Monday, December 8, 2008

Indicted Rep. Jefferson Loses Louisiana Seat

CBS News - (AP) Voters in Louisiana ousted indicted Democratic Rep. William Jefferson [D] on Saturday, instead electing a Republican attorney who will be the first Vietnamese-American in Congress. Unofficial results showed Anh "Joseph" Cao denying Jefferson a 10th term. Republicans made an aggressive push to take the seat from the 61-year-old incumbent, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of bribery, laundering money and misusing his congressional office. Cao, 41, won a predominantly black and heavily Democratic district that covers most of New Orleans. Read more at CBS News...

Note: The election was one of two [both Republican victories] in Louisiana postponed because of Hurricane Gustav.

2 comments:

Brainchild said...

Republican ‘Firsts’ in Civil Rights Achievements:

• First-Ever Civil Rights Act enacted by Republicans

• First Equal Rights to Access enacted by Republicans

• First Women’s Rights fought for by Republicans including suffragists' Ida Wells and Mary Terrell (founders of the NAACP)

• First Woman U.S. Representative, Jeanette Rankin, Republican (1919)

• First Woman Mayor, the Hon. Bertha Landes, Republican (Seattle, WA)

• First Black U.S. Representative, Joseph Rainey, Republican (South Carolina)

• First Black U.S. Senator, Hiram Revels, Republican (Mississippi)

• First Black Governor, Pinckney Pinchback, Republican (Louisiana)

• First Hispanic Governor, Romauldo Pacheco, Republican (California)

• First Hispanic U.S. Senator, Octaviano Larrazolo, Republican (New Mexico)

• First Jewish U.S. Senator, outside the former Confederacy, Joseph Simon, Republican (Oregon)

• First Jewish Woman U.S. Representative, Florence Kahn, Republican (California)

• First Asian-American U.S. Senator, Hiram Fong, Republican (Hawaii)

• First African-American Senator after Reconstruction, Ed Brooke, Republican (Massachusetts)

• First Asian-American Federal Judge, Herbert Choy, Republican

• First Woman on the Supreme Court, Sandra Day O’Connor, Republican

• First Hispanic Cabinet Member, Lauro Cavazos, Secretary of Education under President Reagan, Republican

• First African-American to hold a leadership position in the U.S. House, J.C. Watts, Republican

• First Women Elected to Majority Leadership in both the House and the Senate, Jennifer Dunn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republicans

• First Vietnamese-American Elected to U.S. House, Anh “Joseph” Cao, Republican (Louisiana 2008)


Source: Republicans Celebrate 152 Years of Advancing Civil Rights by Michael Zak, 2006 (updated for inclusion of 2008 entry)

Brainchild said...

Addition to list above:
First Indian American elected to state-wide office in U.S. history, Piyush "Bobby" Jindal, Republican (Louisiana)