6th District candidates weigh in on war, Wall Street, tax issues

• By GERARD SHIELDS
• Advocate Washington bureau
• Published: Oct 17, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:50 p.m.
• Correction:
  A story published in Friday’s edition of The Baton Rouge Advocate wrongly stated that U.S. Rep. Don Cazayoux, D-New Roads, opposed a wall being built at the Mexican border for immigration control. Cazayoux supports the wall. The Advocate regrets the error.

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WASHINGTON — Taxes, Wall Street and war are some of the issues that the winner of the Nov. 4 election for Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District will face.

U.S. Rep. Don Cazayoux, a Democrat from New Roads, is trying to hang on to the post he won in a May special election.

Challenging Cazayoux is Bill Cassidy, the Baton Rouge Republican state senator.

Michael Jackson, the Democrat and former Baton Rouge state representative, is running as an independent for the Baton Rouge-area district. Jackson lost  to Cazayoux in the special-election Democratic primary in April.

Unlike in most state and local elections in Louisiana, the candidate with the most votes, or plurality, wins the congressional race. A candidate does not have to get 50 percent plus one to win.

Here is where the candidates stand on several prominent issues:

Cazayoux voted against the recent $700 billion bailout bill for the nation’s lending industry. He blames federal regulators for the problem.

“Our regulations need an overhaul,” Cazayoux said. “We need to be focused on solving the problem and making sure we don’t fall into it again.”

Jackson said he opposed the bailout, adding that a new federal commission should be formed as a watchdog over the nation’s financial industry.

“What would it cost us to do more on the front end?” Jackson asked. “Now it’s clear there are certain things that will trigger that downturn in the economy.”

Cassidy said he would have supported the bailout bill, because it was needed to keep the economy afloat and save jobs.

Cassidy contends the federal government does not need new regulations — the answer is better enforcement of laws already on the books.

“Some of the problem has not been the regulation but the regulators,” Cassidy said. “We don’t want to punish the companies that are doing it right.”