Dems add to majority with Cazayoux win in La.

House Democrats continued to expand their majority Saturday night after Louisiana state Rep. Don Cazayoux emerged victorious in a special election for retired Rep. Richard Baker’s (R) district, which had been in Republican hands since 1975.

Cazayoux narrowly beat former state Rep. Woody Jenkins for the 6th Congressional District seat. With all 512 precincts reporting, Cazayoux had 49.2 percent of the vote compared to 46.27 for Jenkins, according to the Louisiana Secretary of State.

{mosads}Republicans held the 1st Congressional District, with Steve Scalise beating Democrat Gilda Reed for the seat formerly held by newly-elected Gov. Bobby Jindal. With all 505 precincts reporting, Scalise took 75.1 percent of the vote to Reed's 22.5 percent.

But it was the Cazayoux-Jenkins race that the national parties were watching.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said Republicans failed again to “nationalize” the election by tying Cazayoux to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

“For the second time this cycle, Republicans were reminded that ‘all politics is local,’” Van Hollen said. The win in Louisiana came two months after Democrats picked up their first seat of the year. In March, Democrat Bill Foster won the seat of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).

“House Republicans tried to nationalize this election, illegally coordinated with Freedom’s Watch, used false and deceptive special interest smears, and funneled nearly a million dollars into a district that Republicans held for more than three decades,” Van Hollen stated. “Don won by focusing on the concerns of LA-06 voters — good paying jobs, affordable healthcare, and better education.”{mospagebreak}

However, National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Ken Spain said Jenkins significantly closed the gap against Cazayoux by invoking Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). He also rejected the notion that the GOP’s successive defeats are an ominous sign of the party’s chances in November.

“This election speaks to the potential toxicity of an Obama candidacy and the possible drag he could have down-ballot this fall,” Spain said. “By nature, special elections tend to be competitive and their results are not always a harbinger for the November elections, but what we do know is that a Democrat was clearly favored to easily win this election before Republicans invoked the names of Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi. This should come as a warning shot to Democrats.”

{mosads}Pelosi used the results to feed the perception that Democrats are holding a vast political advantage six months from the November election, saying Cazayoux’s victory “proves once again that Americans across our country want real solutions and reject Republicans’ negative attacks.”

Cazayoux, an attorney from New Roads, was elected to the Louisiana House in 1999, representing a strongly Democratic district immediately west of downtown Baton Rouge. The area has seen a steady stream of black voters since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

He benefited from a strong fundraising advantage over Jenkins, $848,000 to $475,000, with much of the help coming from national Democrats. The DCCC spent $920,000 on the contest and PACs contributed another $270,000.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) only spent $440,000 on the race and Jenkins received less than $40,000 from GOP members. However, political action committees on both sides pitched in to raise the stakes significantly, with Freedom's Watch and the conservative Club for Growth and Baton Rouge-area developer Lane Grigsby kicking in a combined $466,000 on Jenkins’ side.

The sniping reached an unusual point in the race’s closing days, as the DCCC asked the Federal Election Commission to investigate a pair of ads by the conservative group Freedom's Watch. One of those ads was eventually pulled from the air by CBS TV officials in Baton Rouge.

Jenkins had a 36-year resume in Louisiana politics, as well as the backing of Jindal and the state’s GOP congressional delegation, conservative leader Dr. James Dobson and the National Rifle Association.

But he also had the baggage that can accumulate with such a deep resume. A Democratic member of the Louisiana House from 1971 to 1994, Jenkins then switched his party affiliation to Republican but has struggled ever since on the national GOP stage. He ran for the U.S. Senate unsuccessfully in 1996, losing by a slender — and contested — margin to Democrat Mary Landrieu before running unsuccessfully for state elections commissioner in 1999. He retired from the Louisiana House the following year and served as editor of three Baton Rouge-area business newspapers before coming back from political retirement for this year’s race.