One of the great joys of living in Louisiana during the fall is politics. The incredibly infamous Louisiana political scene is something so incredibly ridiculous, it has to be seen to appreciated. Indeed, while many people choose to continually criticize the process, there seems to be great effort and energy placed into cheating, lying, and stealing.
As a citizen, I find such corruption and criminal activity disgusting.
As a student of political science, I find it to a total, TOTAL addiction.
There are often races that sum up the political scene in Louisiana with one look. THAT race in 2008 is the 2nd Congressional District Race featuring our favorite democrat, William Jefferson. Since 1991, William Jefferson has been a member of the House Of Representatives for the State Of Louisiana, representing a wide district featuring a wide range of voters. Furthermore, he is the first black man to serve in the House Of Representatives since the Reconstruction Post Civil War Era (quite an accomplishment).
For those of you living under a rock, William Jefferson is under a federal corruption probe and has been accused of a multitude of offenses. $100,000 was found in his freezer in one of his homes in New Orleans, of which he claims he has “very good reasons for having that cash in his freezer.” (Re-read that sentence a few times till it sinks in). Over the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina, he had national guardsmen leave their posts to take him to his house to make inspections.
Overall, his public image sucks.
Voters in Louisiana have short memories though (lucky for Jefferson). Yesterday, Jefferson started his run-off campaign (YES, voters decided to re-elect Jefferson while under federal investigation) against Helena Moreno, a former news reporter. The voters of the second congressional district saw it fit for an accused congressmen with $100,000 in his fridge to be in a run-off with a former news reporter who has never run for anything; a totally unqualified candidate.
Louisiana history is full of these kinds of election (i.e. “vote for the crook, it’s important”) The unqualified vs. the crook. It would appear as though Louisiana politics always boils down to the lowest common denominator in many situations. My personal views always move away from the qualifications of the candidates to the willingness of the masses to vote for them. The personal settling that goes on in an individuals mind to pull the ballot check is an amazing process. Instead of good list vs. bad list, Louisiana voters will hope for ONE item on a good list, while ignoring the length of the bad of their particular candidate. It’s a process that enables these kinds of historically crazy elections to go on.
Politics in Louisiana is a full contact sport. The month of October 2008 is the 4th quarter.
Let’s see who lets Gramatica kick and who gives the ball to Reggie Bush.
