Politics for Oct. 12, 2008

• Advocate news services
• Published: Oct 12, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:00 a.m.

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Gov. Bobby Jindal is traveling to Texas on Monday to raise campaign cash.

Jindal is scheduled to attend a fundraiser for congressional candidate Pete Olson in Houston on Monday afternoon followed by a gubernatorial campaign fundraiser for himself later that day.

On Saturday, Jindal traveled to Florida to stump for Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and to hold a fundraiser for his own campaign.

Jindal has said he plans to run for re-election in three years.

Cheney appears at Cassidy fundraiser
Vice President Dick Cheney helped raise more than $150,000 during a party last week for state Sen. Bill Cassidy’s campaign for the 6th Congressional District.

Cheney’s return to Baton Rouge Metro Airport after the event snarled traffic during the evening rush hour Monday.

Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, is running against incumbent U.S. Rep. Don Cazayoux, D-New Roads, and state Rep. Michael Jackson, No Party-Baton Rouge, in a Nov. 4 election.

“Vice President Cheney is very engaging in person,” Cassidy said. “On TV, he sometimes seems less so.”

Chris Ingram, Cassidy’s campaign manager, said they had more than 200 paying guests. The campaign charged $500 for attendance and $2,000 for a photo with Cheney.

Jackson considers party membership
During a recent meeting with reporters and editors from The Advocate, state Rep. Michael Jackson said that, if he is elected to Congress on Nov. 4, he’s not sure whether he would keep his current no-party status or rejoin the Democratic Party.

“We will evaluate that once we get to Washington and see how effective I can or cannot be as an independent,” Jackson said.

The Baton Rouge lawyer contends that the Louisiana Democratic Party gave short shrift to his candidacy to fill the remaining months of U.S. Rep. Richard Baker’s term. Jackson ran for — and lost — the Democratic nomination against the eventual winner, then-state Rep. Don Cazayoux, of New Roads. Baker had quit Congress to run a hedge fund trade association.

This fall, Jackson skipped the Democratic primary and signed up as a no-party candidate in the race for the office’s full two-year term. That precluded a primary election battle with Cazayoux, now the incumbent. It gave Jackson an automatic spot on the winner-take-all, general election ballot against Cazayoux and state Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge.