“You Find $100,000 in your freezer, I ain’t voting for you.”

by hilzoy

In just a couple of weeks, Karen Carter will face William Jefferson, he of the $90,000 in the freezer, in a runoff election. As the ActBlue fundraising page says:

“Democrat Karen Carter just entered into a run-off with the shamelessly corrupt William Jefferson. Before we officially take back the House in January, we have to clean out our own house. Jefferson’s criminal abuses and clear ethical failings have no place in our caucus. Let’s give him the boot on Dec. 9th – and send a message that the Democratic Party doesn’t tolerate corruption on either side of the aisle.”

MyDD and the Swing State Project have more on Carter and why it matters that she be elected. I’m actually quite impressed by her bio, and by her willingness to take positions that aren’t all that popular in Louisiana for all the right reasons:

“n 2004, Carter opposed scheduling a constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union of “one man and one woman.” The Legislature ultimately placed the matter on the ballot, and voters overwhelmingly approved it.

Carter said she voted against the amendment because “I believe in treating people as I would like to be treated.””

I also agree with a point that Tim Tagaris makes in the MyDD article linked above: the people of New Orleans need an effective advocate right now, and Jefferson cannot now be that advocate. But most of all, we need to keep people who believe that being elected to public office gives them a license to steal out of Congress.

So even though I, for one, am pretty broke after the last round of political contributions (not to mention finally getting my new boiler and water heater installed, and then there’s Christmas…), I’m sending her some money. I want my party to stand against corruption, and we’re a lot more likely to do that if we don’t have the likes of William Jefferson in Congress.