Nearly every political analyst figured Congressman William Jefferson would be re-elected in the heavily Democratic and African-American 2nd Congressional District in Louisiana.
“Dollar Bill”, as his detractors know Jefferson, is under indictment on 16 counts of corruption and awaiting trial. The sordid details of his case include $90,000 found in his freezer. Jefferson is accused of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes.
Jefferson had the good fortune of five opponents in the primary. He made it into the runoff with just 30% of the vote and his opponent the sole white candidate, Helena Moreno. In the runoff, he won with 57% of the vote and 93,000 votes.
Jefferson’s luck finally ran out in the general election. He only polled 47% of the vote, 31,296 votes, to Anh 
“Joseph” Cao, who received 50%, 33,122 votes.
The interesting fact is that in the November 4th runoff, Jefferson received 93,000 votes, but on December 6 only 66,000 voted for all the candidates. Obviously, the high African-American turnout propelled Jefferson to victory over Moreno in the run-off but set-up Jefferson’s defeat to Cao in the general.
In an odd way, Barack Obama caused the Democrats to lose this Congressional seat to the Republicans.
Cao, a Republican, will not significantly alter the heavily Democratic Congress. However, Congress will be less one scumbag. It is doubtful many Democrats will miss Jefferson. Notably, Cao becomes the first Vietnamese-American to be elected to Congress. Cao will have to operate from the middle if he has any hope of being reelected in 2010.
Cao ran an honorable campaign, seeking to portray an image of decency. Jefferson surrounded himself with cronies, although many do have considerable political influence. The real question is how so many Democrats can be stupid enough to nominate Jefferson for a tenth term. Although he had some seniority, he was thoroughly discredited, stripped of his committee membership and ignored by the Democratic leadership.
Former Congressman Republican Randy “Duke” Cunningham, now serving eight years for bribery, may soon have a new cellmate.
