The Baton Rouge Area Chamber (BRAC) announced today that it has recently distributed a letter to the chairmen of both the senate and governmental affairs and house and governmental affairs committees as well as their respective committee members that requests that the nine-parish Capital Region be limited to two representative congressional districts, including one that is designed to be elected by a strong majority of the region’s population.  The letter is signed by BRAC’s Chairman of the Board of Directors, Scott Wester, and its president and CEO, Adam Knapp.

The letter outlines the fact that the Baton Rouge area is now the largest metropolitan statistical area in Louisiana, includes the largest parish (East Baton Rouge), and the two fastest-growing parishes over the last decade (Ascension and Livingston) and with that growth comes a variety of issues, specifically transportation and traffic congestion.  As such, BRAC suggests that many of the potential solutions reside at the federal level, which dictates that the region should have representation that is elected from and accountable to the population in its region.  Further, the letter acknowledges that a majority-minority congressional district is likely to contain some of the Baton Rouge area population in order to meet federal requirements, but that the remaining population of the region should remain united in one congressional district.

“The rapid growth of the region’s population over the last ten years means that the Baton Rouge area has a significant interest in the redistricting process,” said Knapp.  “There is the potential that the remapping process could dilute the Capital Region’s representation in Washington to three or even four congressional districts, and our area’s business community is opposed to that.  We believe that it is in the state’s best interest, as well as ours, to see that our region maximize its representation through a strong Baton Rouge area district.”

In the letter, BRAC touts the fact that the Baton Rouge area is better aligned today, “economically; socially; and strategically,” than it has ever been before.  It also acknowledges the challenges associated with the redistricting process and concedes that the business community would support a two-member delegation if a one-member one cannot be maintained.

Currently, the majority of the Capital Region, with at least portions of all nine parishes, lies within the 6th District of the U.S. House of Representatives and is represented by Rep. Bill Cassidy.

About the Baton Rouge Area Chamber
The Baton Rouge Area Chamber (BRAC) leads economic development in the Baton Rouge metropolitan area.  Serving as the voice of the business community, BRAC’s investors includes more than 1,500 organizations whose employees represent over a third of the Creative Capital of the South’s workforce.