Joseph Cao

That new perspective may be too much to swallow for the GOP. After President Obama called him the day of the vote, Cao was the sole Republican to vote for the Democrats' health-care reform bill in November 2009.

"I love the president, and I believe he truly likes me," Cao declared in September 2010, noting he'd visited the White House 10 times.

But Cao's proximity to the president was not enough to save the job of the first Vietnamese-American to serve in Congress, and Cao lost in the November midterms to Rep. Cedric Richmond (D). Jefferson's loss was definintely an anomaly for this poor New Orleans district, where Democrats mounted one of its strongest challenges in 2010.

In His Own Words

"I had to make a decision of conscience based on the needs of the people of my district," Cao said after voting for the Democrat's health-care plan in November 2009. "A lot of my constituents are uninsured, a lot of them are poor."

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