So, how many times do residents of southeast Shreveport who have sent Republicans to seats on the Caddo Parish Commission and Caddo Parish School Board for the past three-plus decades have to put up with Democrats imposing somebody not a Republican on them as their representative for months at a time? As long as it takes for Democrats to gerrymander their way to a majority in parish-wide governments, it would seem.
That may be three times pulling the same trick, pending a decision early next month about the District 8 School Board vacancy declared when Republican Christine Tharpe had to resign upon moving out of the district. Too late to have the matter placed on the fall ballot, the new elected member to serve out the remainder of her term at the end of 2026 will be held in the spring.
Tharpe’s resignation gives Democrats another chance, which history shows they will take, to give themselves at least a 7-5 majority for a few months, and crucially during consideration of the budget. And maybe in that stretch they could take a lesson from the Commission and rig things permanently their way.
Democrats on the Board using a resignation to take advantage has happened before, and ironically it involved Tharpe. That seat became vacant in 2020 upon a resignation of its Republican member, which then temporarily gave Democrats a 7-4 majority. However, the only white Democrat among them as often as not voted with Republicans, so in effect the black Democrats now had an unimpeachable majority.
They then brazenly selected as the interim member an independent who until just prior to then was a registered Democrat over other Republicans including Tharpe. She proceeded to get even by sending the replacement to defeat in the special election several months later.
Since then, reapportionment came and went. Parish demographics, giving blacks a slight majority, if reflected proportionally (as defenders of Louisiana’s gerrymandered congressional map argue say should happen), should have left six of 12 majority/minority districts. Instead, seven M/M districts were placed in the only plan forwarded and approved with only two of the six Republicans dissenting.
But perhaps they figured something their colleague Democrats didn’t. District 10 was the new M/M district with 52 percent black residents, a full 13 points higher than whites. The significance of this is historically blacks in Caddo Parish vote almost in lockstep for Democrats. However, the registered voter rolls showed only a narrow black plurality and in 2022 elections Republican Katie McLain defeated a black Democrat to keep the seat in GOP hands, evening up the Board with six Democrats and Republicans each (the white Democrat was defeated by a Republican).
Now, temporarily, (black) Democrats have the advantage to pick the interim member and perhaps they will repeat the 2020 exercise by effectively giving themselves control of the Board for at least a few months. And maybe they’ll emulate the Commission if that happens.
When reapportionment came around for it, a resignation also in District 8 (the two 8s overlap to a large degree) had made Democrats the temporary majority on the Commission and they muscled through a Democrat replacement. That fleeting majority then pushed through a heavily gerrymandered plan creating seven M/M districts with no fewer than 61 percent black majorities (and in doing so was joined by the Republican on the Commission who most often votes with them, John-Paul Young). This was possible only because of the seven sure votes (all blacks).
The Board didn’t follow suit because only six black Democrats were elected, and so giving District 10 a narrow black majority rather than an overwhelming one was the best possible. If they refuse this time to seat a Republican temporarily in District 8, additionally they may press their advantage to rig things.
The last time this happened was just before the 2020 Census was released. Now its data are out and, as the Commission showed, it’s quite possible to create seven districts with unimpeachable black majorities, hence almost certain to elect a Democrat. While political plenary organs constitutionally must reapportion every decade, they are free to do it whenever. Indeed, the Monroe City Council is trying to do precisely that as its black majority Democrats chafe at not having an ally as mayor, as a method to overcome the mayoral veto power that at present circumscribes their policy-making ability.
Thus, if Democrats want to seize control of the Board for the foreseeable future, over the next few months they have to adopt something like the Commission’s plan while they have this temporary majority. Then next year with new lines in effect they can cement that majority through elections.
It all starts with thwarting the will of District 8’s majority with the appointment, which Caddo Democrats have shown they’ll do without hesitation. It remains to be seen whether at that point they’ll take the next step.
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