BATON ROUGE —
While lawmakers passed new congressional maps in February, Edwards vetoed the maps. However, the legislature overrode the veto — marking the first time in nearly three decades that lawmakers refused to accept a governor’s refusal of a bill they had passed. “Some of our leaders in the legislature have said throughout this process, ‘We’ll just let the courts work it out,’” said Rep. Candace Newell, a Democrat and vice chair of the Black caucus. “Well, it has been worked out by the courts and the courts have ruled that the legislature must pass a map that has two minority-majority congressional district.”
“It concerns me that we are now being asked to redo in just five days something that we passed by over two-thirds of both bodies after a very long year of work,” Schexnayder told the House.