California Conservative

In an election year thoroughly dominated by Democrats, Joseph Cao defeated William ‘Cold Cash’ Jefferson. This follows on the heals of Saxby Chambliss’ resounding defeat of Paul Martin in the Georgia runoff.

Scandal-tarred Louisiana Democratic Rep. Bill Jefferson was defeated in his bid for a tenth term tonight by a little known Republican named Joseph Cao.

With 80 percent of precincts reporting, Cao led Jefferson 53 percent to 43 percent and the Associated Press had called the race for the Republican. The 2nd district heavily favors Democrats; Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) won 75 percent of the vote in it in 2004.

In 2007, Jefferson was indicted on 16 counts relating to allegations that he had accepted bribes from companies hoping to secure contracts in Africa. Jefferson insisted he had done nothing wrong.

The primary election in Louisiana, held on Nov. 4, gave Jefferson a 57 percent to 43 percent margin, a sign, many believed, that his ongoing legal problems would not impact his electoral success. Tonight’s results affirm that conventional wisdom regarding Jefferson was dead wrong.

I didn’t see this coming but it’s a great consolation prize after another disappointing election cycle for the GOP.

The results might indicate that things will rebound for the GOP in the 2010 midterms. This suggests that Barack Obama swept alot of Democrats into office with the large turnout. In 2010, people won’t be casting a history-making vote. They’ll be voting for their congressman. I suspect that that will dramatically change that year’s turnout model.

Technorati Tags: Joseph Cao, Saxby Chambliss, Runoff, William Jefferson, Election 2008, Barack Obama, Election 2010

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 7th, 2008 at 12:19 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Corruption, Election 2008, Elections, Obama. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.