Sen. says he received death threats after controversial remarks

BATON ROUGE -- Republican Sen. Jay Morris of West Monroe said Monday he and his staff received death threats following a contentious committee hearing Friday on redrawing the state’s six U.S. House districts, and he called on the state’s Democratic Party leadership to recant a statement that he had used a racial slur during the dustup.
Republicans also announced plans to move up the clock on hearings to redraw the state’s congressional maps. The Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee were to resume hearings Tuesday evening.
Morris, who authored several bills that would redraw Louisiana’s congressional maps in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that race could not be used as a deciding factor, said his office received 150 voicemails over the weekend, and several that were “vile and outrageous.”
“One of those voicemails called for a mass shooting at my office,” Morris told his colleagues in a four-minute address on the Senate floor. “Now, 99.999% of the people in the world would never take any action, but there are a few. … I'd readily quit this job than have one hair hurt on any member of my family.”
The Louisiana Democratic Party released a statement on Friday that Morris, who was testifying on one of the redistricting bills, turned toward Democratic Party executive director Dadrius Lanus, who was seated nearby, and said, "Shut up, boy!” Lanus is Black.
Morris acknowledged he did say “you all need to shut up,” but he said those words were directed at people he said were making disruptive comments. He denied using the word “boy.”
The incident occurred as Morris was leaving the hearing room just after Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, R-Port Allen, chairman of the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee, called a recess following a verbal exchange between Morris and Sen. Gary Carter, D-New Orleans.
Morris said several videos taken by news media of the incident prove he had not used racially charged language as he left the hearing room. KPLC 7 News, which was filming the committee meeting, posted the altercation to its social media pages.
“The falsehoods attributed to me have been very hurtful to me, my family,” Morris said. “The Democratic Party put out a statement that is provably false, that I said some things that I did not say. If I said those things, I would get down on my knees right now and beg for your forgiveness, but I did not say them.”
Carter, who is Black, used a two-minute “personal privilege” address Monday to apologize to his Senate colleagues for losing his temper when discussing Morris’ proposed legislation Friday.
“To the extent, Sen. Morris and Mr. Chairman, that my attacks, my questions, seemed like personal, ‘ad hominem’ attacks on you, I apologize,” Carter said. “I did not intend that at all as part of me losing my temper during the course of the hearing. But these are some very important matters.”
Carter clarified that he was not suggesting that Morris was racist but that his legislation this session would effectively reduce the number of Black officeholders.
Morris has filed bills to consolidate the court clerks’ office in New Orleans and cut the number of criminal and civil court judges in the parish.
The Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee originally had planned to resume hearings on the redistricting plan on Wednesday, but that timetable has been accelerated. The committee is expected to meet Tuesday afternoon after the full Senate adjourns.
While the current congressional map has four Republican and two Democratic seats, Gov. Jeff Landry told nola.com in a brief interview on Monday that the most likely split will be 5-1.