Washington Watch for May 11, 2008

• By GERARD SHIELDS
• Advocate Washington bureau
• Published: May 11, 2008 - Page: 9B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Take a small-town lawyer and little-known state representative and compare him to the most inspiring political figure to come along in 25 years.

That’s what Republicans did to U.S. Rep. Don Cazayoux, D-New Roads, in the recent special election. Conservative groups coming to the rescue of former state Rep. Woody Jenkins, R-Baton Rouge, ran ads with Cazayoux’s face in the forefront and that of presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in the background.

The strategy also seemed odd in Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District, where one in three voters is African-American.
Some will say that the strategy, which also linked Cazayoux to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Cal., almost worked. Cazayoux won the race 49 percent to 46 percent for Jenkins.

Republicans crow that Cazayoux had a bigger lead going into the final weeks of the campaign and that the ads were effective.

“This election speaks to the potential toxicity of an Obama candidacy and the possible drag he could have on the down-ballot this fall,” the National Republican Congressional Committee said in a statement after the election.

“A Democrat was clearly favored to easily win this election before Republican invoked the names of Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi,” the statement said.

To say that Cazayoux was “clearly favored” is a stretch. Republicans have held the district for 33 years. And President Bush won the district in 2004 with 59 percent of the vote.

Though analysts and party leaders tried to make the election about national politics by painting the district as some political civil war battleground, in the end national implications didn’t figure in much on the outcome, some observers said.

“I think Don’s win shows that all politics is local,” said Kyra Jennings, the spokeswoman of the southern region for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Charlie Cook agrees. The Shreveport native who founded and publishes The Cook Political Report said the race was not the national referendum that some insinuated that it would be.

“To blame this on President Bush or Iraq is bizarre,” Cook said.

Of course, Democrats such as Pelosi are bragging that the election does signal some problems for Republicans in November.
Democrats have won the two special elections held this year and have a good chance of taking a Mississippi special election on May 13.

“Don Cazayoux’s victory this evening proves once again that Americans across the country want real solutions and reject
Republicans’ negative attacks,” Pelosi said in a statement after the Cazayoux victory.