Democrat captures La. congressional seat long held by GOP
By DOUG SIMPSON – 12 minutes ago
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A Democrat won a special congressional election here Saturday, bolstering his party's majority status on Capitol Hill by taking a seat Republicans have held since 1974.
Coming in the middle of a presidential cycle, the Cazayoux-Jenkins race attracted attention and money from Washington interest groups and the national parties.
"It's of enormous national significance," said Dane Strother, a Washington-based Democratic consultant. President Bush won 59 percent of the district's vote in 2004, he noted.
"If we take yet another Republican seat, a seat that has been considered safe for years, then every 59-percent district is at play," he said. .
UPI:
La. sends Scalise, Cazayoux to Congress
Published: May 3, 2008 at 11:55 PM
U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. -- the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee -- issued a statement saying Cazayoux won despite efforts by House Republicans to use "false and deceptive smears" in a $1 million campaign in a district that had been held by the GOP for more than 30 years.
WAPO:
Democrat Wins La. Special Election
State Rep. Don Cazayoux won the special election in Louisiana's 6th district yesterday, a victory that marks the second time this year that Democrats have won a seat previously held by a Republican.
Like Hastert's seat, the 6th district, which is centered in Baton Rouge, has favored Republicans at the federal level for years. President Bush won the seat with 59 percent in 2004 and 55 percent four years before that.
There were, without question, national overtones to the race. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee dropped more than $1.1 million on behalf of Cazayoux while the National Republican Congressional spent just short of $500,000 on the race.
A variety of other conservative-aligned groups including Freedom's Watch and the Club For Growth ran ads attacking Cazayoux as liberal on taxes and seeking to link him to Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.).
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2 comments:
As a native of Louisiana, old enough to recall the "slip" of virtually ALL Congressional seats to the GOP, based on RACIAL
division: I see this as a seismic lurch: bodes well for November.
beaufort@yahoo
BEAUFORT,
I think this is what Frank Luntz meant when he said the GOP was in trouble.
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