Quin Hillyer profiles congressional candidate Joseph Cao, who faces 'Dollar Bill' Jefferson in a Louisiana runoff on December 6. Cao sounds like a singular person -- a Vietnamese immigrant who fled to the United States before the fall of Saigon, eventually became a Jesuit novice, then elected to forego the priesthood in favor of the law and charity work. It's hard to do justice to Cao's biography in an excerpt, so I encourage you to read the whole piece.
Cao eventually elected to run against scandal-tarred Bill Jefferson:
Undaunted, Cao looked at the developing scandal around Rep. Jefferson, and his background in philosophy kicked in. Forget the 66% to 11% (23% "other") Democrat-to-Republican edge in the Second District. Forget the 62% black voter registration (Jefferson is black). "Clearly," said Cao campaign treasurer Murray Nelson, himself the loser last year of a state legislative race and recently the statewide executive director of McCain's Louisiana campaign, "this is a real David going up against a Goliath, but he's a guy who actually taught ethics going against a guy facing multiple indictments. I think he's just offended [by Jefferson's ethics], and he's doing this race for the right reasons, not for himself."
"I want to bring reform back to the Second District," Cao told me. Again, simple as that.
Cao is clearly an underdog, but at least one local analyst gives him an excellent chance. Jefferson prevailed in a December runoff in 2006 with 57 percent of the vote, a substantial drop from his prior re-election campaigns. Two years later, there are likely to be more Louisiana voters who are tired of the headlines about Jefferson's ongoing corruption case. And this year, they have an alternative with a compelling contrast and personal background.
Can an underdog like Cao win against an ethically-challenged Member of Congress who's held his seat for ages? Ask Ted Stevens.
