BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Four incumbent Louisiana congressmen will defend their seats in Tuesday’s elections, with freshman Democrat Don Cazayoux facing an especially tough re-election bid against two challengers, a Republican and an independent.
Cazayoux faces two state lawmakers from Baton Rouge: Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy and independent Rep. Michael Jackson. Cazayoux, D-New Roads, won the 6th Congressional District seat in a May special election to replace Richard Baker, who resigned for a private sector job. The 6th District includes Baton Rouge and surrounding parishes.
First-term U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise also won his seat in a May special election to replace Bobby Jindal, who resigned after he was elected governor. Scalise, R-Jefferson, is favored to beat Democratic challenger Jim Harlan of Lacombe in the conservative 1st District that includes much of the New Orleans suburbs.
Incumbent Republican Charles Boustany is favored over Democratic state Sen. Don Cravins Jr. of Opelousas in southwest Louisiana’s 7th District. Boustany, of Lafayette, is running for a third term.
Two congressional districts hold party runoffs Tuesday, and general elections next month, because Hurricane Gustav caused the postponement of primaries in September. General elections in the 2nd and 4th districts will be Dec. 6.
U.S. Rep. William Jefferson faces former TV reporter Helena Moreno in the Democratic runoff in New Orleans’ 2nd District. The winner of the Jefferson-Moreno match is expected to easily beat Republican Anh “Joseph” Cao in the general election.
Both major parties have runoffs in western Louisiana’s 4th District. Willie Banks of LaCamp and Paul Carmouche of Shreveport meet in the Democratic runoff; John Fleming of Minden and Jeff Gorman of Shreveport are in the Republican runoff.
The 4th District seat is open because Republican U.S. Rep. Jim McCrery is retiring after two decades in office.
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