Frank Donze and Michelle Krupa, The Times-Picayune
In the end, indicted U.S. Rep. William Jefferson’s nightmare came true.
From the moment he won the Nov. 4 Democratic Party runoff for the 2nd Congressional District seat he first claimed 18 years ago, Jefferson recognized he faced a challenge in motivating his support base in majority-black neighborhoods to return to the polls once more for the general election.
But black voters who turned out in huge numbers a month ago as the nation elected its first African-American president mostly stayed home Saturday.
The result was a David-and-Goliath outcome, as Republican lawyer Anh “Joseph” Cao, a relative political unknown, toppled Jefferson, the first African-American to represent Louisiana in Congress since Reconstruction and a force on the local political stage for three decades.
