Posted on 05/04/2008 11:16:54 AM PDT by The_Republican
State Representative Don Cazayoux defeated a former state legislator in Louisiana's Sixth Congressional District last night, marking the second time in two months that Democrats have won a special election seat previously held by Republicans. Cazayoux took 49% of the vote to newspaper publisher and longtime political hand Woody Jenkins' 46%.
Cazayoux won Baton Rouge, the southern and western suburbs and most of West Feliciana and St. Helena Parishes, as well as the precincts surrounding Lake Pontchartrain. Jenkins took more traditionally Republican territory south and east of the city, as well as most of Livingston Parish. The two candidates split East Feliciana Parish, north of Baton Rouge along the Mississippi border.
The special election win marks the first time in three decades since 1975 that a Democrat will represent the district, based around Baton Rouge and east to Livingston Parish, near the northwest shores of Lake Pontchartrain. More importantly, Cazayoux's win offers further evidence that Republicans may face another Congressional landscape as difficult as the 2006 election, when the GOP lost thirty seats and the majority. A CBS News/New York Times poll out this week suggested 50% of Americans prefered a generic Democratic candidate for Congress, while just 32% prefered the Republican contender.
The election contest had turned unpleasant in recent weeks, with both parties spending heavily on advertising that painted unflattering pictures of their opponents. The National Republican Congressional Committee spent nearly $440,000 on the race, according to Federal Election Commission reports filed yesterday, while the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee expended nearly $1.2 million by the end of the contest.
National Democrats focused on Jenkins' tax issues and previous associations with some of Louisiana's more unseemly politicians. Republicans, sought to make the election national by running advertisements linking Cazayoux to Illinois Senator Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
Better stop whistling past the graveyard now, and start supporting your local conservatives now.
Unlike many here who do not see bad things a coming in November, I see the very real possibility of a Congressional blowout, and this particular election is not a good sign at all.
The Dems compromised ‘quality’ for quantity once a again. Have a look at the newbie’s website and check out his positions on guns, immigration and abortion: http://www.doncazayoux.org/dc_issues.html
How many times has Woody Jenkins tried and failed to win office? Maybe it is time for someone to take him aside and explain that he can contribute better behind the scenes.
You are correct in you analysis.
McCain might win the presidential election if Dems do implode at their convention, but there is enough anecdotal evidence around to suggest the Dems will achieve super majorities in Congress even if that happens.
Gas prices, inflation, job insecurites, Iraq, failure to lead on all but the war on terror puts the GOP in grave jepordy. Voters do want change, even if that change is socialistic or at best void of actual policies.
Oppurtunity lost for the GOP since 2007.
You can pin this loss on a VERY WEAK GOP candidate. If Woody Jenkins is the best the Louisiana GOP can do in this district, then they got bigger problems than winning races.
Hopefully, he'll have a voting record by November that makes him look like a Nanacy boy.
I don’t disagree with your prediction of a coming Congressional landslide, but....
I was in Baton Rouge on business a few weeks ago. I saw and heard the ads these guys were running. I left town knowing that Cazayoux was going to win. He is young, attractive, has a lovely family, is funny, and “cajun”...
Woody Jenkins has been around since I lived in La (8 years ago)... is older, strident, pompous, and... lately, a bit hypocritical.
If we want to win, we need good candidates...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I think we’ll be able to pay our respects inside the graveyard if we don’t get a new nominee for President.
I am not a fan of the method of campaigning where you put up pictures of your opponent with other people you don’t like and say “lookie, we’ve put him next to Obama in a picture, you can’t vote for him now!!!
What happened to “Vote for me because I will do the job competently, and my opponent will make our lives worse.”
Like they say, a fish rots from the head down. I agree that the Republicans are in for a rough ride this fall. That is bound to happen when we run a horrible candidate like the maverick John McCain. Voter turnout on our side will be dismal.
Perhaps you are right in your concerns about the near future, but as a local to this race I can assure you that many who voted for this particular republican did so while holding their nose.
The GOP screwed over social conservatives and we retaliated by stopping contributions. Do you suppose they know why donations are down so much? The RAT out spent him. Probably using Soros' money.
A vote for a Democrat, no matter how far to the right he or she pretends to be, will always be a vote that empowers the far left. Always.
They disgust me almost as much as the liberals...
Baton Rouge has been inundated with former New Orleanians, who are now permanent residents of Red Stick.
“Better stop whistling past the graveyard now, and start supporting your local conservatives now.”
DITTOS ON THIS.
Let’s win this seat back in November.
100% correct. There’s no seeming interest in winning back the majority. No drive, no fire, no nothing. We’re losing seats we have no business losing.
My first clue was when they elected the exact same leadership team after they lost the majority.
They just don't get it.
I’ll take a dem like that over a RINO.
I can’t fathom how Boehner came back in the first place. He was in the leadership (Party Conference Chairman) back in the ‘90s before he was bounced in favor of J.C. Watts. They’ve needed new leadership for a long time, and Boehner ain’t it.
The weird thing is they voted for him overwhelmingly, yet all refuse to follow him on anything.
He seems to be saying and proposing the right things, but the Congresscritters who elected him are more interested in freelancing, pork, and spending with the Democrats.
Yup. And where the hell is Roy Blunt ? It’s the Whip’s job to be seen and lob bombshells at the opposition. He is nowhere to be found (and worse, yet, his kid, who is the Governor of Missouri, is running away from his job after a single term this year after an initially promising career). The last GOP Whip while we were in the minority was Gingrich. We ALWAYS saw him on tv doing his damndest. Complete and total AWOL leadership from top to bottom (and Tom Cole, the NRCC Chairman, badmouthing Club For Growth, which actually gives a damn about putting NON-liberal RINOs in Congress, is incredibly stupid).
Lazy idiots the whole bunch of them.
And I thought Cole was supposed to be a smart guy.
Unless McCain turns out to be a really good campaigner and the 527s are able to torpedo Obama by making the Rev. Wright "God Damn America" connection each and every day, we're gonna get bombed this Fall in the downticket races. It's going to be 2006 all over again, maybe worse. There is so much overhang out there, Iraq, high gasoline prices, slowing economic growth, the daily drumbeat of doom from the media, and the media and the 'Rats will hang it all on Bush, and then make the Bush = 'Pubs connection, and it will stick, because the sheeple are stupid enough to buy into it.
Like it or not, most of the electorate gets it's news from "traditional" sources, and those are overwhelmingly in that tank for Obama. They're lining up their kneepads to serve him. The media was desperate for a female Speaker in '06, and pulled out all the stops to get one, and they did. This cycle, they want a Black President so badly that they'll make their '06 campaign for Pelosi look like a warmup.
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