Free Republic

Boustany, Melancon top vote Tauzin III awaits final tally By PATRICK COURREGES and ANGELA SIMONEAUX Acadiana bureau Southern Louisiana voters Saturday appeared to have decided the last two congressional races in the nation, electing Democrat Charlie Melancon in the 3rd District and Republican Charles Boustany Jr. in the 7th District, giving the Democratic and Republican parties a split of the final two seats available. But the 3rd District race was decided by slightly more than 500 votes out of more than 114,000 cast, and 3rd District Republican candidate Billy Tauzin III is not conceding the race. In the 3rd District,...

Third runner-up endorses Boustany for Congress By PATRICK COURREGES pcourreges@theadvocate.com Acadiana bureau LAFAYETTE -- The last holdout among candidates who finished out of the runoff in the Nov. 2 election for Louisiana's 7th Congressional District seat announced his intentions Friday. David Thibodaux, a Lafayette Republican who finished fourth in the initial race with 10 percent of the vote, announced his endorsement of fellow Lafayette Republican Charles Boustany Jr. who is running against state Sen. Willie Mount, D-Lake Charles on Dec. 4. "For whatever it's worth, whatever I can bring to the table, it's yours, my friend," Thibodaux told Boustany at...

While the Cravins family is making history at the state capitol, the senior of the two is speaking out against the Democratic party. Senator Don Cravins, who has clashed with the party before, suggested last week he doesn't care whether a Democrat or Republican ultimately wins the seat. The senator goes on to say, "There's a large degree of disillusionment with the way the race was conducted and the way the party conducted it. Some traditional Democrat votes are not leaning towards supporting her. I think it's an uphill battle for Willie Mount." Mount is in a December 4th runoff...

Jindal backs Lafayette Republican Surgeon Boustany in 7th District runoff By PATRICK COURREGES pcourreges@theadvocate.com Acadiana bureau Bobby Jindal, Louisiana's newest Republican congressman-elect, said Friday in Lake Charles he is supporting 7th Congressional District Republican candidate Charles Boustany Jr.'s bid to join the state's delegation. Jindal handily won election to Louisiana's 1st District seat in his first run for the post Nov. 2, and spoke in favor of Boustany, a retired heart surgeon from Lafayette, at a Lake Charles Republican Roundtable luncheon. "I'm proud to call Bobby a friend and hope to call him a colleague," Boustany said. U.S. Sen.-elect David...

Mount outlines her views Candidate decries jobs taken overseas By PATRICK COURREGES pcourreges@theadvocate.com Acadiana bureau LAFAYETTE -- State Sen. Willie Mount, D-Lake Charles and a candidate in the 7th District congressional race, said Tuesday she wants to target the tax benefits of companies that send their jobs or money overseas. Mount rolled out her economic plan at a pair of stops in the population centers of the district -- Lafayette and Lake Charles. She said at a news conference at the Lafayette Museum of Natural History that she wants to study the tax structure to to find ways to cut...