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Washington (CNN) - Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao said Sunday he put the needs of his district over the desire of his party in being the lone House Republican to vote for a sweeping overhaul of the nation's health care system.

Related: Lone GOP vote came after call from Obama

Cao's "yes" vote ended up being unnecessary for House Democrats in the 220-215 tally, but as the only GOP member to support the bill, he gave House Speaker Nancy Pelosi license to tout bipartisan support for the controversial measure.

"I felt last night's decision was the proper decision for my district even though it was not the popular decision for my party," Cao, a first-term representative from Louisiana's traditionally Democratic 2nd District, told CNN.

"A lot of my constituents are uninsured, a lot of them are poor," Cao said. "It was the right decision for the people of my district."

The first Vietnamese-American to serve in the House, Cao defeated nine-term Democratic incumbent William Jefferson in last year's election. Jefferson was under indictment on money laundering and bribery charges at the time, and has since been convicted.

Cao, a devout Catholic, said Sunday that an amendment to strengthen anti-abortion language in the House bill cleared the way for his support.

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(CNN) – The general who led military relief efforts in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina is denying a report that he may challenge Louisiana Sen. David Vitter in 2010, calling it "speculation and rumors" Sunday.

Retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, now a CNN emergency preparedness analyst, said he is moving back to his home state. But "No one's talking to me about running for Senate," Honore said.

"That is a serious rumor that's got started that's created a lot of buzz," said Honore, who left the Army in 2008. But he said he has never declared a party affiliation, and any talk of a Senate run is "all about speculation and rumors."

Honore is best known for taking over a widely criticized relief effort after Katrina flooded most of New Orleans in August 2005. The city's mayor, Ray Nagin, famously described the cigar-chomping three-star general as a "John Wayne dude" who could "get some stuff done."

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – A moderate Senate Democrat who is a possible swing vote in Republicans’ favor on health care reform said Sunday she is not likely to support a robust public health insurance option and believes that reform proposals should focus on lowering health care costs.

“I would tend not to,” Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union when asked whether she would support a public health insurance option included in health care reform bills passed by committees in the House of Representatives. “But, we’ve got to keep working to find solutions,” Landrieu added.

“There are some portions of our health care system that are working, but it’s all too expensive.”

The Democrat told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King she thinks costs could be contained without the inclusion of a public health insurance option. She said she supports an alternative proposal co-sponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Bob Bennett, R-Utah, that focuses on “providing insurance through the free marketplace with the right regulations and safeguards.”

Landrieu also told King “it would be very difficult” for her to support a health care reform bill that allowed taxpayer-funded abortions even though “general insurance policies now – subsidized through the government by the tax code – allow women to make those choices right now, again, within the confines of the Constitution.”

Because of her moderate to conservative views, Landrieu has become a target of some Senate Republicans hoping to win her vote on any health care reform bill presented to the full Senate later this year. On Friday, two Senate Republicans, who are also both medical doctors, paid a visit to Landrieu’s state to discuss health care reform.

Related: GOP Senate doctors go on health care road show

(CNN) - The only two medical doctors currently in the Senate, both Republicans, are using the August congressional recess to take their two-month old, twice weekly health care reform Webcast on the road across America's heartland - an itinerary that appears designed to pressure on some of their more moderate Democratic Senate colleagues from Nebraska, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

"I think we may bring a little bit more judgment and credibility to what's really going on in this debate and the problems in health care," Oklahoma Sen. and family practice physician Tom Coburn told CNN.

Along with Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, an orthopedic surgeon, Coburn launched "The Senate Doctors Show" in early July. Twice a week, the two doctors sit down and film a roughly 20-minute segment where they answer questions about health care reform submitted by the public via Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, and through "man-on-the-street" video interviews of Capitol Hill visitors.

This week, the two men hit the road. Wednesday, Coburn and Barrasso were in Omaha, Nebraska where they visited an intensive care unit and taped an episode of their Webcast with a live audience. Thursday, the two men split the day between a morning town hall in Bentonville, Arkansas and two afternoon events in northern Mississippi - another taping of their production with a live audience and a hospital visit. Friday, the two doctors are set to join fellow Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana and three House Republicans from the state at a town hall meeting in Kenner, Louisiana. Vitter will also join Coburn and Barrasso on a tour of a New Orleans medical facility.

Three of the four states for this week's tour don't appear to be coincidental.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) - Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, told the Louisiana Republican Party Friday that he will not seek the GOP Senate nomination in 2010.

“This is not the right time,” Perkins said in a letter to Roger Villere, the chairman of the Louisiana Republican Party.

There had been speculation that Perkins would challenge incumbent Republican Sen. David Vitter, who has been tarnished by his alleged involvement with a prostitute.

But Perkins informed Villere that he supported Vitter’s bid for re-election in 2010. Vitter “is a strong advocate for conservative principles in the U.S. Senate,” Perkins wrote.

Updated: 5:35 p.m.

(CNN) – Nine-term Democratic Rep. William Jefferson, who has been battling scandals and a federal indictment for the past three years, lost his bid for re-election on Saturday.

Republican challenger Anh "Joseph" Cao, an attorney and community organizer, defeated Jefferson in the Louisiana 2nd Congressional district race. He will become the first Vietnamese-American elected to Congress.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Cao had almost 50 percent of the vote to Jefferson's 47 percent.

The 2nd Congressional district, in and around New Orleans, is mostly African-American and heavily Democratic, and Jefferson appeared to be favored to win re-election going into the election.

Full story

(CNN) – Four weeks and four days after the November 4 elections, it's Election Day all over again in Louisiana.

In what should be the last two federal contests of 2008, elections are being held Saturday in Louisiana's 2nd and 4th Congressional Districts, where the political process was delayed because of Hurricane Gustav.

The race in the fourth district is to replace retiring 10-term Republican Rep. Jim McCrery. Democrat Paul Carmouche is facing off against Republican John Fleming in a campaign that's now attracting national attention and money.

"It's a Republican-leaning district, but the Democrats nominated another moderate candidate," said Stuart Rothenberg, editor and publisher of The Rothenberg Report, a nonpartisan political newsletter. "They hope to use the same formula that worked well in other conservative districts on November 4th."

Full story

(CNN) - CNN projects that Republican challenger Bill Cassidy will beat out incumbent Democratic House member Don Cazayoux in Louisiana.

CNN projections are based on actual vote results and exit poll data from key areas.

(CNN) - The lingering aftermath of Hurricane Katrina looms large over New Orleans residents this election season. CNN’s Voter Hotline has received several calls from New Orleans residents wondering where to vote, whether former evacuees are still registered, and how to vote absentee after being displaced.

Joseph Harris of New Orleans was confused about whether his temporary displacement after the storm would affect his registration.

“I was calling to make sure I was on the list. I want to make sure my information had been changed back now from Houston where I was evacuated during Katrina, and I just want to make sure I’m able to vote on November 4,” Harris asked on the Hotline.

According to the Louisiana Secretary of State, Katrina’s lingering impact doesn’t extend to the voter rolls. “There has been no purging because people were displaced by Katrina. Basically, they can vote if we have a good address,” said Jacques Berry from the Louisiana Secretary of State office. “If you live in a homeless shelter and have an address, you can register to vote in Louisiana.”

Katrina victims who were displaced and are still planning to vote in Louisiana should call the state’s toll free number, (800) 883-2805. The rules for those displaced by the storm are no different than other residents, Berry said. “There’s nothing specific to them.”

The Hotline has also gotten calls from New Orleans parish voters who haven’t received their absentee ballots. “There’s a good chance that all the absentee ballots are out now. We want all voters to have the opportunity to vote. I am sure all absentee ballots will be out with sufficient time,” Berry said. “We want all voters to have the opportunity to vote.”

If you are a resident in the state of Louisiana who has questions regarding your registration status or where you should go to vote, you can visit geauxvote.com or call 1 (800) 883-2805.

(CNN) - Democrats on Sunday cheered a weekend special election in Louisiana, where a Democratic congressional candidate won a seat that has been held by Republicans for decades.

State Rep. Don Cazayoux beat Republican Woody Jenkins in the state's 6th Congressional District by a 49-to-46 percent margin Saturday. Both parties viewed the race as a potential bellwether of November's congressional races, with the national GOP pouring more than $1 million into the contest in an attempt to tie Cazayoux to national Democrats such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and presidential candidate Barack Obama.

"Don Cazayoux's victory this evening proves once again that Americans across our country want real solutions and reject Republicans' negative attacks," Pelosi said in a written statement hailing the win.

National Democrats spent more than $1 million as well, airing television ads that questioned whether Jenkins - a newspaper publisher, former state legislator and well-known conservative activist - had paid all his taxes on time.

The contest was to replace U.S. Rep. Richard Baker, an 11-term Republican who resigned in February to become a lobbyist. The district, which includes capital city Baton Rouge and its surrounding parishes, has been held by the GOP since 1974.

Full story

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Sen. Barack Obama swept Saturday's Democratic contests, giving him considerable momentum heading into Sunday's Maine caucuses and three primaries Tuesday.

John McCain, however, was handed a starkly different message from the GOP, as voters in Louisiana and Kansas indicated they weren't ready to support the Arizona senator. Washington, however, backed the Republican front-runner over former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, according to state party officials.

McCain's camp congratulated Huckabee on the victories but with an air of confidence, saying that Huckabee threatened only to chip away at McCain's substantial lead in the GOP race for the presidential nomination.

"The reality is that John McCain is the presumptive nominee of our party," said campaign spokesman Brian Rogers. "We'll campaign in these upcoming states as long as Gov. Huckabee is in the race, but our main focus is on uniting the Republican Party for victory in November."

Though CNN calculations estimate that Huckabee would need to snare hundreds more delegates to catch McCain, the Democrats are in a much tighter race.

Full story

Track the Louisiana Democratic primary results county-by-county by clicking here: Louisiana.

(CNN) - The more likely a Louisiana Democratic presidential primary voter was to have been affected by Hurricane Katrina, the more likely they were to support Democrat Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton.

Among the 15 percent of voters who had been affected by the storm and said they had yet to recover, Obama had a 58 to 39 percent edge over Clinton. The 28 percent of voters who had been affected, but had since recovered, supported Obama by a slightly smaller margin, 54 to 43 percent. And the 55 percent who had not been affected at all by Hurricane Katrina supported Obama by the narrowest margin, 51 to 48 percent.

–CNN Associate Political Editor Rebecca Sinderbrand

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Louisiana voters, like their counterparts in other primary states, are split on Bill Clinton’s effect on his wife’s campaign. In a CNN exit poll, 38 percent of Democratic primary voters said the former president helped Hillary Clinton’s White House bid, while 32 percent said he hurt her chances at winning the Democratic presidential nomination.

Of those who thought the former president had harmed his wife’s presidential campaign, 78 percent voted for her rival Barack Obama, and 19 percent backed Clinton. Among those who thought the former president had a positive impact on Hillary Clinton’s campaign, 60 percent voted for her, and 38 percent for Obama.

Twenty-nine percent of those polled said Bill Clinton had no effect on their vote one way or the other.

–CNN Associate Political Editor Rebecca Sinderbrand

(CNN) – Louisiana Republicans and Democrats agree that the economy is the most pressing concern this year, but break when asked to list other important issues facing the nation, according to CNN exit polls.

Louisiana held its Democratic and Republican primary on Saturday.

While 46 percent of Democrats cited the economy as the most important issue, 33 percent of Republicans ranked it at the top of their list. For Democrats, Iraq – which came in at 29 percent – was the second most important issue followed by healthcare at 23 percent. Meanwhile, illegal immigration and terrorism tied for the second most important issue on the minds of Republican voters at 21 percent, followed by Iraq at 20 percent.

– CNN Political Editor Mark Preston

(CNN) - Barack Obama launched a new ad in Louisiana on Friday, just one day before the state’s Democratic primary.

The Obama campaign’s ad, titled ‘Future,’ pairs images of the Illinois senator and a devastated, post-Katrina New Orleans – gutted homes, an affected man with his child, a shirt that reads ‘Rebuild New Orleans’ – with audio of his inspirational ‘Yes, We Can’ speech.

Earlier this week, the Illinois senator's campaign included a spreadsheet in an e-mail to supporters in which they projected a double-digit win in Louisiana.

“This election is about the past versus the future,” Obama says . “Hard as it may seem, we cannot lose hope.

“There are people all across this great nation who are counting on us. Who cannot afford another four years without health care. They can’t afford another four years without good schools. They can’t afford another four years without decent wages.”

His campaign has also begun airing its Super Bowl spot, ‘Join’ in Wisconsin in advance of the state’s February 19 primary.

On Friday, on a conference call reporting a massive new fundraising haul, Hillary Clinton’s campaign announced that they were airing ads targeting voters in the Potomac primaries, which head to the polls next Tuesday, February 12.

Obama has been running spots in those states since the days before the February 5 Super Tuesday contests.

Clinton also has begun airing a long-running healthcare spot in Washington State, with the addition of endorsements from the state’s two Democratic senators.

Clinton and Obama will go head-to-head in eight Democratic contests in the next four days.

–CNN's Jeff Simon