Dollar Bill planning to pull a Lieberman?

Clancy Dubos takes a skeptical look at the rumor that Bill Jefferson will withdraw from the Democratic primary and run for reelection as an Independent in the general election.

The rumor is likely based on the way Jefferson artfully played both sides of the political and racial fence in his 2006 campaign against Karen Carter. Jefferson head-spinningly managed to paint Carter as "too white" and just as strangely "too socially liberal" for Orleans Parish black voters while using Harry Lee as a surrogate to attack her as "too black" for Jefferson Parish voters based on her comments in Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke critical of the Gretna Police for turning hurricane evacuees away at gunpoint. Clancy, in fact, revisits one of the central mysteries of that 2006 campaign in this week's Gambit cover story.

Amazingly, Jefferson skated on that issue. Not once was he asked if he felt the Gretna cops were within their rights to turn back the refugees, but he clearly loved seeing Sheriff Lee lambaste Carter Peterson for her comments. Lee, no stranger to racial politics, did everything he could to help Jefferson win. "Stay home," he told his constituents, most of them white. Many did, and Jefferson won with 55 percent of the vote.

But this is a new election season and that means there are a new set of questions to not be asked. For example, can we expect the new Jefferson Parish favorite, Byron Lee, to be asked about his ties and apparently similar proclivities to his cousin Derrick Shepherd? Shepherd, of course, ran for this seat in 2006 but currently finds himself, like Jefferson, under federal indictment in a case that as it turns out may also involve..... Bill Jefferson. For some reason, being involved in multiple Federal indictments is no obstacle to Dollar Bill's continuing to stand for reelection but that's what makes this interesting. It's also why this is such fertile territory for exotic rumors.

In any event, Clancy is probably right to discount a Dollar Bill Indie run.... for now anyway. Jefferson's base is no longer as solid as it once was. He's sure to be squeezed on the Orleans side by the presence of former ally Cedric Richmond. And with Lee in the race, he has very little room to make up ground in Jefferson Parish. But the crowded field still makes the congressman a strong candidate in the Democratic primary. But if Jefferson somehow fails to make the cut there... then maybe we'll talk about the Lieberman option. It's unlikely... but my what fun!

Update: In the comments, Clancy Dubos points out that according to Louisiana election law, Bill Jefferson closed the "Independent" option by qualifying to run in the Democratic primary. So I guess that's that. It only makes this election a very small degree less fun to watch, though.