Cazayoux wins 6th District

• By MARK BALLARD AND SARAH CHACKO
• Capitol news bureau
• Published: May 4, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

The Baton Rouge area has a Democratic congressman for the first time in three decades.

State Rep. Don Cazayoux of New Roads polled 49,702 votes Saturday to narrowly beat Republican publisher Woody Jenkins of Baton Rouge, who got 46,741 votes, for the District 6 seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“We talked about the issues in this campaign,” Cazayoux, 44, told a crowded room of supporters. “The other side was more divisive.”

Jenkins offered his congratulations. He said low turnout and the large amounts of money spent were significant factors in this election.
The Secretary of State’s Office reported 101,011 of the 429,689 eligible voters  in the 6th District — or 23.5 percent — cast ballots Saturday.

Final but unofficial returns show Cazayoux won about 49 percent of the vote, compared to 46 percent for Jenkins, with three other candidates taking the rest. Under federal election rules new to Louisiana, the candidate with the most votes wins, even if the total is less than 50 percent.

With the Cazayoux win, Louisiana’s seven-member U.S. delegation has three Democrats for the first time since 2004 and for only the second time in 12 years.

The Congressional seat had been held by a Republican since 1974. Much of that time the seat belonged to Richard Baker, who resigned in February to take a job with a hedge fund association.

Two candidates without  party affiliation — Ashley Casey of Baton Rouge and Peter Aranyosi of Hammond — and Constitution Party candidate Randall Hayes of Winnfield also were in the race.

The district represents all of East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Livingston, St. Helena, West Baton Rouge and West Feliciana parishes and parts of Ascension, Iberville and Pointe Coupee parishes.

Cazayoux will serve as congressman for the term that ends in January 2009. The seat is up for election again in November.
Jenkins said he has not given thought to running in the fall but is not ruling it out.

On election day, a number of homes in Baton Rouge’s predominantly black neighborhoods were phoned with a tape-recorded message asking black voters to teach white Democrats a lesson by staying home and not casting ballots.

The ad signed off as “Friends of Michael Jackson.”

Jackson, a Democratic state representative defeated by Cazayoux in the primary runoff, said he was not involved or connected in any way with the calls. Jackson said he will run for the seat in November.