Political tension is growing in Louisiana’s Democratic Party.    It reared its head quite publicly in the 1995 governor’s race.

It returned in November’s 6th Congressional District contest.

Back in 1995, then-U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields, who is black, accused white opponent state Treasurer Mary Landrieu of playing “the race card” in an attempt to peel black voters from him in the governor’s race.

Fields said Landrieu’s campaign should stop telling black voters “if you vote for Cleo it’s a wasted vote.”

Landrieu called Fields’ “race card” accusation “ridiculous.”

Landrieu said her campaign was just stating fact when it said she was the only Democrat who could beat either of two leading Republicans in the governor’s race: state Sen. Mike Foster or ex- Gov. Buddy Roemer.

Democrats Fields and Landrieu were battling each other for the black vote — primarily in Landrieu’s Orleans backyard.

Fields ended up in a runoff with Foster — edging out Landrieu to do so. He became the first black candidate to get into a governor’s race runoff. Landrieu refused to endorse him.

Foster won.

The next year, Landrieu ran for U.S. Senate. Fields backed Democratic Attorney General Richard Ieyoub. Landrieu made a runoff against Republican Woody Jenkins.

Fields warned that Democratic officials should not automatically assume he would throw support behind Landrieu.

“No more can you have a situation where groups of people are taken for granted. That’s one of the downsides of the Democratic Party,” Fields said.

He  added, “Blacks have lived with Republicans in the past.”

In the end, Fields endorsed Landrieu, saying political party and party goals are more important than personalities.

Fast forward to the 2008 and the 6th Congressional District elections.

In a special election, state Reps. Don Cazayoux and Michael Jackson ran in the Democratic primary. Cazayoux won. He then beat Republican Woody Jenkins to become congressman.

Jackson complained that the Democratic Party had played favorites, noting that Cazayoux had been chosen as the congressional campaign committee’s darling.

In November, there was another 6th District race — this time for a full two-year term.

Jackson bolted the Democratic Party to run as a no-party candidate — bypassing running against Cazayoux for the Democratic spot.

Republican state Sen. Bill Cassidy, of Baton Rouge, also ran. Cassidy got the most votes and became the new congressman — ending a short-lived return of the seat to Democrats.

Jackson came in third. But his candidacy — backed by Fields — certainly made an impact.

If former Democrat Jackson’s votes had been combined with Cazayoux’s, Cazayoux would have been the victor.

Jackson made a point just like Fields did in the governor’s race in 1995 — just not as vocally. The election results spoke for him.

Democrats cannot take black votes for granted.

Louisiana’s voter registration remains majority Democrat with 1.53 million of 2.9 million voters. Nearly half of Democratic registrants are black: 721,814 black voters to 774,074 white voters. The remainder are other race.

Set those statistics against another fact.

There is no history of large white crossover vote for black candidates in the state.

Thus the tension that exists — which, left untended, spells problems for Democrats. 

Marsha Shuler covers the Louisiana Legislature for the Capitol news bureau.