U.S. Representative Rodney Alexander, the most senior member of Louisiana's House delegation, and infamous for his rude and disrespectful, dishonest party switch in 2004, minutes before the filing deadline, stunned political observers in the state with his sudden retirement announcement, followed abruptly by a declaration that he would resign to take a position in the Jindal administration. On paper, this is a net loss. While Alexander had a tendency to make unintelligent remarks about politics and religion on rare occasion, he is a very amicable person, and was actually one of the more moderate, mainstream pro-government Republicans, and in fact typically ranked among the more moderate Republicans (which tells a person where the party has moved). The potential replacement of Alexander with someone along the lines of Tom Cotton and Louie Gohmert would be a net-loss for an already terrible Congress.
Luckily Democrats are not letting this seat go uncontested. http://theadvocate.com/... (Here's their anti-Riser website http://lademo.org/... , fair warning, it doesn't always work, the site seems to be crashed all the time, likely still working out some kinks). What's developing is a surprising race with intriguing dynamics. For the benefit of political junkies and general audiences, I wanted to give a run down of the campaign, which is taking place in my home district and where for once I'm in the curious position of local (among DailyKos Elections people, I always feel like the consummate outsider commentating on things).