JEFFERSON
Posted on 10/28/2006 12:48:15 PM PDT by Libloather
Democrat refuses to let FBI inquiry stop him
By CAIN BURDEAU
The Associated Press
Posted on Sat, Oct. 28, 2006
JEFFERSON
NEW ORLEANS -- They line up to kiss him, hug him, slap hands, give him their blessing. William Jefferson, an eight-term House Democrat enmeshed in an FBI bribery investigation, is feeling good about his re-election prospects.
"All right!" a relaxed Jefferson warbles into the ear of a female supporter who offers her cheek to his puckered lips. "How are you?" she asks, one of several fans at the entrance of a nursing home he's picked as a campaign stop.
"Doing fine, doing fine," Jefferson repeats like a line he's picked up from a self-help manual on being upbeat. He moves onto the next warm exchange. More hugs, more kisses, more brotherly love.
Down here, allegations of wrongdoing aren't necessarily the kiss of death for politicians.
"All of them are doing basically the same thing -- but he just got caught," Herman Hill, 53, said about Jefferson. Wearing a "Don't Mess With Jeff" campaign pin, Hill grinned when asked to explain his views on politicians: "They're stealing. They say they want to help people, but they're helping themselves."
For the record, Jefferson, 59, has denied bribery allegations stemming from $90,000 in marked $100 bills found in his freezer. He's known as a Bible-quoting Baptist who abstains from alcohol and tobacco.
But for all his optimism about being re-elected, Jefferson was denied the endorsement of his own party and is hoping the Nov. 7 open primary sends him into a Dec. 9 runoff. State Rep. Karen Carter secured the endorsement, and Democratic officials have quietly given her some fundraising help.
Jefferson could win outright by getting more than half the vote, but with 12 challengers, several of them rising stars in city politics, that's unlikely.
If Jefferson makes it to a runoff, his opponent is likely to garner the vast majority of white voters, a largely unforgiving 30 percent of the electorate when it comes to the allegations against Jefferson. Also, his challenger will likely be a fellow black candidate capable of slicing into his bread and butter -- middle-age and retired Protestant black voters.
A tough race to predict
No white candidate -- including the leading Republican -- has fared well in pre-election polls in this predominantly black and historically Democratic district.
"He has enough voters who are loyal that will get him into a runoff. ...But every time we talk about New Orleans it depends on who votes," said pollster Bernie Pinsonat.
That's hard to pin down because Hurricane Katrina changed the city's demographics and displaced tens of thousands of voters.
Jefferson, like his opponents, has campaigned at FEMA trailer parks and plans radio ads in Houston and Atlanta, which took in many Katrina evacuees. He believes displaced voters could make up a third of the final vote tally.
The registrar of voters is uncertain how many voters remain displaced from Jefferson's district. They may vote early -- by returning to the city -- or by mail absentee ballot. Many displaced voters living in the region but outside the city are likely to choose to drive in on Election Day.
Jefferson arrived on the New Orleans scene in the 1970s as a Harvard-educated lawyer from the backwaters of north Louisiana, the sixth of 10 children brought up in a three-room country home. By 1980, he represented New Orleans in the state Senate. At 42, he became the first black from Louisiana in the House since Reconstruction.
The law firm Jefferson founded became the largest black-owned practice in the South. He created a political organization, the Progressive Democrats, which fielded candidates for the school board, assessors' races, state House seats and mayoral contests.
He was criticized because his law firm took lucrative contracts from Southern University and the attorney general's office while he served in the state Senate. But no punitive action was taken.
Questions lingered. Records show Jefferson defaulted on loans and was sued for poor maintenance of his extensive real estate holdings. He also overdrew the bank account of his congressional office, which Jefferson attributed to sloppy bookkeeping.
Jefferson's latest money trouble stems from allegations in an FBI affidavit that he accepted $100,000 in cash in 2005 from an FBI informant in a scheme to bribe Nigerian telecommunications officials. All but $10,000 of the cash was found four days later in the freezer of his Washington home, the FBI said.
Two of Jefferson's associates pleaded guilty to bribery-related charges; one, a Kentucky businessman, admitted paying more than $400,000 in bribes to a phony company headed by Jefferson's wife and family to obtain favors from the congressman.
That's all well and good, but he says the same thing just as soon as the bribe is finalized...
LAst poll showed him at 25 percent. If Karen Carter can get in the runoff he is toast
He just following the William Jefferson Clinton model of good government.
And he's probably getting some tips from Edward M. Kennedy (DUI-Chappaquiddick).
Still hear some black leaders calling this "selective prosecution", and "racism".
How sad.
I'm afraid you're right, Hendrix. Jefferson's district has been a political cesspool for years.
Even if he drove a suicide propane truck into an elementary school full of kids, the district would just elect another clown like him.
The top 3 people that are running against him are pretty good
I wouldn't bet against your staement there pal. I just can't comprehend why this turd isn't in jail.
Any wonder why many of us have lost all confidence in our justice system?
Thanks for the tip, catholicfreeper, I'll have a look!
BATON ROUGE, La. - An eight-term Democratic Louisiana congressman whose Capitol Hill office was raided earlier this year as part of a bribery investigation failed Saturday to win the endorsement of the state's Democratic Party.Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record) was passed over by the party's State Central Committee in favor of state Rep. Karen Carter. The committee voted 69-53 to endorse Carter in the Nov. 7 election.........
...Carter is one of three prominent Democrats challenging Jefferson for the seat. The others are state Sen. Derrick Shepherd of Marerro and Troy Carter, a former New Orleans City Council member. If no candidate earns more than 50 percent of the vote Nov. 7, a second vote will be held in December with the top two candidates.
One think that is interesting in that race is to look at the recent Sec of States race that was just a few weeks ago. The Democrat did horrible in fact so bad he withdrew.
Jay Dardenne ,one of the Republicans and eventual winner, got 16 to 20 percent in traditional black wards in New Orleans. That might be a good sign. Especially for the Governors race and the upcoming Senate race
The people in his district look like idiots.
I hear that Karen Carter is being backed with a lot of Republican money. Karen Carter must have said the word bipartisan 100 times during the last debate. She also I think has Breauxs support if that menas anything anymore
I also think Shepard is a JAG officer I believe I read
Hmmm...interesting! (I'd forgotten that Louisiana uses the open-primary system, which can yield some surprises from time to time.) I'll tuck that away for the moment, as I've got to get offline, but if the GOP can make some inroads here that would be a great sign for upcoming Bayou State races. Best of luck!
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Senator Derrick Shepherd - District 3 |
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Karen Carter supported Mitch Landrieu over Nagin in the Maryors race..... so some of that spill over is there also |
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The only crime in the Democratic party's eyes is if you can't win an election. It's only when their candidates start looking like losers or they're stinking up the place so badly that they're endangering other Democrats that they'll be tossed under a bus. Until then, nothing they do amounts to a reason to get rid of them.
I asm curious how Labor is going to vote in that election. I think they endorsed Jefferson but Jefferson yes vote for CAFTA is hurting him I think
My Momma always told me that you are judged by the company you keep and that birds of a feather flock together.
I think most blacks are proud that one of their own is sticking it to the man. That isnt whats happening of course , but thats the way they look at it.
With help from the MSM, Democrats get away with crime, corruption and sexual perversions...they get to keep their posts ,too (see: B Clinton, T Kennedy, B Frank, H Reed, the list goes on and on...)...
Arrogantly, the MSM claim they are for truth and the Democrats claim they are for justice for all...
I'd like to see a study done to determine how many people died as a result of his using rescue vehicles and workers to save his bribe money.
Being pro-national security seems to be pretty risky. Just ax independent RAT Joe Lieberman...
Just another example of the ethical leadership we can look forward to if the Democrats take control.
While some "line up to kiss him, hug him, slap hands, give him their blessing," a lot of the rest of us - most of America - are waiting to see what happens to a crook in high office. Pay attention, law enforcement! This will impact on what we think of you!
About a week ago, one of the reporters on FoxNews said the voters in NO didn't care about ethics, they were concerned about getting their city back to normal. It was said like that was reasonable, the people voting for Jefferson.
I was thinking "HuH". Just shook my head.
But wait! You say this guy's a Harvard-educated lawyer? How can that be?? Unfulievable!!
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