Gov. Bobby Jindal has invited the state’s seven congressman to devise a plan eliminating one of their seats. That’s like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse.

Census figures released before Christmas show Louisiana didn’t grow as fast as some other states, and will lose a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives as a result.

That last happened after the 1990 Census, when the state’s House delegation dropped from eight to seven and there was mighty gnashing of the teeth over the process and the politics.

The Legislature this time has called itself into special session to deal with drawing the new congressional district boundaries, as well as lines for all state election districts -- public service, BESE, legislative.

Jindal would like the sitting congressmen to come up with an acceptable proposal because he foresees the donnybrook a reapportionment session could be.

Having men and women who hold or aspire to an elected district office draw the district’s boundaries guarantees a calamitous process.

The sensible thing is to assign the matter to a special commission or master - which takes partisan politics and gerrymandering out of the mix.

Barring that, and assuming the congressional delegation won’t agree on a plan, the Legislature has to resolve to deal with reapportionment as non-partisan as possible.

Splicing districts together to serve the political interests of an incumbent or an aspiring candidate has no place in the process but will be tempting.

Two things are certain at this point about the process.

First, one of the districts will be majority-minority (more African-American residents than white), as dictated by the federal Voting Rights Act.

Second, two of the current congressman will live in the same district once the lines are fixed.

And those lines should be fixed on the basis of logical geographic definition, regardless of who it lumps together.

LSN

Editorials represent the opinions of this newspaper, and not of any one individual.