from The Nation:
Democrats Win Another GOP House Seatposted by John Nichols on 05/04/2008 @ 10:44am
Democrats took another Republican-held U.S. House seat in a special election Saturday, suggesting that the party remains on track for significant expansion of its congressional majorities in 2008.
Louisiana Democrat Don Cazayoux, a young moderate with state legislative experience, snatched a seat that Republicans had held since the 1970s by a 49-46 margin over a well-funded campaign by veteran Republican legislator Woody Jenkins.
The win extends the Democratic majority in the House to 235-198 and it continues a pattern of special-election wins for the party in seats that have traditionally been thought of as Republican strongholds -- including the Illinois turf of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert.
But it does something far more significant.
Republicans and their allied special-interest groups had sought to save the seat by "nationalizing" -- or, to be more precise,
racializing -- the contest with a campaign that sought to tie Cazayoux to Democratic presidential frontrunner Barack Obama. Hoping to capitalize on concerns about Obama's former minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in order to exploit racial divisions in the south and other regions of recent Republican strength, GOP operatives have developed advertising schemes that feature images of Obama, Wright and local Democratic candidates.
The strategy was implemented in Louisiana and is also being used in an upcoming Mississippi special election. .......(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/317755