I am thrilled with the House voting NO to the Iraq War funding today.  I am thrilled with CA passing marriage legislation for gays today.  I am thrilled that MS and LA and IL picked up Dem seats recently.  I am disgusted with the crack-pot we have as commander-in-chief, his golf "sacrifice" and his fear-mongering, low political blow in Israel yesterday.  But I have a personal story to tell.  Campaign finance reform cannot come soon enough!  I have given myself almost 2 weeks post-election to let things settle.  ‘Tis time for me to record what I have learned in the political arena for 18 months.  I initially entered the congressional race for LA-01 because not enough was being done to help us recover from the broken levees fiasco and Hurricane Katrina.  15 months after the tragedy, the landscape looked hardly different than the day after the storm had passed.  Knowing my district needed a fighter who would not take no for an answer, I dove in head-first.  My district’s needs were paramount and I would defy even my own party if it stood in the way.  

Louisiana special election results:

Sixth District

61% of Precincts Reporting

Don Cazayoux (D):          47% (28672)
Woody Jenkins (R):         49% (30039)

First District

55% of Precincts Reporting

Gilda Reed (D):                25% (5804)
Steve Scalise (R):            73% (17072)

As you probably know, the Sixth District race is expected to be close, and a possible Democratic pickup; the race has received a good deal of national attention over the past few weeks. The First District, on the other hand, is about as red as they come.

Update by kos: SSP has a handy results chart of the LA-06 April 5th runoff election, so you can get a good idea in which parishes Cazayoux should perform well:

Ascension and Livingston parishes are the GOP strongholds here. Iberville, St. Helena, and Pointe Coupee (where Cazayoux's home is located) are strong Democratic parishes in local and federal elections and Cazayoux should perform well here tonight. East and West Feliciana are historically Democratic, but have trended GOP in federal elections in recent years. Between the runoff performance and Cazayoux's small town profile, I feel optimistic about the Democratic chances in Feliciana tonight.

Update: With 6% in, there's been a break for Jenkins, as he has opened a nine-point lead (mostly from votes coming in from his stronghold in Livingston Parish). It's still very, very early.

Update #3: Nearly 30% of results in, and while it's early, things look good so far for the GOP. Jenkins has a six-point lead, and LA-01 is the GOP blowout everyone expected.

Update #4: 45% in in LA-06, and Jenkins leads by nine. Cazayoux is getting beaten badly in East Baton Rouge. He needs roughly 54% of the remaining vote to win, and that looks like a tall order.

Update #5: It ain't over! 60% in, Cazayoux is back to within 1500 votes.

Update #6: Cazayoux continues to inch upward. This is looking like a nailbiter again. We're going to start a new thread shortly.

Race tracker wiki: LA-01 LA-06

Our fightin' progressive Gilda Reed finally has a Republican opponent in Louisiana. In the primary last Saturday, State Senator Steve Scalise beat out Tim Burns for the Republican nomination. There are just weeks before the May 3rd special election to fill Bobby Jindal's vacant seat. I thought I'd let you know where Steve Scalise stands on the issues in hopes that it will scare the dollars out of your wallet! We also should be expecting quite a bit of nasty politicking by the Scalise Campaign. During the Republican primary a judge ordered the Scalise Campaign to pull an ad that was full of lies about his Republican opponent. It looks as though we're in for a tough race, and maybe a very unethical one considering the Scalese Campaign tactics.

Crossposted at EENR Blog

There are three more special elections for the U.S. House coming up in the next five weeks, on the heels of the two we enjoyed in early March (where Democrats Bill Foster and Andre Carson enjoyed impressive victories).

Next on the table is the race in Mississippi's 1st District (to fill the seat of now-Senator Roger Wicker,) which will be held on April 22. Both parties' nominees will be determined tomorrow via runoff elections tomorrow.

Subsequently, Louisiana's 1st and 6th Districts will hold special elections on May 3 (to fill the old seats of now-Governor Bobby Jindal in the 1st, and now-lobbyist Richard Baker in the 6th).

All three of these districts are generally solidly red territory. The most Democratic of the three is LA-06, and that is hardly blue territory (it is R+7 according to Cook PVI, and Bush swamped Kerry 59-40 there). Nevertheless, we have a legitimate shot at winning that race, and the potential for a somewhat competitive race in MS-01 as well.

LA-01 is one of the most strongly Republican districts in the nation. Cook ranks it as the 16th-most, in fact, as it sports an impressive PVI of R+18.5. Bush managed 71% of the vote in LA-01 against John Kerry, following up on his 67-31 victory over Gore in 2000.

Bobby Jindal won 88% of the vote in 2006, after winning 78% in 2004, and his predecessor David Vitter did just as well; Diaper Dave got 82% in 2002 and 80% in 2000.

Our candidate is Gilda Reed, a psychology professor and DKos diarist. She'll face off against the Republican winner of an April 5 runoff between State Sen. Steve Scalise and State Rep. Tim Burns, with Scalise being the favorite to win the nomination.

Reed's campaign has generated a good bit of excitement here, and while I don't want to be a wet blanket, I think this district is as close to invulnerable for the Republicans as you can get. That's not a criticism of Reed, who is running hard. It's just that it would take something north of a miracle for a Democrat to win here at this time.

The Baton Rouge-based LA-06, however, is nowhere near as strongly Republican, and the special-election race here has become a serious pickup opportunity for Democrats. As Kos noted on Friday, the Cook Political Report has moved their ranking of this race to "Tossup", which is surprising and impressive considering the district's Republican bent.

Our candidate will be determined in a runoff election on Saturday, April 5 (as will the Republican candidate). The Democratic runoff pits the frontrunner, State Rep. and conservative Democrat Don Cazayoux, against fellow State Rep. Michael Jackson.  The winner will presumably face off against Republican frontrunner Woody Jenkins, the 1996 candidate for U.S. Senate.

As evidenced by the Cook ranking, Cazayoux is given a pretty good shot at winning the race. I'd say a win here would still be an upset, but it's certainly plausible. This should be a fascinating race to follow over the next month.

The race in MS-01 is somewhere between the two Louisiana races; it isn't a top-tier race by any stretch, as LA-06 is, but I think we've got a slightly better shot here than in LA-01. It's a very tough district, R+10, but not quite forbidden territory. Tomorrow's runoff election pits Prentiss County Chancery Clerk Travis Childers against State Rep. Steve Holland on the Democratic side, while Republicans Greg Davis and Glenn McCullough face off.

Both Childers and Holland have posted decent, if unspectacular, fundraising numbers. This race is a very long shot, but should be at least worth keeping an eye on.

With at least one top-tier race, and three races in all, it should be a highly interesting month.

Race tracker wiki: LA-01 LA-06 MS-01

As many of you know, EENR initially stood for Edwards Evening News Roundup. We Edwards supporters posted nightly diaries about John's campaign and what he stood for. Now, you didn't expect our candidate advocacy to end once John Edwards suspended his campaign did you? More below the fold....

It might be funny if it wasn't so bloody racist.  Cameron Henry, Representative-elect for LA State House District 82 wants to impeach Eddie Jordan.  Here's what this genius has to say:

"What he has done to that office is downright embarrassing, and I think they have to get to another stage -- and he's not the person to get them there," Henry said.

The majority of district 82 is in Jefferson Parish.  Henry represents a few blocks of Uptown, and now he wants to lead the charge to remove someone elected by the whole of Orleans Parish from office.  When a white Republican pulls a stunt like this, the first thing that comes into my mind is, would he be doing this if Jordan was white?

My name is Gilda Reed.   I am a life-long resident of Louisiana’s Katrina-burdened First District and a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives.  I am determined to make a positive difference in the lives of my people.

Representatives are NOT supposed to bend over backwards for big businesses allowing their interests to take precedence over the welfare of the rest of us.  Representatives ARE supposed to fight tooth and nail for their constituents like I have done for years for my children and my community.  Beat on doors when your people are hurting!  Leave no stone unturned when your people need you!  Be a thorn in the side of those on Capitol Hill until the plight of your people is reconciled!