Republican Anh Cao Wins House Seat in Majority Black, Safe Democratic District
If you had read CNN before yesterday's two congressional elections in Louisiana (delayed due to Hurricane Gustav), you would have been told this:
In the 2nd Congressional District, nine-term Democratic Rep. William Jefferson is running for re-election against Republican Anh "Joseph" Cao. Jefferson has been battling scandals and a federal indictment for the past three years, but the district, in and around New Orleans, is mostly African-American and heavily Democratic, and Jefferson appears to be favored to win re-election.
But if you looked at the actual results, you would see that Cao beat Jefferson by three points, and that the Republicans also won the other hotly contested seat in Louisiana. By winning, Cao became the first Vietnamese-American to become a Congressman after an interesting life story that included fleeing Vietnam and temporarily pursuing Jesuit priesthood.
Let's put the magnitude of Cao's victory into perspective. According to The Times-Picayune, Cao won "a district that was specifically drawn to give African-Americans an electoral advantage and one in which two of every three voters are registered Democrats."
No Republican has won this district since 1891. In 2000, the Democratic incumbent ran unopposed. In 2002, the Republican came in third, with 11%, behind two Democrats. In 2004 the Democratic incumbent won with 79% of the vote. And in 2006, the top Republican candidate came in not first, second or third - he came in fourth behind three Democrats.
This is incredible. After Saxby Chambliss destroyed Jim Martin in the Georgia Senate runoff on Tuesday, I wrote that it was proof that the country had not undergone an "ideological shift" to the Left, as the Democrats tried to convince us on November 5. Instead, congressional Democratic victories were directly resultant from their legislative candidates being on the same ballot as Barack Obama, whose candidacy and victory were a fluke brought about by a combination of his uniqueness and the media's endorsement.
When these legislative elections were fought on their own, the Republicans not only won the seats they were supposed to win, but have also won a seat that they were absolutely not supposed to win. And to sweeten the deal, in the other Louisiana race won by Republican John Fleming, Dick Cheney campaigned for Fleming and Barack Obama recorded a radio ad for the Democrat. Cheney beat Obama, ha!
Paul Ibrahim
in Democrats, Elections, Race, Republicans
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Paul,
This is further evidence that the country is not drifting leftward. The American citizens just kicked the Republicans out, which they deserved. I am a classical liberal, first and foremost. Republicans were trying to out-liberal liberals. New leadership needs to come to the forefront.
Republicans/Conservatives do not embrace Black Americans, one of the most conservative and religious groups in America. They are very religious, not for illegal immigration, against gay marriage (you know, all the hateful stuff). I wonder what the issue is.
No conservative was happy about John McCain's policies. If only he'd taken the hint earlier and started being a conservative instead of an Obama-lite, he might have done a lot better.
McCain got the nomination because cross-over Democrats (many states allow Democrats & perhaps Republicans to vote in both primaries, not just the party primary according to your voter registration), by those who re-registered as Republicans for the primaries, & by Independents who sounded more like Democrats than anything, & they voted him in. Republicans really did not select McCain. If one actually checked out votes by confirmed Republicans, McCain lost & others like Romney won. However, once McCain got the nomination, Republicans tried to back him. Their hearts were just not in it. Palin helped, but a convenient financial crisis intervened. If one wants to know real Republicans, look at the response to Palin's selection. That also accounts for why the media attacked her & hated her. She was a threat to the "one" the media, the radical leftist special interest groups, & some extremely wealthy & powerful people, had selected as the next president.
Black Americans seem to have been convinced only Democrats represent them. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Katrina was supposedly a racial response. Does anyone really think Bush & Brownie sat down all the minority or black employees of FEMA & got them to help screw blacks in N.O.? The response to Katrina was a failure of the bureaucracy. And it is an example of how the huge new bureaucracies will fail us in the bailouts & in health care if we nationalize them! FEMA as a single department had an outstanding track record of terrificly successful responses to numerous crisis events over the years. Then they joined the new, huge, Dept. of Homeland Security. The largest & most expensive bureaucracy in American history of government. Huge bureaucracies almost always fail, & especially when pushed on people with extremely costly & overbearing regulatory schemes.
Bush was NOT a conservative Republican. He was the "compassionate" conservative. We call him a Rockefeller Republican. They go for big government, big spending, big whatever preserves their jobs!
We need to get back to basics & we need to make sure those we put up for election are not crooks. The Democrats promised a clean up. Yet they have yet to deal with all of the Democrats in Congress who have broken laws & who have spent their way through office.
Hopefully people will look at new leadership from the Republican party & want their nation back from the socialists who would give us despotic leadership & onerous regulations & laws, just to get hold of as much of our money as they can!