Posted on 12/04/2004 11:31:21 PM PST by Theodore R.
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, covering all of 10 parishes and part of three parishes from St. Martin and Iberia in the west to St. Charles in the east, Melancon appeared to have won with 57,609 votes, or about 50 percent, defeating Tauzin, who took 57,092 votes, or about 50 percent, according to complete, but unofficial returns.
Tauzin campaign staffer Matt Gresham said Tauzin wants to wait until the ballots are certified later in the week.
"I'm glad it's over. It wasn't pretty, but that's behind us now," Melancon said in a telephone interview. "Now, my main objective is to move forward and try to make sure this district is as well represented as it should be. That's not to say it hasn't been, that's just to say I have my work cut out for me."
Melancon said the people he talked to during his campaign are worried about jobs, prescription drugs, affordable health care, coastal erosion and the loss of good jobs to overseas.
"There are a lot of concerns out there, the largest a concern for the economy and a loss of jobs," Melancon said. "I'm going to try to find some common ground between the Republican and Democratic proposals so we can get this country back on a balanced keel."
In the 7th District, covering all or part of eight parishes from Calcasieu and Cameron in the west to Lafayette and St. Martin in the east, Boustany won with 75,035 votes, or 55 percent, defeating state Sen. Willie Mount, D-Lake Charles, who received 61,483 votes, or 45 percent, according to complete, but unofficial returns.
Boustany said Saturday night that the reality of his win had not yet sunken in.
"I'm still floating," he said.
Boustany said his first order of business will be to get his congressional office together before January.
He said he had expected the race to be close, though some polling numbers indicated he might have a lead on the order of the voters he ended up getting.
Mount released a statement thanking her supporters and vowing to continue working in her office as state senator to provide more jobs, economic progress and better health care.
She congratulated Boustany and said she looks forward to working with him in the future.
Boustany said that Mount was gracious in a telephone call conceding the election and that he too looks forward to working together.
The final week of both district campaigns was marked by campaign visits from heavy hitters from both parties.
Republican Vice President Dick Cheney made a one-day, two-stop trip to boost Boustany and Tauzin, accompanied by Louisiana Republicans: U.S. Sen.-elect David Vitter and U.S. Rep.-elect Bobby Jindal, both fresh off Nov. 2 victories.
Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco and U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-New Orleans, made the rounds for Melancon and Mount.
Retiring U.S. Sen. John Breaux, D-Crowley, endorsed Mount, but mostly stayed out of the 3rd District race other than being on hand for the candidacy announcement of Tauzin.
Breaux and the Tauzins are longtime family friends.
All the candidates in both runoffs, regardless of party, claimed to be pro-life, pro-gun and for defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
3rd District
In the 3rd District, both Melancon and Tauzin pushed similar platforms of wanting to simplify the national tax system, cut taxes on business, find funding to bolster the failing coastline and oppose trade agreements that hurt state industries, most notably sugar production.
Melancon went after Tauzin early after the Nov. 2 election, which Tauzin led, attacking the 31-year-old Tauzin, son of the retiring U.S. Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-Chackbay, with claims that he was too young and inexperienced to serve in Congress.
Melancon and the national Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee went with the general line that Tauzin, derided as "little Billy," was "not ready for Congress."
Democrats also attacked Tauzin as someone who does not respect the law, noting an old DUI arrest, a dispute one of his campaign staff members had with police over a parking ticket, and his having been cited for trapping nutria.
Tauzin followed the lead of the Republican National Congressional Committee in attempting to paint Melancon, who served six years in the state House, as a reckless raiser of taxes.
Republicans also went through Melancon's legislative record to find a vote against a strict music labeling law, for a bill dealing with sex education -- implying it cleared the way for teaching third-graders about sex -- and for various tax and fee increases.
State Sen. Craig Romero, R-New Iberia and third-place finisher in the Nov. 2 race, at first refused to have anything to do with either candidate, but moved to play a role in the race in the last few days.
While still not endorsing a candidate, Romero ran newspaper ads thanking his supporters, a month after the first election, and blasting Tauzin's campaign for negative tactics in the closing days of the first race.
Romero's ads also referred to a lack of experience and maturity on the part of Tauzin, and urged voters to go with a candidate with experience.
Romero had been the only candidate in the first race from the western side of the district, and his departure left Iberia and St. Martin parishes open to the two candidates.
Melancon and Tauzin courted the area hard late in the election.
Melancon brought Blanco and Democratic state Agriculture Commissioner Bob Odom to the area for rallies and statements of support in the last week of the election.
Tauzin brought his father and Vitter to New Iberia for a final-week rally and endorsement event.
7th District
In the 7th District, Boustany and Mount pushed platforms of economic development, better access to health care, and defense of the Social Security system.
Boustany, a retired heart surgeon, pushed his background as a doctor, saying that he had special insight into the health-care system as a consumer and a provider.
Mount said her experience as mayor of Lake Charles and a state senator gave her experience and the ability needed to act on important issues.
The 7th District race radio and television war grew more hostile as the race got into the final two weeks.
Early attacks in the race before the Nov. 2 election and the days immediately after focused mainly on casting Mount as supporting taxes on people and businesses and tying Boustany to federal issues such as tax breaks for high-income wage earners and possible partial privatization of Social Security.
Later ads were fiercer, with Boustany tagging Mount as a "millionaire politician," as having voted to make access to the "morning-after" abortion pill easier, and as being tied to Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.
Mount's ads went after Boustany as having left his medical practice for fear of malpractice suits, as having called for cuts to charity hospital funding and as having been swindled in an attempt to buy his way into British nobility.
Sugar growers there also thought Melancon would be more successful at maintaining subsidies.
Billy Tauzin fils:
Gee, thanks a lot for the help, dad!
Seriously, I think this should be a lesson to the political hacks who operate the party machinery that they should stop imitating the Dems, i.e. looking to build a political dynasty in the Kennedy mold.
It didn't work with Schuster, Taft and similar candidates who were nominated by the bosses, and it's not going to work in the future.
It did work with Lisa Murkowski and, of course, Jeb and George W. Bush, not to mention the fact that George H. W. Bush was himself a politician's son. Lots of people go into the family business, and I see nothing wrong with the children (or other relatives) of politicians going into politics.
Still, a very disappointing loss... 0.45%. Heartbreaking. If I were a Democrat, I'd scream about fraud and demand a recount.
Though I don't think the GOP-which isn't nearly as lustful for power as their counterparts in the other party-will prolong a situation that will only serve to antagonize even more voters, who by this point, have probably become disinterested in the outcome of this whole affair.
Did young Tauzin try to answer the false charges that he was "too young" to be in Congress? He could have tried the "Quayle line" and pointed out that the popular JFK I was only 29 when he was elected to the House in 1946. I got the impression that young Tauzin would not even answer Melancon's claim that Tauzin was "too young." He could have said, "Did Melancon also criticize Bill Clinton for running for Congress at the age of 28 in 1974?" Some Republicans just freeze up when Democrats raise unimportant claims.
I guess that's why the highly qualified Jeb Bush can't run in 08, too bad eh?
>Well, votes-especially for Republicans-have been known to disappear in LA, so it wouldn't be a shock if that happened in this case.
.... and let's not forget "all the dead people" who still get a vote here, too!
And Bush himself realizes this, which is why he's already taken himself out of the running.
The best possible candidate-and this is just my opinion-would be Bill Owens.
I agree about Jeb, it's just unfortunate in that he would be a good prez, Bill Owens is an excellent governor. He would be an very good choice.
Who knows?
If Lawton Chiles and the scheming Dems in Tallahassee hadn't manufactured a last minute scare campaign-designed to intimidate voters into pulling the "D" lever-we might be discussing the second cabinet of President Jeb Bush right now.
Putting that aside, I do think that Gov. Owens would make an interesting choice for several equally compelling reasons.
He would be the first GOP nominee to be from the West-and no, I don't consider California to be part of that definition-since Barry Goldwater. Only in the next election, there will be a large plurality of voters who already live there, unlike in 1964.
He will come from a state that has a growing Hispanic population, which the Republicans need to capture and hold if they entertain any hope of retaining their dominance in presidential elections.
He will also take out of play one more state that the radical libs in the Dem. Party are currently besieging, see the recent narrow victory of Ken Salazer.
In terms of potential nominees, he's probably the best one the GOP has looked at since Pete Wilson.
However, Owens doesn't have the liabilities of a Pete Wilson, e.g. the latter's support for abortion, early history of tax increases and general ill will generated within the upper echelons of the party machine.
Good points, all.
I just hope Thompson doesn't run. He'll split the party on a slam-Bush-or-don't line. Lots of folks are thinking since there is no VP that this will be a good election for the GOP. It will likely be the harshest since 1980.
Thompson's a hard man, and I bet he slams Bush hard, given his recent smack on the way out.
I will be pushing for someone I can believe in. I don't know if Owens is it yet. I know it will NOT be Brownback, who I don't trust to stay conservative.
He realizes that the presidency is a bridge too far.
If there's one candidate that the cultural conservatives within the GOP can unite behind, it would be Rick Santorum, despite his recent actions, which may have alienated certain portions of his core constituency.
Dynasties have never served our country well and should be shunned for the superior democratic (note the small "d") process of allowing the public to choose their own representation. Dynastic families always seem to end up serving tragedy to their followers or reaping it themselves. BTW, if you see some guy named Ford from Memphis's lips moving always assume he's lying and/or up to no good.
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