New Republican group backs Don Cazayoux
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A group of Republicans said Thursday they are making an organized effort to support the Democratic candidate in the 6th U.S. Congressional District race, state Rep. Don Cazayoux.
About 40 people who identified themselves as Republicans who gathered at a news conference to announce the newly formed “Republicans for Cazayoux” said Cazayoux’s values — being pro-life, pro-gun and his ideas for national security — have led them to support a Democrat in the congressional race.
Cazayoux, of New Roads, will face Republican Woody Jenkins, a former state representative, in a special election for the 6th District seat May 3. Two no party candidates and one candidate who is the Constitution Party candidate also will be on the ballot in May.
Though Jenkins shares many of the same values for which the Republican group credited Cazayoux, LSU College Republicans President Smoot Carter said he identifies with Cazayoux “on a more personal level.”
David Bondy, the chief executive office of Louisiana United Businesses Association Workers’ Comp, called LUBA, and a “lifelong Republican,” said he sees Cazayoux as someone who is willing to bring people together and work with them, regardless of their party.
“Mr. Jenkins is definitely a partisan and I’m not and that is a difference in the race,” Cazayoux said.
Jenkins has focused his campaign on convincing voters that sending a Republican to Congress would balance the U.S. House, as opposed to electing a Democrat. But he said he is more than willing to build relationships on both sides of the aisle.
Jenkins said he also has many supporters from outside his party. His largest Democratic endorsement came from Mike Grimmer, president of Livingston Parish, the second largest parish in the district.
Grimmer has said that he didn’t support Cazayoux because of how the representative voted on a tax issue that effected a specific business project in Livingston Parish. Cazayoux has said that constituents in his state district opposed the measure.
“Sure, there’s always going to be a few RINOs (Republicans In Name Only),” Jenkins said.
Democrats that were shut out of voting for a Republican in the two closed primary elections will be able to show their support in the open general election next month, Jenkins said.
In the meantime, the Republican effort organizing behind Cazayoux will be chatting up their friends and handing out support cards.
Cazayoux said typically Republicans and Democrats have not gotten along. But that divisiveness is not a conducive atmosphere for change, he said. He doesn’t mind criticism from the major political parties for not toting one agenda, he said.
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