Voters in Louisiana ousted indicted Democratic Rep. William J. Jefferson on Saturday, denying Jefferson a 10th term. Instead, voters elected a Republican attorney who will be the first Vietnamese-American in Congress.
Unofficial results showed Anh “Joseph” Cao winning Louisiana’s black-majority 2nd Congressional District, which includes much of New Orleans. This defeat was even more stunning considering that just 11% of registered voters in the district are Republicans. Cao, 41, came to the United States as a child after the fall of Saigon in 1975 and went on to earn degrees in law, philosophy and physics.
Jefferson, 61, has pleaded not guilty to charges of bribery, money laundering and misusing his congressional office. Voters re-elected Jefferson in 2006 even after the bribery scandal broke. Jefferson has been the butt of late-night TV comics ever since federal agents found $90,000 in alleged bribe money hidden in his freezer.