The Unlikeliest Congressman
VANCE, KEVIN
The Unlikeliest Congressman Anh Cao, Republican from New Orleans. BY KEVIN VANCE After devastating losses on November 4, Republicans fi nished the 2008 election cycle on a high note....
...Cao deflects questions about his political ambitions: “At this point, . . . the only thing I’m concerned about is rebuilding and representing the people of the Second District,” he says...
...Cao acknowledges that low turnout was a major factor in his victory, since voters embarrassed by Jefferson were more likely to turn out than voters supportive of Jefferson...
...He doesn’t shy from talking about social issues and believes life begins at conception...
...In other areas, though, Cao departs from conservative orthodoxy...
...I hope we can all take a stance to protect life,” he says...
...While conservatives may be heartened by Cao’s victory, the congressmanelect calls himself a moderate and only became a Republican last year at the urging of Bryan Wagner, whom he describes as his “mentor...
...After Hurricane Katrina, Cao worked to bring electricity and other services back to New Orleans East...
...Joseph has the idea of serving people, and if he can do a job that meets his standards he’ll be happy to run again, but he’s his own harshest critic...
...Like other New Orleans reformers, he supports scrapping the city’s antiquated charity hospital system in favor of a communitybased health care delivery model...
...Wagner made history in the 1980s by becoming New Orleans’s fi rst GOP city councilman since Reconstruction...
...Already, Cao is being compared to one-term Republican congressman Michael Flanagan who won a heavily Democratic Chicago district against indicted congressman Dan Rostenkowski in 1994 only to be defeated two years later (by disgraced Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, incidentally...
...Wagner says he suggested Cao become a Republican because of their shared admiration for John McCain...
...Maybe in two years New Orleans voters will decide they like having a congressman who is his own harshest critic...
...But he left the order before becoming a priest, and became an immigration lawyer in New Orleans...
...When he’s sworn in, Cao will also have the distinction of being the nation’s fi rst Vietnamese-American member of Congress...
...BY KEVIN VANCE After devastating losses on November 4, Republicans fi nished the 2008 election cycle on a high note...
...I hope that we can look at issues of immigration reform even before we secure our borders,” he says...
...In this majority African-American district, turnout collapsed without Barack Obama at the top of the ticket...
...After fi nishing high school and college in Texas, he traveled abroad to help the world’s poor as a Jesuit seminarian...
...He supports comprehensive immigration reform...
...Cao’s impressive life story proved to be a plus in a year when heavily Democratic New Orleans was more concerned with integrity than political ideology...
...He left Vietnam as a child after the fall of Saigon, with two of his seven siblings...
...To win back power in Congress, Republicans need “to be more inclusive of minorities, not so anti-immigrant, and to basically have an open and progressive view of certain issues, such as climate change and alternative energy,” he says...
...Wagner thinks his prot?g...
...Immigration lawyer and community leader Anh “Joseph” Cao (pronounced “gow”) last Saturday narrowly defeated indicted Democratic congressman William “Dollar Bill” Jefferson in Louisiana’s Second District, becoming the fi rst Republican to represent New Orleans in over a century...
...has a brighter future than that...
...Cao preferred not to discuss specifi c issues when I spoke to him on the Friday after his election, but he did give some indications as to what kind of congressman he will be...
...Cao is reminiscent of Bobby Jindal, Louisiana’s reform-minded, pro-life, Catholic, IndianAmerican governor...
...The same people who said he had no chance this year are the ones who say that he doesn’t next year...
...Consider that Jefferson won reelection two years ago after federal offi cials found $90,000 in $100 bills in his freezer (the cash had come from an FBI informant as part of a bribery investigation...
...Wagner said that when he met Cao “it was instantly obvious that he was incredibly intelligent, incredibly humble, and that he would be an excellent public servant...
...While that sounds like something any politician would say, Wagner doesn’t think Cao is the kind of politician who is always contemplating the next step forward in his political career, much less reelection...
...Kevin Vance, a Collegiate Network fellow, is an editorial assistant at THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...The election was pushed back to December 6 because of Hurricane Gustav...
...When it comes to broad philosophical issues, Cao is inclined to favor private over government-run health care and thinks the best way to alleviate poverty is through education...
...He thought this year’s congressional race would be a good campaign for Cao, because of the contrast between the ex-seminarian and the indicted congressman...
...He thinks of himself as a reformer above all, who can help rebuild his city and accelerate economic development...
Vol. 14 • December 2008 • No. 14
