Joseph Cao

Ánh Quang "Joseph" Cao is a Vietnamese-American politician who was the U.S. representative for from 2009 to 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he is the first Vietnamese American and first native of Vietnam to serve in Congress.
Cao was the only Republican congressman to vote for the draft Obamacare, known as Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, in November 2009.
In April 2011, Cao announced his candidacy for the office of Attorney General of Louisiana, but in September 2011 he pulled out of the race. In December 2015, he announced that he would run for the open U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring fellow Republican David Vitter in 2016. As Cao finished eleventh in the primary, he did not place high enough to advance to the general election.

Early life and education

Ánh Quang Cao was born in Saigon, South Vietnam in 1967 as the fifth of eight children to My Quang Cao, a lieutenant in the South Vietnamese Army and Khang Thi Tran. He was captured by the North Vietnamese Army in 1975 at the end of the Vietnam War. His mother did not immediately flee South Vietnam, but sent Anh Cao and two siblings to escape with their uncle. She stayed in the country with five of Cao's siblings. She was allowed to visit her husband only five times during the seven years he was imprisoned in a Communist "re-education camp".
In 1975 Anh Cao was eight years old when he, his siblings and his uncle arrived as refugees in the United States, where they were resettled in Houston, Texas. After being released in 1982 from prison camp, Cao's father joined his family in Houston. He suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and diabetes.
Cao and his family were raised as Catholics. He studied for several years after college to become a priest. He attended public schools and graduated from Jersey Village High School in Houston. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He studied as a Jesuit seminarian for six years, but withdrew when he concluded that the ministry was not his calling. He earned a Master of Arts in philosophy from Fordham University in New York City, and in 2000 his J.D. from Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans. While in law school, Cao also taught undergraduate courses in philosophy at Loyola.

Law practice

Cao used his legal training and experience in immigration issues. For a period he taught at a parochial school in Virginia. He volunteered at Boat People SOS to assist Vietnamese refugees and immigrants and help organize Vietnamese-American communities in the state toward self-sufficiency. He served as a board member of BPSOS from September 1996 to March 2002. After working with Waltzer & Associates, Cao opened his own law practice in New Orleans specializing in immigration law.
Dismayed by the government response to the disaster following Hurricane Katrina, Cao became more involved in politics. He soon became involved in leading New Orleans East residents to oppose a landfill in their area.

U.S. House of Representatives

Cao is the first Vietnamese American, as well as the first native of Vietnam, to serve in US Congress. He is the first Republican to serve in his district since 1890. He defeated a congressman who had been indicted. His district has historically voted overwhelmingly Democratic, based on two different ethnic majorities during this period.
Cao was the least affluent member of Louisiana's delegation in Congress: as of 2009 his assets were no greater than $195,000 and his potential liabilities amounted to $215,000, including student loans for himself and his wife.
Cao was sworn into office on January 6, 2009, with his family and a group of Vietnamese-Americans in attendance. After the swearing-in by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Jefferson Parish Judge Robert Murphy re-administered the oath in Cao's new office.
Despite the tardiness of the election date, Cao rapidly set up his office and staff and gained committee assignments for the 111th Congress. On March 24, 2009, 11 weeks to the day after he was sworn in as a new member, Cao delivered his first speech on the House floor: his statement supported a bill by California Democrat Linda Sánchez to express congressional support of Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day. In the speech, which was broadcast on C-SPAN, Cao said, of Vietnam War veterans, "I am pleased that I, a direct beneficiary of their service, can take part... in this historic event." The bill passed. Cao's speech had been written by his Legislative Director, A. Brooke Bennett.
With the support of congressional Republicans who collectively had an entitlement to 40 percent of earmarks for federal projects, Cao worked to "bring home the bacon" for his district. His requested projects totaled $1.2 billion, approximately three times the average for the other six members of Louisiana's U.S. House delegation. With the support of Louisiana's Democratic United States Senator Mary Landrieu and lobbyist and former United States Representative Bob Livingston, several of these projects were approved by Congress. Livingston represented the adjoining 1st Congressional District from 1977 to 1999.
Cao expressed interest in environmental issues, saying in a meeting at Loyola University New Orleans on April 16, 2009: "I recognize there is an issue of global warming that we have to address."
Cao was invited to a White House reception on April 23, 2009. He presented President Obama with a letter requesting $490 million for post-Katrina restoration of New Orleans' Charity Hospital.. Cao also spoke with Vice President Joe Biden regarding the recovery of New Orleans.
In June 2010, Cao was one of only two Republicans to vote in favor of the DISCLOSE Act, intended to limit spending on political campaigns by corporations in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The bill requires added disclosure for political spending by corporations and prohibits some corporate political spending.
In December 2010, Cao was one of fifteen Republican House members to vote in favor of repealing the United States military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on openly gay service members.
According to a 2011 survey by the National Journal, Cao was the most liberal Republican in the House. In 2009, he was one of seven Republicans who voted to publicly rebuke Representative Joe Wilson, Republican of South Carolina, for his outburst of "You lie!" against President Obama during an address before a joint session of Congress.

Office

Cao hired former state representative Rosalind Peychaud, a Democrat, as his deputy chief of staff.
The late date of Cao's election meant that he inherited former Congressman William J. Jefferson's office, 2113, in the Rayburn House Office Building, although he had no seniority in the House. Writing in the Times-Picayune, Jonathan Tilove observed the notability of 2113 in the Rayburn Building due to its being, as Jefferson's former location, the only congressional office ever raided by the FBI. By the middle of February 2009, Cao had hired most of his staff.
In April 2009, Cao's district staff moved into what was described as the first office in Kenner for a sitting congressman. The office was formerly a storeroom in Kenner's Community Services Department at 624 Williams Boulevard.

Committee assignments

After confirmation by the House Republican Conference, Cao was assigned to the Homeland Security Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

From the outset of Cao's congressional service, his relationship to the Congressional Black Caucus remained uncertain. George Mason University political scientist Michael K. Fauntroy described Cao's expressed interest in joining as "a very smart move".
However, Cao was "rebuffed" by the Congressional Black Caucus in his attempt to join it despite representing a heavily black district.
Cao told the Times-Picayune that President Obama should receive a letter grade of "A" for his first 100 days in office. Cao cited as his reason for such a high mark Obama's "working with us in this whole recovery process".

Recall drive

Among the bills which came to the floor during Cao's first days in Congress, Cao voted against the Obama Administration's stimulus package. Cao justified his votes on expressed dissatisfaction that his 2nd congressional district of Louisiana ranked dead last among the 435 congressional districts in outlays provided by the legislation even though the district was one of the most seriously damaged by hurricanes. Cao's vote provoked a petition to recall him, which formally began on February 16, 2009. Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne and other Louisiana officials, as well as congressional analysts, perceived it as having little or no prospect of succeeding. Although the petition collected more than 13,000 signatures on the first day, it needed more than 100,000 within 180 days to fulfill Louisiana requirements. Congress has never removed, and has no constitutional provision to do, a member based on constituents' recall. Several leaders of the recall campaign, specifically the Reverends Samuel Butler and Toris Young, claimed to have been supporters of Cao, though Cao and his campaign manager Bryan Wagner, a former member of the New Orleans City Council, said they had never met them. After Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell issued an opinion that the state cannot recall federal officials, Butler and Young announced that they would pursue the matter in the federal courts. Young's ability to criticize Cao was mocked by Times-Picayune columnist James Gill because of Young's 11 convictions for fraud and identity theft.
On March 1, 2009, the Times-Picayune reported that Obama had tried to reach Cao on his cellphone prior to the vote on the stimulus package but was unsuccessful; Cao acknowledged that Obama "might have been persuasive" with a "concrete commitment" to help the 2nd district and New Orleans. Cao stated that the Obama administration's $410 billion omnibus spending bill for the final 7 months of Fiscal Year 2009 "would provide important benefits for his 2nd Congressional District" and became one of 16 Republicans voting in favor of that bill.
Before the recall petition, a separate petition had been started to recall New Orleans City Councilwoman Stacy Head, who is white but represents a predominantly black constituency after defeating Jefferson protégé Renée Gill Pratt in 2006. Head, a Democrat, supported Cao in the election on December 6, 2008. James Gill defended Head's support for Cao and asserted it was based not on race but that "Jefferson... is morally unfit for any public office." The petition to recall Head failed to meet its statutory deadline.