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Street Team '08: prollins
 
 
 
   
 
proll­ins
P Rollins' Blog

Louisiana politics, National politics, and New Orleans issues
 
 
 
 
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This blogger is a member of Street Team '08, a hand-picked group of state-based citizen journalists who are contributing to MTV's Choose or Lose election coverage.
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Louisiana Congressional Races, Revisited
Posted May 12, 2008 at 10:50 PM

With the Democratic nomination having been declared all but over on the cover of Time, now seems as good a time as any to drift back over to that most delicate and soothing realms -  Congressional elections – and talk a little bit about how good a job I did when I talked about them that one time before.

Of the races I discussed, only two have held their special elections. The First Congressional District that covers the parishes of St. Tammany, Washington, and Tangipahoa, as well as parts of Orleans and Jefferson, as well as the Sixth Congressional District that covers most of the regions around Baton Rouge, had Republican vacancies. The First was vacated in order that animatronic policy superhero Bobby Jindal – the previous Representative from the district – could ascend on gilded wings to the tallest part of the Capitol. The Sixth, on the other hand, was vacated in order that Rep. Baker might make some money. [He was, incidentally, promptly inducted into the Louisiana State Political Museum and Hall of Fame being that he was a politician and therefore, one would presume, well known politically. Winnfield, LA: also home to the Louisiana State Tautology Museum and Hall of Prominent Antiquities. If you want to go on a Saturday you’d better make an appointment.]

The big story was, of course, the Sixth, where Democrat Don Cazayoux pulled off a relatively serious upset against Republican Woody Jenkins. (I would be remiss to fail to mention Constitution Party candidate Randall T. Hayes. More information about his campaign can be found at www.latinwenches.com. No, I am not joking. Yes, it is SFW I think.) Despite the seat being held by a Republican since 1975, Cazayoux pulled in 49.2% of the vote and revalidated concerns of GOP operatives around the country that this could be a relatively rough year for Congressional Republicans, Hall of Fame entries notwithstanding.

The First produced only one storyline, that of the humbling, crushing defeat of Causeway enthusiast and University of New Orleans professor Gilda Reed at the hands of Republican Steve Scalise. That Scalise managed to win the district came as a surprise to no one – the Northshore parishes of Tangipahoa, St. Tammany, and Washington are easily the most conservative in Southeast Louisiana – but the margin of victory was impressive. Now, the serious work of ensuring that traffic cops read to paper dolls can begin.

The two most interesting races are still to come as Sen. Mary Landrieu attempts to hold on against State Treasurer John Kennedy and as the Fourth Congressional District (Shreveport and the Northwest) looks to be a toss-up. Of course, by that point we’ll be looking at not only those races, but also the above races all over again in addition to the presidential election. And when that happens, we will of course revisit this post to either praise my foresight or investigate the sudden, completely unforeseeable vicissitudes of fortune that disrupted said foresight.
 
 
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Tags: elections  politics  Choose Or Lose  Louisiana  House Of Representatives  Street Team 08  reed  Cayazoux  Jenkins  LA-01  LA-06  Scalise 
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