Chaos has come to polling places in the Gret Stet Of Louisiana. It’s caused by The Clownfish DBA Jeff Landry’s clowning around with primary ballots after the Callais ruling threw a monkey wrench into an election slated for May 16. Landry has ordered the Congressional races cancelled and postponed until July 15. I thought GOPers were against cancel culture; apparently not if there’s something in it for them.

Early voting is already underway. Landry and his mini-me, Attorney General Liz Murrill, are telling voters NOT to vote in Congressional races. It’s unclear how many voters will pay heed to this gruesome MAGA twosome. I, for one, plan to check the Congressional box in case the courts find the election cancellation illegal, which is quite possible as 42K Louisianans voted absentee before Callais came down.

This is an unprecedented situation, so it’s difficult to predict what will happen with the legal challenges to Landry’s actions. I’m inclined to think the cancellation isn’t valid since it comes too close to election day, but I’m only 50% sure. That’s not good enough to make even an educated guess as to how the courts will clean up the mess made by Alito and Roberts but yesterday’s early certification of the Callais ruling by SCOTUS favors the GOP. Anyone shocked? Justice Jackson wasn’t but she was horrified:

These post-Callais developments have a strong political undercurrent. … Not content to have decided the law, it now takes steps to influence its implementation. The Court’s decision to buck our usual practice … and issue the judgment forthwith is tantamount to an approval of Louisiana’s rush to pause the ongoing election in order to pass a new map.”

Repeat after me: All the way with KBJ.

There’s a small piece of good news as the lege considers redistricting:

Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, R-Port Allen, said the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee, which he chairs, will likely favor a map that preserves one of the state’s two majority-Black U.S. House districts out of its six total seats. As of the 2020 census, nearly a third of Louisiana residents are Black.

 

After public testimony Friday, Kleinpeter said his committee will meet again early next week to vote on a map.

 

Kleinpeter indicated the remaining majority-Black district would likely be based in Baton Rouge, which favors the current 6th District U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, an occasional ally of Gov. Jeff Landry, over U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, D-New Orleans, who has openly clashed with the governor.”

This is an instance where the corrupt collusion between Landy and Cleo Fields giveth as opposed to taketh away or some such shit. Here’s how I characterized it in The Justice In The Shadows:

…the second majority minority district resulted from Landry’s conniving with Cleo Fields to return him to Congress. They’re two corrupt peas in a pod and they’ve helped to make this mess in which the Gret Stet of Louisiana finds itself. Thanks, you malevolent motherfuckers.”

What Adrastos said.

It would be an abomination for Louisiana’s Congressional delegation to NOT have a seat based in New Orleans. Abominable and unprecedented as New Orleans is the most populous city in the Gret Stet.

I believe that the lege will keep at least one minority majority district out of Republican self-interest:

Kleinpeter said Louisiana’s Republican members of Congress “have serious concerns” about whether they could easily hold onto their districts under a map that has six GOP districts.

 

“They might have issues running for reelection,” he said. “We can’t jeopardize the leadership in Congress with changing maps.”

This is likely to hold true unless the Kaiser of Chaos meddles in the process. A 6-0 split wouldn’t necessarily be good for Speaker Yellowbelly DBA Mike Johnson. He might end up with majority Black Shreveport in his district.

The redistricting process will begin on Friday in Baton Rouge with votes in the state senate expected next week, then it’s on to the House. Republicans have a super-majority, so the ball is in their court. It wouldn’t surprise me if one of the dimmer bulbs in the lege said something racist and stupid, which would make another legal challenge feasible. Stay tuned.

I resisted using Gret Stet Of Confusion as the post title because I’ve used it before but it perfectly captures the chaos of the moment. The post was originally called Louisiana Lowdown, which is why Cowboy Mouth, not The Kinks, gets the last word: