Name that party: Buckwheat
I doubt AP would have downplayed a Republican losing over a racist remark.
As a member of the MSM for most of my adult life, I should resent charges of a pro-Democrat bias in the media. Really, I should.
But then Melinda Deslatte of the Associated Press and her editors in New York do something like this: Downplay the election loss of a white Democratic State Representative in Louisiana who had called a civil rights leader “Buckwheat.”
The loss by Democratic Representative Carla Dartez, D-Morgan City, was briefly mentioned in the 7th paragraph.
It should have been the lead in the national story.
Few people outside of Louisiana care how many seats Democrats kept.
But whether a racist remark from a politician cost her an election? Yes, that interests outsiders. That’s the news. Not that Democrats maintained control.
Readers will decide for themselves. The AP story in full:
Democrats maintained their hold on the state House of Representatives, with Saturday’s runoff elections giving them the slimmest of majorities: 53 seats in the 105-member chamber.
Republicans will take 50 House seats when new terms begin in January, and independents will hold two seats, according to unofficial results from the secretary of state’s office.
“There were a couple races that were very close. We were hoping to pick up a couple more seats, but that’s the nature of the beast,” said Danny Ford, executive director of the Louisiana Democratic Party.
The GOP, which last controlled the House in 1878, had hoped to regain the majority. But though it fell short, the party gained seven seats in the House and will hold a dozen more seats in the chamber than it did when the last terms began in 2004.
James Quinn, executive director of the Republican Party of Louisiana, said he wasn’t disappointed with the runoff results. “I think we’ve made great strides over the last four years,” he said.
The Senate also will maintain its Democratic majority, with 24 Democrats and 15 Republicans in the 39-member chamber.
Most incumbents seeking re-election held onto their jobs. At least one House member was ousted, state Rep. Carla Dartez, D-Morgan City, who angered civil rights leaders after she ended a conversation with the mother of the NAACP’s local president by saying, “Talk to you later, Buckwheat.”
Buckwheat, a black child character in the “Little Rascals” comedies of the 1930s and ’40s, is considered a racist stereotype. Dartez said she regretted the comment, but local NAACP leaders asked voters to cast ballots for Dartez’s opponent, Republican Joe Harrison.
Dartez’s re-election bid already had been troubled because she was given a summons for improper lane usage after hitting a pedestrian with her vehicle. She failed a field sobriety test but passed a later Breathalyzer test. Meanwhile, Dartez’s husband was indicted for allegations that he hired illegal aliens to work for his construction business.
Dartez’s seat once had been considered a safe win for the Democrats, but the incumbent representative lost to Harrison, a Napoleonville Republican.
“We were disappointed. Carla faced an uphill battle for several different issues,” Ford said.
Both sides acknowledge the majority in the House is slim. Democrats don’t have a big enough majority to be considered a mandate, and they fall well short of the two-thirds vote needed to pass many of the biggest ticket items in the House.
With a Republican governor taking office next year and a Democratic-controlled Legislature, both sides will have to work together, said Shreveport pollster Elliott Stonecipher.
Republicans made huge gains this election cycle. Four years ago, the GOP held just one statewide elected position, but when the new terms begin in 2008, Republicans will control five of the seven statewide elected posts - including the governor’s office, which Bobby Jindal won outright in the primary.
“I think Republicans are close enough that they can claim that they made huge gains and get whatever hype they want for the party,” Stonecipher said.
“Look at the cycle as a whole. It has to be considered a success for the Republican Party. On the statewide level and the legislative level, we’ve gained seats,” Quinn said.
Among other notable legislative races:
Rep. Jalila Jefferson, daughter of indicted U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., lost to Rep. Cheryl Gray in a bid for a New Orleans-based Senate seat left open by term limits. Both women are Democrats.
The race to fill the Baton Rouge-based Senate seat currently held by Democrat Cleo Fields appeared to be won by term-limited Rep. Yvonne Dorsey, but it was a tight contest. According to the secretary of state’s complete but unofficial returns, lawyer Jason DeCuir lost by fewer than 100 votes. Fields, a longtime Democratic fixture, wasn’t running because a court ruled that he was barred by term limits from seeking another term - a challenge Fields blames on DeCuir. Fields backed Dorsey. Both Dorsey and DeCuir are Democrats.
Incumbent Sen. Ann Duplessis, the only incumbent senator seeking re-election who was forced into a runoff, held onto her New Orleans-based seat against the former senator she ousted, Jon Johnson. Both Duplessis and Johnson are Democrats.
The race to fill an open Shreveport-based Senate seat became a fierce battle between two Republicans: former Rep. Buddy Shaw and term-limited Rep. Billy Montgomery. Montgomery, who switched parties late last year, had been accused of changing parties only because he was seeking the Senate seat in the heavily GOP district. Shaw overwhelmingly defeated Montgomery, getting 57 percent of the vote.
Former House member and former Democrat Raymond “LaLa” LaLonde, R-Carencro, lost his bid for a House seat representing parts of Lafayette, St. Martin and St. Landry parishes. The winner was Bobby Badon, a Democrat who served two terms on the Carencro City Council.
It did find it interesting that Jefferson’s daughter lost. The Big Easy is no longer all that easy. |
