Four of our “Top Ten Good Men Politicians” were fighting to retain their seats last night. Unfortunately, not all of them held on.
Anh “Joseph” Cao is now a former Congressman for Louisiana. Democratic challenger Cedric Richmond garnered nearly two-thirds of the vote to defeat Cao. He’s one of the few incumbent Republicans to lose his seat in this cycle.
The first Vietnamese-American Congressman, Cao was a breath of fresh air in Washington. Although a fluky election put him in office in the first place, he wasn’t beholden to the party line, and he did an admirable job in the time he had. Sadly, that may have contributed to his loss. His own party members criticized him on the eve of the election for supporting—yes, supporting—human rights legislation.
Cao was prepared for defeat.
“I see my role as a representative of this district as a gift from God and as a gift from the people,” he told CNN during his campaign. “And once my job is over and done with, I’m very happy to go back to being a dad, a college professor.”
Hopefully this isn’t the last we hear from Anh Cao.
In Texas, Democrat Mark Strama held onto his state House seat, despite the Republican landslide across the country. His opponent, Republican Pat McGuinness, had no problem putting out ads that not-so-subtly made President Obama look like a socialist tyrant and attacked Strama for supporting him. Fortunately, it wasn’t enough. Maybe try something a little more extreme next time, Pat.
Republican Congressmen Jeff Flake (Arizona) and Paul Ryan (Wisconsin) both won re-election rather easily. Ryan, author of the “Roadmap for America’s Future,” is set to become the chairman of the House Budget Committee with Republicans now the majority. As the committee chair, he’ll be in direct conflict with President Obama. Let’s hope the two of them can find a way to get along.
More GMPM on the elections:
- The season’s political ads: parodies and pandas
- What does China think of the elections?
- What the fuck has Obama done so far?