Ernest Wooton (R)
Term limited in 2011
District Map

2002 Senate Race (Runoff)
Mary Landrieu (D) 5,414 (47%)
Suzy Terrell (R) 6,076 (53%)

2003 Governors Race (Runoff)
Kathleen Blanco (D) 7,130 (44%)
“Bobby” Jindal (R) 8,946 (56%)

2004 Presidential Race
George W. Bush (R) 12,828 (67%)
John Kerry (D) 6,059 (32%)
Others 162 (1%)

2004 Senate Race
David Vitter (R) 11,366 (62%)
Chris John (D) 3,686 (20%)
Others 3,161 (18%)

2006 Secretary of State Race
Jay Dardenne (R) 1,924 (22%)
Francis Heitmeier (D) 3,506 (40%)
Mike Francis (R) 1,265 (14%)
Mary Chehardy (R) 1,353 (15%)
Others 785 (9%)

2007 Governors Race
“Bobby” Jindal (R) 8,468 (66%)
Walter Boasso (D) 1,891 (15%)
John Georges (I) 1,779 (14%)
Foster Campbell (D) 515 (4%)
Others 184 (1%)

2007 Agriculture Commissioner Race
“Bob” Odom (D) 4,523 (38%)
Mike Strain (R) 5,106 (43%)
Wayne Carter (R) 1,665 (14%)
Don Johnson (R) 575 (5%)

Some of the most remote parts of Louisiana are contained in House District 105, due to the swampy topography covering most of the district, as well as a limited highway infrastructure. This district includes all of Plaquemines Parish, the lower portion of Jefferson Parish except for Grand Isle, and affluent precincts in the southeastern part of St. Charles Parish.

Demographically, the district has a moderate (16%) and stable African-American voter influence, with 90% of the African-American voters living in Plaquemines Parish. Plaquemines Parish also contains a solid 63% majority of the district’s voters. Another 12% of the voters live in the Jefferson Parish precincts, while the remaining 25% of the vote lives in the St. Charles Parish precincts which are extensions of the New Orleans metropolitan area. The St. Charles Parish precincts will likely exert an increasing influence over the election results here in the future, since they’ve seen a strong 7% rate over the last few years, while the portions of both Jefferson and Plaquemines Parishes have lost about 2% of their voters. Overall, the district has seen a tepid 1% rate of growth in its registered voters over the past few years.

In contested elections, the district overall leans Republican. Plaquemines Parish leans Republican in statewide races, while giving 65% of the vote to Republicans in national elections. St. Charles Parish typically gives 70-80% support to Republican candidates in state and national elections. These Republican margins are only partially offset by the Democratic leanings of lower Jefferson Parish, which usually gives Democrats 2 to 1 margins in statewide races, while giving Republicans narrow margins for President. Even in the U.S. Senate race David Vitter won in the first primary, Chris John still received a plurality of the vote in lower Jefferson Parish. In 2007, “Bobby” Jindal received an impressive 66% of the vote, carrying each parish with at least 61% of the vote.

This state house seat has actually had competitive politics for years. Though Democrat Frank Patti served for 26 years, he received the solid but not overwhelming percentages of 67% in 1987 and 60% in 1991. When he retired in 1995, Democrat Benny Rouselle was elected in the runoff with 53% of the vote against a Democrat – interestingly, he received that same 53% from his home parish of Plaquemines. Rep. Rouselle resigned in early 1999 after being elected Plaquemines Parish President. He was replaced by Democrat Ernest Wooton, the former sheriff of Plaquemines Parish who curiously was defeated by a Republican 51-44% in his 1995 re-election effort. Thought Wooton did defeat a Democrat with 51% of the vote in the March 1999 runoff, he also received an anemic 52% of the vote in his home parish of Plaquemines. Rep. Wooton was re-elected with 70% of the vote later that year and 64% of the vote in 2003. Interestingly, the drop-off in support was not in Plaquemines Parish (where he received 72% of the vote), but in the Republican precincts in St. Charles Parish added to the district after reapportionment – he only received 33% there. Rep. Wooton then switched parties (he was one of several state House members to do so) in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Rep. Wooton is allowed to seek another full term in 2007 and was re-elected with 77% of the vote. His party switch obviously benefited him in the St. Charles precincts, as his share of the vote more than doubled relative to his 2003 performance there. When Rep. Wooton is term-limited in 2011, we see this as a “likely Republican hold”; though Republicans have only recently begun to win elections here, most of the district is either Republican or Republican leaning, and the Republican precincts in St. Charles Parish are fast-growing. 

Virtually the entire district received wind damage from Hurricane Katrina. And Lower Plaquemines Parish was where Hurricane Katrina made its initial landfall, producing a massive storm surge that essentially wiped out all of Plaquemines Parish below Belle Chasse. A second storm surge generated from Hurricane Rita as it traveled along the Louisiana coast pushed a wall of water into the sections of lower Jefferson Parish in the district. Since the storm, there have been minor losses in registered voters in Jefferson and Plaquemines Parishes, while St. Charles parish continues to gain voters. In fact, we see minimal population losses in Plaquemines Parish and lower Jefferson Parish (the areas affected by storm surge); in the 2006 elections (the first major election after Katrina) turnout in Plaquemines and Jefferson parish was at or above the statewide average.