Cao surprises many by loaning his campaign coffers money

By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer

As one of former Congressman Joseph Cao’s advisors put it privately to The Louisiana Weekly, “We thought he was out [of the race] last week. Everybody from his financial committee from the last race to his [former] campaign staff said he wasn’t going to run for Attorney General. He couldn’t raise the money.”

The state of the economy had slowed everyone’s campaign contributions to a trickle. And, the fact that Cao had not filed a timely campaign finance report seem to bolster that widespread belief that he would not run for AG in the October 22 primary.

Then, having advised none of his usual kitchen cabinet, Cao loaned his potential campaign $101,000 of his own money. Considering that the Vietnamese American Attorney is not a wealthy man, it was a huge portion of his net worth, signaling that a race against incumbent Democrat-turned-Republican AG Buddy Caldwell is increasingly likely.

As was reported last week, the all-GOP contest would be an unconventional race, effectively pitting Cao’s Democratic allies in New Orleans versus Caldwell’s Democratic Sheriffs and DAs across Rural Louisiana. Moreover, neither candidate can count on sure conservative support. Caldwell, a recent GOP convert, still produces anxiety in Tea Party regulars, despite his leading the Federal Court case against the President’s Health Care Bill, or Obamacare as Caldwell and his fellow AGs in the case call it.

Cao was not the only candidate providing surprises last week. The one main statewide Democratic hopeful, Caroline Fayard, who had indicated that she was running for Secretary of State, seemed to back off last week. Her spokesperson, Monica Pierre, said that her candidate is “still determining her future” and was unavailable for comment. Less than a month before qualifying, Pierre was unable to confirm if Fayard would even qualify for that contest.

Fayard’s campaign finance filing does show a definite indicate an interest in running for a statewide office, but could the former Lt. Gubernatorial candidate be thinking of standing for another position? Governor? Treasurer? Insur­ance Commissioner?

The latter two GOP incumbents have drawn no opponents so far, and the former is only facing a schoolteacher-first time candidate with $900.00 in the bank versus his $9 million.

Otherwise, in the metro New Orleans area, some races began to heat up last week. Bucktown State Rep. Johnny Labruzzo saw his district drawn into the Lakeview New Orleans seat of fellow Republican Rep. Nick Larousso.

On the other side of the city, former St. Bernard Councilman Mike Bayham was seen knocking doors last weekend, on his birthday no less, in his pursuit of the State Rep. seat that encompasses four pre­cincts in New Orleans East, most of St. Bernard and parts of Plaque­mines Parish. A new Democratic Party poll puts Bayham in the lead for that seat, to succeed the term limited Nita Hutter. Hutter is rumored might run for the Senate from St. Bernard despite her recent residence in Old Metairie. AG Crowe, who now represents part of St. Bernard and most of Eastern St. Tammany in the State Senate, also announced that he would run for re-election last week.

Democratic State Rep. Reed Henderson of Violet, who effectively lost his Orleans and St. Bernard seat in the recent redistricting, announced that he would retire, despite being un-term limited. Losing one’s district has not stopped Orleans Senators JP Morrell and Cynthia Willard-Lewis, though. The two Democra­tic incumbents are hard at work, running against one another. Morrell went so far as to buy a giant billboard at Elysian Fields and Gentilly, in his family’s traditional political stronghold.

The Orleans Judicial Special elections will occur on October 22, despite fears that a quirk in the law might delay them until next year. The Civil Court B seat will see former City Councilwoman Ellen Hazeur face former School Board Attorney and Congressional candidate Regina Bartholomew, and E seat race already has Claire Jupiter, Nakisha Ervin-Knott, and Kris Kiefer as announced candidates. Former Deputy City Attorney Franz Zibilich is the only candidate so far to run to succeed Terry Alarcon for the Criminal Court, and in the Traffic Court post left vacant by the death of Dennis Daniel, Civil District Court Judge Herbert Cade and Patrick Giraud, son of long-time Traffic Court Judge Thomas Giraud, have both said they planned to stand.

This article was originally published in the August 8, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper