Democrat Cazayoux wins congressional seat in Louisiana

[babsbunny]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080504/ap_on_el_ho/congress_louisiana



By DOUG SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer 4 minutes ago

BATON ROUGE, La. - 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.


Don Cazayoux, a lawyer and state lawmaker, beat Republican Woody Jenkins to cap a race that Democrats viewed as a chance to further tighten control over Congress. The seat opened when Republican Richard Baker, a 20-year incumbent, resigned to take a lobbying job.

With all precincts reporting, Cazayoux had 49 percent of the vote to 46 percent for Jenkins, a community newspaper publisher. Three independents combined to take 5 percent.

The congressional district includes Baton Rouge and surrounding parishes.

"People in Louisiana are hungry for a new direction in Washington," Cazayoux said in a written statement issued by his campaign.

Meanwhile, Republicans retained a seat as expected in another special election held in the 1st Congressional District in suburban New Orleans.

[VP505]

1. More GREAT NEWS

from the campaign trail. I feel really optimistic that the Dem's will win BIG in November!

[Feron]

2. Awesome!!

And the victory is even sweeter simply because he beat Woody Jenkins. :D

Unfortunately Gilda Reed didn't win in my district.

[lunatica]

3. About his Republican opponent

from the article (what a piece of crap this man is!):

Jenkins narrowly lost a bitter Senate race in 1996 to Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and a 1999 race for state elections commissioner. His company, Great Oaks Broadcasting, has run into problems for not paying taxes on time.

Jenkins won the endorsement of the popular Republican Jindal, but has also been connected with polarizing characters. In 2002, the Federal Elections Commission fined him for concealing his purchase of a phone bank tied to former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. In the 1980s, Jenkins was aligned with Iran-Contra figure Oliver North through a charity he operated, Friends of the Americas, which sent medical supplies to Central America.