Alexander, outgunned and outspent by Republican opponent, takes 5th Congressional District race

thenewsstar ^ | Posted on December 7, 2002 | GREG HILBURN

[KQQL]

Democrat Rodney Alexander pulled off a stunning upset tonight to win Louisiana

[Doctor Stochastic]

The GOP isn't doing so well in the by-elections.

[KQQL]

@

11/05/2002
Alexander (D) 52,451 29%
Fletcher (R) 45,044 24%
Holloway (R) 42,346 23%
Barham (R) 34,325 19%
Melton (D) 4,534 2%
Wright (R) 3,659 2%
Mouser (I)1,136 1%

[KQQL]

YEp....Suagr issue hurt GOP ......in LA....

Looks good for Mexican sugar now

[KQQL]

YEp....Sugar issue hurt GOP ......in LA....

Looks good for Mexican sugar now

[ambrose]

Fletcher must have run a horrible campaign. The combined GOP vote in the primary was nearly 70% !

[kms61]

Fletcher had all the money he needed, and the President campaigning for him, for crying out loud, and he still couldn't pull it off. He ran an absolutely HORRIBLE race. He never even showed up in my parish to campaign. He got in a blood feud with a primary opponent whose support he needed, and he went negative with his ads from the very beginning, trying to make an issue of Alexander's tax problems which blew up in his face it turned out there was also a tax lien against Fletcher himself.

Give credit to Alexander: he ran a tough, effective race, and never quit, but Fletcher completely botched this campaign. He didn't deserve to win.

[UofORepublican]

Fletcher lost because of a certain a**hole named Clyde Holloway, who is a bigger pouter and sorer loser than even Bob Smith. If Holloway tries to run in 04 I hope he gets his ass kicked.

[sinkspur]

The GOP isn't doing so well in the by-elections.

This guy's in the minority, and he'll vote with the Republicans, or he'll be out on his ass in two years.

Louisiana's always been the armpit of the United States, and it reconfirmed its status tonight.

[kms61]

If Holloway were a bigger man, maybe he would have swallowed his pride and endorsed Fletcher. That said, IMHO he had reason to have some pretty hard feelings about things that happened in the race.

Robert Barham was by far the best man. Unfortunately, he ran fourth in the primary.

[paul544]

Yes. Let's not read too much nationally into tonight shall we? This was basically an "off year" election determined by the strengths of the individual candidates...

And if Bush isn't solidly ahead in 2004 polls, I don't think I will make through the night. These election nights get harder to bear all the time.

[Salvation]

**Looks good for Mexican sugar now**

Like non-Vermont dairy products? </sarcasm off

[UofORepublican]

Well hopefully the guy you are talking about runs in 04. I am not too familiar with the primary down there, but did the other GOP candidates endorse Fletcher?

[Diddle E. Squat]

So 28,000 Republicans switched their vote to the Democrat. That's as bad as the Philly suburbs.

To hell with Louisiana(as far as policy and funding for the next 2 years goes).

As I see it, here are some states where we should drain as much funding as we can(the deficit, ya know):

Vermont, South Dakota, Nw Jersey, Louisiana, Arkansas, California

They made their bed, now they can lie in it.

[McGavin999]

Yep, I would say that LA just lost on the sugar issue. No reason at all for Bush to hold off on it now. Dumb people, they just didn't bother to think it through.

[arielb]

it's time to lose some calories and start using Rumsfeld's "sugar"-Nutrasweet. :)

[kms61]

Yes.

[McGavin999]

Let's look at this thing realistically. I had a strong feeling there was something wrong on this right from the start. We're talking Carville's home state. Do you guys not realize that there was a stealth campaign going on here with little Mary acting all wounded and none of the biggies turning up? Do you really think they weren't there on the strategy?

This wasn't big stakes for the pubbies, but it was REAL big for Carville. I don't think there was vote fraud in this one, I think they just really mobilized their base without letting us know what was being done. What is the track record there, 3 to 1? And they haven't elected a republican since reconstruction? This wasn't really a loss for us, and it was just barely a win for them. It's a further loss for them since Breaux can't retire to run for governor now because a republican governor would select his replacement. Also, LA will lose on the sugar subsidies, they have two senators in the minority, and little Mary could well lose her seat on the important committees. So, all in all this wasn't too bad. We just didn't get the cherry to put on top of the whipped cream :o)

[Kuksool]

Thanks to two boneheads, (Fletcher & Halloway), Alexander can have this GOP-leaning district for as long as he wants. In fact, those two fools may have helped create the heir to John Breaux's seat.

[gov_bean_ counter]

I fully expect tonight's results to be completely misread by the mainstream pundits as well as the national Democrat Party. They do so at their own peril. I say let them.

The post Nov. 5th LA Republican Party more closely resembled a bunch of Afghan warlords than a cohesive political unit. That dog wasn't going to hunt against the best organized Democrat machine in the US.

There will be little analysis of the race Landrieu ran. She ran as a Republican and the swing voters bought it. She kept the Democrat big dogs away.

Terrell on the other hand proved she is not quite ready for prime time.

This race was lost at the local level.