Dollar Bill Jefferson defeated

This is excellent news. Congressman William Jefferson, who was indicted on 16 counts of bribery, money laundering and a host of other corruption charges, was defeated yesterday by a political rookie.  Joseph Cao, a Vietnamese American, wiped the floor with Jefferson.

Anh Joseph Cao, a little-known 41-year-old community organizer and GOP attorney, knocked off nine-term Democratic Rep. William Jefferson in a stunning upset in Louisiana’s Second District to become the first Vietnamese American elected to Congress.

In recent years Jefferson has been fighting scandals and a federal indictment for money laundering, bribery and misusing his congressional office, which he denies. Last year the FBI reported finding $90,000 in marked bills in Jefferson’s freezer.

But voters in the heavily black (60%) and Democratic (66%) district that covers much of the city of New Orleans had been loyal to him — until today, when Louisiana held two House elections delayed in the aftermath of September’s Hurricane Gustav.

Cao came to the United States as a child in the 1975 evacuation of Saigon and earned degrees in law, physics and philosophy. His new district has only 11% registered Republicans, but with about 80% of the votes counted, Cao was winning 53-43.

Mr. Cao is a GOP community organizer, believe it or not.  Many of us conservatives argued that Obama’s community organizing experience simply was not experience enough to be president, which is still the case, but it’s not a bad idea to get more people on the ground in inner cities lobbying and organizing for Republican ideas. Millions of people in inner cities are being sold snake oil called liberal ideas. The voters of Mr. Cao’s new district is 66% Democrat and 60% African American, and they voted for a man who ran on Republican ideas. And what happened? He walloped his corrupt, big-government, liberal Democrat opponent whose constituency had been very loyal to him up until now.

I had never heard of Mr. Cao until reading the Top of the Ticket post. Here’s some of his background from his campaign website. It’s impressive:

PERSONAL HISTORY • Law degree from Loyola University • Former Jesuit seminarian • Vietnamese refugee • Small business owner • Fluent in English, Vietnamese, French, and Spanish • Married with two daughters • Member, Mary Queen of Vietnam Catholic Church

MAN OF ACTION • Opened local Boat People SOS Office to help local refugees • Has worked at local, state and national levels to ensure equal rights of legal minorities in the U.S. • A former secondary school teacher • A former university professor • Appointed by the Archbishop of New Orleans to U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops National Advisory Council

KATRINA SURVIVOR • Helped restore energy and telecommunications service to New Orleans East in timely fashion • Rebuilt his home and law practice from scratch • Helped protect neighborhoods from illegal and hazardous dumping of Katrina debris • An involved volunteer in rebuilding greater New Orleans

I understand why the voters of New Orleans would overwhelmingly choose Mr. Cao over Congressman Jefferson. He’s a self-made man. What a breath of fresh air for the “womb to the tomb” mentality that has over taken the House of Representatives.

Scott at Power Line points out a very interesting thing about Louisiana’s Second District that makes Cao’s win even more amazing:

The Times-Picayne story on the result notes that the Second District “was specifically drawn to give African-Americans an electoral advantage and one in which two of every three voters are registered Democrats.” According to the Times-Picayne, low turnout appears to account in part for the outcome. The Times-Picayune, incidentally, endorsed Cao over Jefferson.

Barron Von Ottomatic, a guest poster at Wizbang has written about Cao’s defeat of Dollar Bill.

Be sure to check out David Freddoso’s November 5th interview with Cao.

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