BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The Republican Party can look to Louisiana for a bit of comfort after taking a drubbing in national politics in 2008.
Democrats punished the GOP across the country last year, winning the White House and expanding their majorities in the House and Senate. In Louisiana, they had a major victory when U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu won a third term after some had called her the Senate’s most vulnerable incumbent.
Other than Landrieu’s re-election, though, Louisiana was a political outlier, heading to the right while the rest of the country turned left. Republican John McCain easily won the state. And Republicans took two congressional seats away from incumbent Democrats.
Louisiana was one of just two states where Republicans gained a House seat last year. The other was Texas, where congressional districts are drawn to favor Republicans. The party picked up a seat there by regaining the district once represented by former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom Delay.
Republicans now control six of Louisiana’s seven congressional districts — quite a decline for Democrats, who 20 years ago controlled four of the state’s eight districts.
So while the Grand Old Party has little to cheer about elsewhere, loyalists found hope for the future in Louisiana.
“The victories in Louisiana are evidence that the Republican Party remains a viable alternative in the wake of the 2008 elections,” said Ken Spain, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
But one of the state’s new Republican congressmen will face a tough re-election campaign two years from now.
Anh “Joseph” Cao defeated Democratic U.S. Rep. William Jefferson of New Orleans, but Cao benefited from unusual factors that conspired in his favor: rock-bottom voter turnout, an election postponed because of Hurricane Gustav and the federal bribery indictment against his opponent. Most importantly, the bribery allegations crippled Jefferson’s fundraising power — normally a key part of an incumbent’s advantage.
The universal view from political analysts: another win for Cao in two years is a long shot. A Vietnamese Republican will have a tough time in a majority Democrat, majority black city, presumably when he’ll be running against a Democratic opponent who’s not under indictment.
“I think, without a doubt, on paper, it looks like an extraordinarily difficult seat to hold,” state GOP spokesman Aaron Baer said. “But it also, on paper, looked like an impossible seat for us to win in the first place. The voters in the New Orleans area were smart enough to vote for better representation this year and we hope they’ll be smart enough to keep good representation in two years.”
Republican Bill Cassidy’s win in the 6th Congressional District also came under odd circumstances, in the form of the independent candidacy of Michael Jackson, a black Democrat. Jackson drained just enough votes away from Democratic U.S. Rep. Don Cazayoux to hand the election to Cassidy.
Cassidy’s win was especially gratifying for Republicans because it gives them back a district they had held for 20 years, before Richard Baker resigned the seat last year.
Finally, Republicans won a tight race for the 4th District seat held by U.S. Rep. Jim McCrery, who’s retiring from Congress. John Fleming of Minden narrowly beat Democrat Paul Carmouche of Shreveport in a race in which both national parties spent heavily.
Fleming won by just 350 votes, a margin of less than 1 percent.
Democrats blame Jackson’s candidacy for their loss in the 6th District. The 4th District loss they blame on Gustav, which caused the race to be postponed a month after Barack Obama drew so many Democrats to voting booths.
“Those were races that had some unexpected challenges that didn’t go our way,” state Democratic Party spokesman Scott Jordan said. “We fully expect to gain back that ground.”
The state’s incumbent Republican congressmen won re-election easily: Charles Boustany of Lafayette beat state Sen. Don Cravins, D-Opelousas; and Rodney Alexander of Quitman trounced a Republican challenger.
That leaves U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon as Louisiana’s sole Democratic House member. Melancon, of Napoleonville, was re-elected automatically because he drew no opponents.
——Contact The Daily Reveille news staff at [email protected]