In what could be very troubling rumblings of things to come for Republicans, the Democrats won a longtime Republican district in Louisiana in a special election yesterday.
This comes just weeks after the Democrats won another house seat in Illinois (previously occupied by Dennis Hastert) and 10 days before yet another special election in a heavily Republican district (Mississippi’s 1st district).
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Maybe, this is a harbinger of things to come for the GOP?
Claudia, this is actually my congressional district. Its outcome (like, frankly, most elections in Louisiana) have almost no bearing on national trends, no matter what the national pundits think. Cazayoux, who won, is a quite conservative Democrat (as are most Democrats in Louisiana, where a few years ago, a Democrat-majority legislature passed and a Democrat governor signed a law which provides for outlawing abortion in Louisiana as soon as Roe v. Wade is overturned). Woody Jenkins, the Republican candidate, has been around the block a few times. He had some political ties to David Duke, and very high "unfavorable" ratings in the polls going into the election. He won the Republican primary because the moderate Republicans fractured between 2 different candidates. Many big-money Republicans I know seriously wondered what to do in this race, as they just didn’t want Woody representing them. The district as a whole is solidly MODERATE Republican, not hard-core religious-right conservative.
It is certainly bad news for the national Republicans, because they were IDIOTS in backing (very early on) the wrong horse in this race. Now, given the advantages of incumbency, the seat is liable to remain Democratic for many years to come, as Don is a decent fellow and a pretty smart politician. But they didn’t win the seat because of any national trends.
It is certainly bad news for the national Republicans, because they were IDIOTS in backing (very early on) the wrong horse in this race…But they didn’t win the seat because of any national trends.
I dunno, Pat, that "wrong horse" scenario sounds awfully familiar…
That’s because the national Republicans do it here in Louisiana so very often, Tully…