Several alternative candidates were on the ballot in two Saturday U.S. House races in Louisiana.
In the Second District race, won by Republican Anh Cao, Green Malik Rahim received 1,880 votes (2.8%) and Libertarian Gregory Kahn 548 votes (0.8%).
In the Fourth District, where Republican John Fleming seems to have won by a plurality of 356 votes, independent Chester Kelley received 3,245 votes (3.5%) and independent Gerald Bowen Jr. received 675 votes (0.7%).
23 responses so far ↓
1 Libertarian Joseph // Dec 7, 2008 at 10:05 am
ha Malik Rahim, you lost. You racist bastard
2 VirtualGalt // Dec 7, 2008 at 10:30 am
What a shame, “Dollar Bill” Jefferson lost. Now if he had only stashed the 100 large in Switzerland instead of the freezer, he’d have something to fall back on.
3 Ross Levin // Dec 7, 2008 at 11:46 am
At least Jefferson is out. Rahim should try for a state senate seat or state house seat in which there’s only one major party candidate running.
4 Peter Orvetti // Dec 7, 2008 at 11:51 am
Yep, I’m glad Rep. Money On Ice is gone. Interesting factoid: Anh Cao will be the first Vietnamese-American congressman. Louisiana is electing a lot of Asian-American Republicans these days.
Of course, Cao will probably go the way of that poor guy who beat Dan Rostenkowski when he got in trouble — losing his seat as soon as a non-criminal Democrat is nominated.
5 paulie cannoli // Dec 7, 2008 at 11:56 am
It would have been nice to see Rahim to better (Kahn too for that matter), but I’m glad the crook is gone.
Rahim should try for Sheriff (if that is elected), Mayor, or for city council (I think he ran for that once already).
6 Ross Levin // Dec 7, 2008 at 12:25 pm
He did run for city council once. Any of those smaller local offices would be good for him. I think he tried to run for mayor, too, once, but just kind of announced and didn’t run a campaign or get on the ballot.
7 mdh // Dec 7, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Is Rahim a racist? The black panthers were a violent racist organization at one point, but I think a lot of them got over it since then. How’s this guy?
8 paulie cannoli // Dec 7, 2008 at 2:17 pm
I never caught a racist vibe.
9 Eternaverse // Dec 7, 2008 at 2:53 pm
The Black Panthers were never racist, granted some of their members might have been but the organization itself never was. Most Black Panthers (the original ones, not the crazy ones that claim to the decedents of the organization) were simply fighting against the openly racist government.
10 Trent Hill // Dec 7, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Rahim did alright,about as well as Catfish Kelley—which isnt bad.
Im glad Ahn Cao won, but he’s basically just in Congress for a season—he wont survive when the Democrats put up someone in 2010. As long as the guy doesnt have cash in his freezer or anything. However, this gives Cao a good stepping stone. He can serve two years in Congress and then maybe run for Insurance Commission, Ag Commisioner, Sec of State, State Treasurer, something like that. It is interesting that LA has sent the first Indian-American to Congress and the first Vietnamese-American to Congress.
11 Ross Levin // Dec 7, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Rahim and others in the GP (along with me and a few others here on the web) were saying this seat was “winnable” and expecting 30,000 votes. That’s why it was a disappointment.
Hopefully it will set up Rahim for a win in another election and will make the use of this new phone bank tool more widespread. Even if it doesn’t win elections, it’s useful.
12 G.E. // Dec 7, 2008 at 7:34 pm
All this effort for 1900 votes?
Green Party: disband. Your races are NEVER going to be “winnable.” Let this be a wakeup call.
13 paulie cannoli // Dec 7, 2008 at 7:35 pm
What would have really helped would have been the kind of media Brian Moore got. If Rahim got that a few weeks ago, no way local media could have ignored him. We really need to get hands onn training in getting that accomplished and spread it around to a few deserving campaigns.
14 paulie cannoli // Dec 7, 2008 at 7:41 pm
The GP and LP are not just abound to disband. Doesn’t matter if there are people on here and elsewhere who want them to.
15 Peter Orvetti // Dec 7, 2008 at 7:46 pm
“The PTA has disbanded!”
(jumps out window)
16 MrMatthew // Dec 7, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Poor results for the GP, even after such mobilization. There needs to be like a generational political party/platform being that the country has been run into the crapper by the baby-boomers. Something young and new should pop up as opposed to just being absorbed by the two corporate parties.
17 Jeremy Young // Dec 7, 2008 at 7:55 pm
If Cao were smart, he’d immediately switch parties and become a Democrat. He’d have a fighting chance of holding the seat then, though it would still be difficult in a majority-black district.
18 paulie cannoli // Dec 7, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Cao is a one termer and he knows it.
19 paulie cannoli // Dec 7, 2008 at 8:05 pm
BTW GE, if Rahim had not run there is a good chance Jefferson would have been reelected.
20 JimDavidson // Dec 7, 2008 at 8:36 pm
@15 Yeah, but that’s no big deal here on the ground floor, Peter.
21 greenferret // Dec 11, 2008 at 11:58 am
“Of course, Cao will probably go the way of that poor guy who beat Dan Rostenkowski when he got in trouble — losing his seat as soon as a non-criminal Democrat is nominated.”
You mean Rod Blagojevich?
22 sunshinebatman // Dec 16, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Worth noting on IPR that Cao ran in a state House race in 2007 as an independent….
23 Trent Hill // Dec 16, 2008 at 3:01 pm
SunshineBatman,
He did, but I can find no results from the race, no motivation for why he did so, etc. In essense, its just a fact—not any real story.
Leave a Comment