“Friends of Michael Jackson” (the State Rep, not the King of Pop) Attempted to Suppress African-American Voter Turn-Out.
For the first time since 1974, Louisiana’s Sixth Congressional District is represented by a Democrat, Don Cazayoux of New Roads.
Congratulations to Representative-Elect Cazayoux and to his entire team. They ran an effective and professional campaign, and they helped to dispel some myths and misconceptions about the good people of Louisiana’s Sixth District.
Early on, the experts all seemed to agree that a Democrat stood very little chance of winning, but Mr. Cazayoux proved them wrong by building a working and enthusiastic coalition of both Democrats and Republicans.
Kudos.
Ryan at the Daily Kingfish provides an excellent series of articles and posts on this election. Kudos to him and to all of the bloggers who helped raise both money and awareness for this important race.
But don’t rest on your laurels quite yet… we’ve got to do this all over again in November.
On election day, a number of homes in Baton Rouge’s predominantly black neighborhoods were phoned with a tape-recorded message asking black voters to teach white Democrats a lesson by staying home and not casting ballots.
The ad signed off as “Friends of Michael Jackson.”
Jackson, a Democratic state representative defeated by Cazayoux in the primary runoff, said he was not involved or connected in any way with the calls. Jackson said he will run for the seat in November.
State Democratic Party Chairman Christopher Whittington said the calls violated election law, and the party would take appropriate action against whoever was responsible.
Michael Jackson, with friends like yours, who needs enemies?
Does anyone really think the Obama or Clinton campaign (more than likely, the Obama campaign) will reach out and help someone whose “friends” attempted to suppress African-American turn-out in order to “teach white Democrats a lesson”? Pitiful.
Jackson must believe that an Obama candidacy will lead to an increased African-American turn-out, which would benefit him, an African-American, at defeating Don Cazayoux, a white man.
Of course, this type of political maneuvering and racial essentialization is completely antithetical to Obama’s message.
Obama would be wise to recognize that Cazayoux is, in fact, the first Democrat elected in the Sixth District since 1974, and that means something about his coalition and his message. And considering the Republican Party already attempted to attack Cazayoux by way of Obama (and it backfired), the two are already loosely associated in voter’s minds. Not to mention, Jackson would be challenging as an Independent.
According to the folks over at DailyKos, this makes Cazayoux a superdelegate.
CenLamar 
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