Don Cazayoux: not in the House yet, but he's sure got home style

The New York Times and the Washington Post have a posting each today about a closely contested race for a Louisiana House seat. In the special election this Saturday (prompted by the resignation of the district's 34-year Republican incumbent), 6th District voters will have a tough choice to make between hard-line social conservative Woody Jenkins and, well, hard-line social conservative Don Cazayoux. Cazayoux, a Democrat, has so far worked extremely hard to distance himself from the national party establishment in order to gain a foothold in a very red district. According to the Times, the candidate has publicly expressed support for John McCain while avoiding mention of either Clinton or Obama, highlighted his endorsement from the House's conservative Blue Dog Democrats coalition, and maintained an image as a bipartisan. He's also emphasized his "nonnegotiable" pro-family, pro-life values and his support for 2nd amendment rights.

Of course, for every step Cazayoux takes to distance himself from the Democrats, his opponent, Jenkins, has tried to bring the party closer. Jenkins has dismissed Cazayoux's conservative "talk" as a standard "tactic of the Democratic Party," and pointed out that Republicans need as many seats as they can get in the Democrat-controlled Congress. The Times article quotes a (third party-funded) campaign commercial: "'A vote for Don Cazayoux is a vote to increase Nancy Pelosi’s and Hillary Clinton’s liberal majority in Congress.'"

Cazayoux's struggle is a great example of how important it is for locally-elected members of Congress to tailor their images and messages to their constituencies. Personally it's surprising that Jenkins hasn't exploited one of the biggest flaws in Cazayoux's anti-party establishment stance: even if Cazayoux doesn't support his DC colleagues, they are absolutely supporting him. The Washington Post blog Capitol Briefing reports that in recent weeks a large chunk of Cazayoux's campaign financing has come from Democrats in Congress, "demonstrating how important this race is to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi."