District Judge Race: Liberal-Conservative Battle Could Decide Direction of Court

By Woody Jenkins, Editor • This Saturday, Aug. 15, voters in Central, Baker, Zachary, and Sherwood Forest will go to the polls to choose a new district judge between conservative former Army Capt. Tiffany Foxworth and liberal City Judge Yvette Alexander. 

Foxworth is pro-life, pro-family, pro-traditional marriage, pro-gun, a crime-fighter, pro-military and pro-veteran.  She rose from private to Captain in the Army and served in Desert Storm and Desert Shield. Judge Alexander touts her many years of experience. She is endorsed by the Democratic Party and leading Democratic officials. Her election to City Court has been in the minority district in Baton Rouge. She has never run in the Northern judicial subdistrict. Foxworth lives in the subdistrict but Alexander does not.

While most voters are unaware of it, the judiciary in East Baton Rouge Parish is rapidly undergoing 

a dramatic change which is likely to result in most of the district judges in the 19th Judicial District being liberal Democrats, despite the fact that 50.1 percent of voters in the parish are whites who mostly vote conservative. The reason is mal apportionment of the three judicial subdistricts in the parish. 

The change in the lineup of judges could affect the administration of justice in both criminal and civil matters for years to come, not only here but statewide, because many lawsuits from across the state have to be tried in East Baton Rouge Parish.

The runoff election for district judge this Saturday is playing a role in this larger saga.

East Baton Rouge Parish has three judicial subdistricts within the 19th Judicial District Court. Although each district elects five District Court judges, the population of the three districts varies widely.  The so-called minority subdistrict has only 59,712 voters, 49,751 of whom are black.

The Northern subdistrict has 99,651 voters and is split with 48,644 black voters, 46,234 white voters, and 4,773 who are listed as other.

The Southern subdistrict has 132,101 voters, including 92,169 who are white.

These numbers show that the minority subdistrict elects more District Court judges than it should, while the Southern subdistrict is underrepresented.

If the districts were reapportioned to reflect the actual population of the parish, there would probably be two conservative subdistricts and one that is liberal.  That could result in five Democrat District Court judges and 10 Republican  District Court judges.

Saturday’s election is a runoff election to fill a vacancy left by the resignation of Judge Beau Higginbotham (R), through the end of the year.  However, in November, voters will choose someone to fill the full term.  

Alexander and Foxworth have both qualified for that election, which would set up a rematch. However, the loser in this Saturday’s election also could decide to drop out of the November race.