Though the Democrats may have won control of the House of Representatives, Louisiana’s District 7 did not become one of the number of newly Democratic seats, as incumbent Repubilican Rep. Charles Boustany Jr. earned a second term, besting Democratic challenger Mike Stagg with a 71 percent majority.

Boustany’s second campaign amassed 113,486 votes, beating Stagg in all eight parishes located in District 7. Stagg’s final tally was 29 percent, or 47,007 votes.

“It is time to put the partisan bickering aside and really get to work solving the problems the American public expects government to solve,” said Boustany, 50, at his victory party at Pat’s Downtown in Lafayette. “You can count on me to work across party lines as I have done the past two years. I have worked hard and I am proud of the record I have amassed these last two years.”

“The fact [is] that he’s accepted all this money from the special interest groups and as a result, his votes don’t reflect the interest of the district,” said Stagg, 54, after his loss became apparent. “The real problem with his campaign is that he refused to debate. The only time he answered questions was in a structured setting.”

Stagg ran his campaign without accepting any funding from the Democratic Party or Political Action Committees funded by special interest groups.

“I don’t think [Stagg] should have done anything differently,” said Simon Hayes, a UL Lafayette political science major and membership coordinator of the school’s chapter of College Democrats. “I think he stood by his principles. I think it was just a matter of a candidate with $1 million versus a candidate with $35,000 to spend, and 30 percent compared to 70 percent is pretty admirable.”

Boustany’s supporters were predictably upbeat.

“I think he crosses partisan lines,” said Buddy Bonvillain, a political science major at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette who worked on Boustany’s campaign team. Bonvillain said he felt that a Democratic house wouldn’t affect Boustany as much as other Republicans, because of Boustany’s record at working with the opposing party.

“I’m going to continue working in a bi-partisan way,” said Boustany of his future plans in office. “I was very successful these past few years in getting a number of bills passed as the primary author. I had Democratic co-sponsors on every one of my bills. I’ve developed some great relationships across the aisle, and I’ll continue to work in a bi-partisan fashion.

“Long-term [plans] for the next two years, obviously, fulfilling my prescription for prosperity, which I started work on in this past term, that’s something I laid out before. It talks about economic development, infrastructure, reforming health care, improving education in the district, be very strong on national defense, and protecting our Louisiana values.

“The issue with Iraq is much more complicated than what we get in sound bites, and the bottom line is, we have to do what we can to secure protection of our troops,” said Boustany. “Secondly, we need come to an agreement with the brand-new Iraqi government.”

Before serving in Congress, Boustany was a heart surgeon based in Lafayette. He was forced to cease practice because of arthritic hands. He graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 1978. He was the first Republican elected in the history of his district.

Stagg, who ran an unsuccessful bid for governor in 1998, is a self-described “entrepreneur [and] civic activist.” He has lived in Lafayette for almost all his life.