Anti-douchebaggery incentives in 2008

By Fester:

I was not expecting to see the following but welcomed news this morning (from the CSM:)

there was a big upset yesterday as little-known Republican Anh “Joseph” Cao knocked off the nine-term incumbent William Jefferson in the Second District of Louisiana.

Scandal-ridden

Now, Jefferson had a little baggage going into the election. He’s got that federal indictment thing he’s fighting. You know, the 16 counts of bribery, obstruction of justice, wire fraud, money laundering, and racketeering.

And then there’s that tough-to-explain issue of the $90,000 in cash that the FBI found in his freezer.

Despite this, Jefferson was expected by most to win.  After all, only 11 percent of the residents in his district are registered as Republicans.

Cao won 53-47 in a district that is generically D+27.  That is more Democratic than Pittsburgh, but he won because he was running against a completely corrupt and out of touch incumbent that happened to have an alleged $90,000 block of cash in the freezer.  I would have preferred a Democrat to have knocked Jefferson out in the primary to hold onto the seat, but this seat will be the #1 target seat in 2010 for Democrats, much like Texas-22 reverted back to Republican representation after the Republicans ran a generic GOPer to replace the allegedly corrupt Tom Delay. 

But this year has seen two of the most allegedly corrupt members of Congress Senator Stevens (R-AK) and Rep. Jefferson lose. Sen. Stevens lost as a Republican in an R+14 PVI district so there are some extremes of behavior that will get an incumbent bounced.  So 2008 has reinforced some of the mild anti-overt douchebaggery incentives that the public possesses.  It should also restore some of the internal anti-douchebaggery incentives as both parties have lost generically safe seats because of tolerated corrruption. 

Good job Louisiana and Alaska.