Some interesting news about Congress. In the House District LA-06, centered around Baton Rouge (Louisiana), Don Cazayoux (D) defeated local newspaper publisher Woody Jenkins (R) in a special election to fill the seat vacated by the Republican Richard Baker, who resigned from the House to become a lobbyist. Cazayou got 49% of the vote to Jenkins' 46% in a race with major national implications: LA-06 is a heavily Republican district that has been in GOP's hands for 33 years. President Bush got 59% of the vote there in 2004.
Both parties spent like drunken sailors advertising there. The rationale was that in a year when deep currents of American politics favor the Democrats both campaigns needed to know how much a "safe" republican seat was, indeed safe. Therefore, NRCC nicknamed Don Cazayoux (a Cajun name) "Don Tax You" and claimed he is a "liberal," which he most certainly is not. At this point, contrary to the media establishment, the Republicans assume Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee and LA-06 was a field test of their November strategy to paint him as a big-government, high-tax, arugula-eating, out-of-touch, arrogant liberal.
Unfortunately, it didn't work, even in a very conservative area. Today, every Republican in the House is going to be thinking "There but for the grace of God go I." If a well-known strongly conservative GOP candidate with 28 years experience in the state legislature can't win an open seat in a heavily Republican district that the GOP has held since 1975, what is going to happen in the many open seats and marginal Republican districts in November?
