Thread: Embattled Louisiana Legislator Prevails

NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 9 — Brushing past months of unflattering headlines about a federal corruption investigation, Representative William J. Jefferson was elected to a ninth term on Saturday, with a decisive runoff victory that again emphasized this city’s sharp racial divisions.

Mr. Jefferson, a Democrat, was heavily favored in black precincts, and Saturday’s result suggested that his loyal constituents ignored the accusations of an F.B.I. investigation and rallied around him, as they had in the past and as the congressman had pleaded with them to do. He has not been charged with anything, and vigorously maintains his innocence.

A dominant figure in Louisiana politics for more than 20 years, Mr. Jefferson, 59, is at the center of a political organization that is influential at several levels of elected office in this city.

With slightly more than a third of the precincts reporting, Mr. Jefferson led his Democratic challenger, Karen Carter, 37, a lawyer and Louisiana state representative, with just more than 60 percent of the vote late Saturday. Mr. Jefferson ran especially strong in suburban Jefferson Parish, about a third of the district, where the sheriff had come out against Ms. Carter. She conceded around 10:15 p.m. Central time.

The election did not affect the Democrats’ new majority in Congress but was nonetheless being followed in Washington, where there was concern about the potential pall a Jefferson victory could cast on the party’s new emphasis on ethics. Democratic leaders kicked Mr. Jefferson off the House Ways and Means Committee last summer in response to the Federal Bureau of Investigation inquiry into his financial dealings. The state party refused to endorse him.

Likewise, opponents of Mr. Jefferson here expressed concern about the message his re-election would send to the rest of the country, particularly given this state’s reputation for corruption.

Analysts were surprised at Mr. Jefferson’s victory. “It’s not good for the city, and it’s not good for the state,” said Susan Howell, a political scientist at the University of New Orleans. “We’ve re-elected the least effective congressman, at odds with the speaker of the House. He’s going to be totally preoccupied with legal troubles as opposed to representing the people of the Second District.”

Saturday’s incomplete tally appeared to split along racial lines, based on results in the November primary and interviews with voters. In the midterm election, Ms. Carter, who is also black, was the clear choice of white voters by more than seven to one, while blacks voted for Mr. Jefferson by about five to one.

Though Hurricane Katrina changed the city’s population, reducing the 70-percent black majority and making the two races more nearly equal, blacks still have a population edge and can dominate elections.

In the last month of the campaign, Ms. Carter assiduously reminded voters of the accusations against Mr. Jefferson that began to make headlines shortly before Hurricane Katrina in August 2005: the $90,000 in marked bills that the F.B.I. said it found in his freezer that the agency said was bribe money destined to be paid to an African politician on behalf of a businessman whom the congressman was trying to help; and Mr. Jefferson’s efforts to extract cash from the businessman in return for help in securing deals.

But some black voters looked past the accusations. In interviews, several bristled at the suggestion made by some whites that sending Mr. Jefferson back to Washington would cast the city in unflattering light.

“He’s worked it hard down there over the years, and they haven’t proven anything yet,” said Freddie Robinson, a retired bus mechanic, after casting his ballot for Mr. Jefferson. “He’s done so much for us.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/us/10 ... r=homepage

Can you say "ENTITLEMENTS"??

I heard it said on one of the Katrina forums long time ago, that N.O. and La would sooner vote in a known corrupt inept democratic politician, then to elect a republican! Guess that is true since Mayor Nagin and Jefferson was both re-elected! What can I say

Originally Posted by AlturaCt

NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 9 —

Saturday’s incomplete tally appeared to split along racial lines, based on results in the November primary and interviews with voters. In the midterm election, Ms. Carter, who is also black, was the clear choice of white voters by more than seven to one, while blacks voted for Mr. Jefferson by about five to one.