Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District lucked out in May with the election of Don Cazayoux, a conscientious and dedicated representative of his constituents. He brings his experience in the state legislature and as a prosecutor to his work in Congress, along with an understanding of the needs of a district that combines urban and rural parishes. Most importantly, he possesses one of the key requirements of an effective Congressman: an open mind.

His Republican opponent, first-term State Senator Dr. Bill Cassidy, is a valued member of the Baton Rouge community. Unfortunately, he has chosen to base his campaign on standard GOP talking points on issues ranging from energy to Social Security. The past eight years have shown us the damage that governing by talking points can do, and it’s not something that the 6th District or the country needs.

Dr. Cassidy has stated that fiscal responsibility is one of his chief concerns, and that he’s opposed to deficits. That makes it hard to understand why his switched parties to join the GOP a few years ago. The GOP is the party of deficits, and their policies during the six years that they had near complete control of the federal government have set America on a disastrous fiscal course. Dr. Cassidy said in the same interview that how the deficits came about wasn’t as important as what we do about them now. No doubt - but a key part in dealing with the fiscal mess that the GOP has left us is to understand how and why they did it.

Dr. Cassidy has also said that health care is one of his key concerns, and the question arise again why he switched to the party that perpetrated the Medicaire package in 2003, with vastly - and deliberately - understated cost estimates by the administration and the GOP Congressional leadership - and a complicated process that has confused many seniors. He has presented the energy issue in terms of GOP talking points that blame the Democrats for high prices, without mentioning that during the Republicans’ six year control of Congress, they failed to come up with an effective energy policy, despite the passage of a huge energy bill in 2005 that contained large subsidies supposedly aimed at encouraging domestic production of oil and gas. The GOP’s claim that opening up more areas to drilling will automaticaly result in lower prices is factually incorrect, based on official government reports released by the Bush administration’s own agencies (which is not to say that no new drilling should be considered.)

These are components of a large question that Dr. Cassidy needs to answer for the 6th District – given the disastrous course that Republican policies have set the country on, how does he justify embracing those, and why should voters embrace that agenda?

Dr. Cassidy spent a fair amount of time in one of his first radio interviews explaining how, if elected, he still plans to keep his private practice and to continue teaching at the LSU Medical School. Those are valuable contributions to the local community, and we want to help Dr. Cassidy to continue making them - by keeping him in Baton Rouge. Congress is a full time job, and the 6th District needs someone with a full time commitment. Luckily we have that person in Don Cazayoux.