Livingston is the fastest-growing parish in Louisiana. Places like Denham Springs have suddenly filled with subdivisions, as swarms of people seeking a different way of life have pushed east from Baton Rouge into
the Sportsman's Paradise; since Hurricane Katrina, they've come from metro New Orleans, too.
The population has grown from 27,000 in 1960 to an estimated 112,000 in 2007. 94 percent of the population is white; 4 percent is black.
I'm interested in what happens when white-flight exurbia collides with traditional rural conservatism. In many ways, Livingston has a unique political history. Herbert Hoover nearly carried this rural WASP enclave in 1928, although he got only 24 percent statewide; it backed Truman over Thurmond in 1948; Stevenson over Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956; and Kennedy over "unpledged" electors in 1960, before giving 61 percent to Goldwater in 1964 and 81 percent for George Wallace in 1968- his best Louisiana showing.
Whatever else you can say of the place, its political preferences were rather... independent-minded. As recently as 1980, Carter won here as Reagan crushed him in the state as a whole. That was before the population changed beyond recognition, though.
Some interesting recent returns...
1990 Senate:
Duke 64%,
Johnston 34%1991 Governor:
Duke 60%,
Edwards 40%1999 Governor:
Foster 80%,
Jefferson 9%,
Others 11%2003 Governor:
Jindal 57%,
Blanco 43%2008 Democratic Primary (4,937 votes): Clinton 66%, Obama 22%, Edwards 7%
2008 Republican Primary (4,110 votes): Huckabee 56%, McCain 30%, Paul 6%, Romney 5%
1996 US President (34,095 votes):
Dole 47%,
Clinton 39%,
Perot 12%2000 US President (36,865 votes):
Bush 68%,
Gore 30%2004 US President (44,253 votes):
Bush 77%,
Kerry 22%2008 US President (50,892 votes):
McCain 85%,
Obama 13%*
*Compare with 2008 Senate:
Kennedy 67%,
Landrieu 31%
