trump at
all, and Eddie Rispone is Donald
Trump’s choice,” the 67-year-old
retired welder said.
But even with such clarity
about the Republican ticket, Pe-
terson said he’s “just not sure”
whether he will vote in Saturday’s
runoff election.
“We’ll just have to see when
that time comes up whether I will
actually go do it,” he added.
Peterson’s ambivalence about
voting highlights the major chal-
lenge facing Edwards and Demo-
cratic candidates nationally as
they seek to mobilize African
American voters to the polls.
That’s especially true here in the
Deep South, where white Trump
supporters have been pouring
into voting booths to support
GOP candidates, leaving African
Americans as one of the sole
reliably Democratic constituen-
cies.
Edwards, 53, was forced into a
runoff with Rispone, a conserva-
tive businessman who has made
his allegiance to Trump a center-
piece of his campaign, after the
governor failed to win a majority
in Louisiana’s bipartisan “jungle”
primary last month. Edwards re-
ceived about 47 percent of the
vote, which analysts partially at-
tribute to a weaker-than-expect-
ed turnout among African Ameri-
cans, who comprise about 33 per-
cent of the state’s population.
After the primary, Edwards ad-
justed his strategy to try to boost
turnout, including adding a new
campaign adviser and speaking
more directly to the black com-
munity. He stepped up his out-
reach to African American pas-
tors, said Louisiana state Sen.
Troy Carter, and began appearing
in more intimate settings with
black voters to explain his record.
“The governor has an incredi-
ble story to tell, but our fear was
we are missing our story,” said
Carter, referring to black Louisi-
anans.
But with polls continuing to
show a close race, Edwards’s cam-
paign is reviving a debate among
Democrats about whether party
leaders have been doing enough
to spark enthusiasm in the black
community.
“I think the Democratic Party
needs to face reality — you can’t
keep calling your base your base
when you are not doing anything
to entice your base, excite your
base, invigorate your base,” said
Jay H. Banks, a New Orleans city
councilman who has become
more active in trying to boost
Edwards.
Although Democrats picked up
a governorship in Kentucky last
week, the party’s hopes of win-
ning an open seat in Mississippi
were dashed when the state’s

Democratic attorney general, Jim

Hood, fell about 47,000 votes

short of defeating Republican

Ta te Reeves, the state’s lieutenant

governor. Brad Chism, a Missis-

sippi Democratic strategist who

advised Hood, said the Demo-

crat’s defeat can be partially

traced to underwhelming turn-

out among African Americans.

W hile Democrats picked up

seven governorships nationwide

last year, Stacey Abrams in Geor-

gia and Andrew Gillum in Flori-

da, both black Democrats, nar-

rowly lost their gubernatorial rac-

es. In both states, a surge in

African American turnout was

not enough to overcome recent

trends of white, rural voters

breaking sharply for GOP candi-

dates.

Edwards, the only Democratic

governor in the Deep South, is

fighting those same voting trends

in Louisiana as Trump stumps

hard to defeat him. Trump car-

ried Louisiana by about 20 points

in 2016, and the president re-

turned here on Thursday night

for his second campaign rally in

support of Rispone in the runoff

election.

“Remember Saturday. It’s a

close one, and you’re going to

have a great Republican gover-

nor,” Trump said. “If you want to

defend your values, your jobs and

your freedoms, you have to re-

place governor John Bel Edwards

with a true conservative.”

“A t the end of the day, this is

going to be a turnout election,”

said Anthony Ramirez, a Rispone

spokesman. “Louisiana voters are

tired of career politicians and

they want a conservative outsider

like President Trump to win this

state.”

There are signs that African

American voters plan to show up

for the runoff in far larger num-

bers than they did in the primary.

According to an analysis by poll-

ster John M. Couvillon, African

Americans accounted for 31 per-

cent of the votes cast during the

state’s early voting period that

ended last Saturday, an increase

of about 3 percent from their

share of the total primary elector-

ate.

Couvillon, founder of Baton

Rouge-based JMC Analytics and

Polling, said black turnout as a

percentage of the electorate in the

state is now roughly on par with

President Barack Obama’s histor-

ic elections in 2008 and 2012.

With Edwards winning a larger

share of the white vote than

Obama, especially in the New

Orleans suburbs, Couvillon said

the uptick in African American

turnout could be insurmountable

for Rispone if the trend persists

through Election Day. Still, Cou-

villon released a poll on Thursday

that showed the contest dead-

locked, with Edwards and Ri-

spone both receiving about

45 percent of the vote.

Speaking to reporters on

Wednesday, Edwards said the

early voting results show that his

efforts to more directly reach out

to African Americans appears to

be paying off.

“There is an energy, there is an

excitement, and there is a sense of

urgency that, for whatever rea-

son, didn’t exist during the pri-

mary,” Edwards said.

African American leaders say

the black community is rallying

around Edwards as they become

more aware of his record, includ-

ing his successful push to expand

Medicaid, increase teacher pay

and overhaul the state’s criminal

justice system to try to reduce

racial disparities. Activists say

Rispone, a 70-year-old million-

aire construction contractor, also

has helped to energize the black

community by mounting a cam-

paign that at times has appeared

dismissive of New Orleans, a

m ajority-black city and the state’s

largest.

Rispone frequently criticized

New Orleans during his primary

campaign, including repeated at-

tacks accusing it of being a “sanc-

tuary city,” a label that state and

city officials have rejected.

During the runoff election,

Democratic-aligned groups have

fought back with their own bare-

knuckled tactics. In one radio ad

by a group called the Black Orga-

nization for Leadership Develop-

ment, or BOLD, Banks compares

Rispone to former Ku Klux Klan

leader David Duke.

“What is the difference be-

tween David Duke, Eddie Ri-

spone and Donald Trump? The

only difference is that Rispone

will be governor if you don’t stop

him,” Banks says.

Republicans blasted the ad,

but the message resonated with

some shoppers at Palms Plaza

shopping center in the primarily

African American Gentilly neigh-

borhood of New Orleans.

“Because of the president him-

self, I think now it’s kind of like a

wake-up call and people are tak-

ing things a lot more seriously,”

said Anthonise Banks, 42, while

sitting under the hair dryer at B U

Natural Hair Studio. “When

[Trump] comes here, it makes

everyone more alert that we

could have someone like that run

our state, and we don’t n eed that.”

Anthonise Banks, a teacher,

already voted for Edwards during

early voting — which was a com-

mon response from patrons here

in Gentilly, especially women. But

others remain apathetic during

the final hours of the campaign.

Politicians “don’t give a [exple-

tive] about us. All they care about

is the green dollar,” said Doherty

Scott, 54, adding he does not plan

to vote because he’s disillusioned

by all the “millionaires and bil-

lionaires” who now run for state

and federal offices.

In last week’s election in Mis-

sissippi, Chism said Hood’s in-

ability to rally a large turnout is a

warning sign for Democrats na-

tionwide that “you can’t start

from scratch every year and ex-

pect to overperform with low-

and moderate-income voters.”

State Democratic parties need

to invest in full-time organizers

and technology to better collect

data on the interests and move-

ments of low-income voters, he

added.

“Many white, southern state-

wide campaigns are utilizing a

playbook from 2007, that is pre-

Obama, pre-Citizens United, and

I would say pre-Trump, and the

world has changed dramatically

since then,” Chism said.

Albright, the founder of the

Atlanta-based Black Voters Mat-

ter Fund, a political action com-

mittee focused on boosting Afri-

can American turnout, said Hood

never developed a message that

would resonate with black voters,

especially in the Mississippi Del-

ta. A conservative Democrat and

four-term attorney general, Hood

also shied away from bringing in

high-profile African American

surrogates to campaign for him,

Albright added.

“There was a desire for him to

be more direct, even doing a

commercial — that instead of just

speaking in general terms, ac-

knowledging the impacts that a

lack of Medicaid expansion [in

Mississippi] or the lack of rural

hospitals are having in black com-

munities,” Albright said.

Albright said white Democrat-

ic candidates in the South could

have taken a lesson from former

congressman Beto O’Rourke, a

Democrat who narrowly lost his

bid for the U.S. Senate bid in

Te xas last year.

Albright noted African Ameri-

can interest in O’Rourke’s candi-

dacy surged during that cam-

paign after he gave an impas-

sioned defense of former NFL

star Colin Kaepernick’s decision

to kneel during the national an-

them. Exit polls showed African

Americans accounted for 12 per-

cent of the Te xas electorate last

year — roughly equal to their

overall share of the population.

“It takes a certain kind of can-

didate, that will speak to issues in

a certain kind of way to galvanize

black voters,” Albright said.

But white Democratic politi-

cians in the South face a difficult

balancing act to drive up turnout

in the state’s urban areas without

alienating some other groups of

voters.

Mary Patricia Wray, a Louisi-

ana political strategist who has

advised candidates from both

parties, said even a small blow-

back among white voters to Ed-

wards’s outreach to African

Americans could prove decisive

in the outcome of the election.

“We are still not really in a

post-racial Louisiana, so when

people keep hearing the message

that black voter turnout is up...

it could also certainly have a

slight impact on turnout among

the hard right,” s he said.

[email protected]

colby itkowitz contributed to this

report.

La. governor seeks to draw black voters back to the polls

Gerald Herbert/associated Press

After a weaker-than-expected primary turnout, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) hopes to mobilize African Americans to vote in Saturday’s runoff.

The incumbent fights

back as white Trump

supporters flock to GOP

BY AMY GARDNER

AND TED MELLNIK

North Carolina Democrats
could gain two congressional
seats under a redistricting map
approved by the Republican-con-
trolled legislature Friday — but
some of them say it is not
enough.
The new map of the state’s 13
congressional districts was craft-
ed by state lawmakers after a
state court ruled earlier this
month that the GOP illegally
gerrymandered the lines for par-
tisan gain.
Under the new lines, two Re-
publican congressmen — George
Holding of Raleigh and Mark
Walker of Summerfield, near
Greensboro — are drawn into the
new Democratic-leaning dis-
tricts, making their reelection
prospects next year uncertain.
B ut Democrats are asking for
more, saying that the map should
reflect the state’s partisan make-
up — even though a Democratic-
affiliated group backed the law-
suit seeking to declare that prac-
tice unconstitutional. They are

seeking at least six Democratic

districts, and vowed Friday to

challenge the map in court.

“We really need to have a fair

map, we need a 6-7 map or a 7-

map or a 6-6-1 map. Those would

be fair maps,” said Rep. G.K.

Butterfield, a Democrat who rep-

resents the state’s 1st Congressio-

nal District. “This appears on the

face of it to be a 5-8 map, which

doesn’t quite get us where we

need to go.”

The latest map — designed by

state Rep. David Lewis, one of the

legislature’s redistricting chair-

men, and approved late Thurs-

day by the state House of Repre-

sentatives and Friday in the Sen-

ate — creates a new Democratic-

leaning district in Raleigh and

another anchored in Greensboro.

In the current map, those cities

are carved into different dis-

tricts, diluting their heavily Dem-

ocratic vote.

State Sen. Paul Newton, one of

the legislature’s redistricting au-

thors, said Thursday that “fair is

in the eye of the beholder” a nd he

chided Democrats for seeking a

partisan measure of districts.

Newton said Republicans used

no racial or partisan data to draw

the maps and closely followed

criteria including compactness

and equal distribution of popula-

tion.

“They have revealed motives

that make it seem inevitable that

we will not reach consensus with

the minority party,” Newton said.

Dan Blue, Democratic leader

of the North Carolina Senate,

said Democrats are not asking to

use partisan data in the drawing

of districts but simply for an

after-the-fact assessment to see

how fairly the districts divide up

power based on the makeup of

the population. Blue said he

agrees with Butterfield’s assess-

ment that six Democratic dis-

tricts, or five Democratic dis-

tricts and one swing seat, would

make for a fair map.

Blue also predicted that the

plaintiffs in the lawsuit will p rob-

ably object in court to any map

that does not achieve greater

parity between the parties.

“You can’t use partisanship in

drawing the map. You ought not

to look at how these districts are

formed in putting them togeth-

er,” Blue said. “But surely you

should be able to go back and see

what the results are.”

On Capitol Hill on Thursday,

Holding said the line-drawing is

still in its early stages and he is

not fretting about a process he

cannot control. He also noted

that he will retain options even if

he is zoned into a bluer district,

with North Carolina expected to

pick up at least one new congres-

sional seat after the 2020 Census

and a Senate seat coming up in

2022.

“My firm belief is, no one is

entitled to a congressional dis-

trict,” said Holding, a former

federal prosecutor. “You know,

it’s the people’s house, we call it

that for a reason. So I get some-

what amused by all these mem-

bers who are all saying, ‘Oh, my

gosh, they’re taking my seat away

from me’ — when it wasn’t your

seat to start with.”

[email protected]

[email protected]

Mike debonis contributed to this

report.

New map approved by N.C. legislature could give

Democrats two additional seats in Congress

Source: N.C. legislature. TED MELLNIK AND SHELLY TAN/THE WASHINGTON POST

Map used in 2018

District lean of proposed new map

The current map of North Carolina's Congressional districts has diluted the

influence of Democrats, enabling Republicans to hold 10 of 13 seats.

The proposed map would create two additional districts that likely favor

Democrats. The 6th District would pool Democrats in the Greensboro area

that are now divided among three Republican districts. In the Raleigh area,

the redraw would make the 2nd District a Democratic favorite, in addition to

the 4th District.

The new map may still favor Republicans. It maintains a Republican

advantage around Fayetteville by dividing Democratic voters between the

8th and 9th districts. Republicans gain a likely unassailable seat in the new

13th District.

District lean based on

2016 election results

Charlotte

Charlotte

Greensboro

Fayetteville

Fayetteville

Raleigh

Raleigh

Greensboro

11

11

5

10

13

8

10

5

13

8

6 4 1

2

7

3

9

12

12

6

9

7

2

4 1

3

UPLOADED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws