The Possible Dream

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Shaping the Man

The story of Anh 'Joseph' Quang Cao, the newly elected Republican congressman for Louisiana's second district, is the definition of the American dream.

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The seminarian who left the church to pursue God's will had come through the abyss.

Toast of the Town

On a recent morning, Cao and Murray Nelson, his campaign adviser, are in the 30th-floor penthouse meeting room of Nelson's firm, Fowler Rodriguez Valdes-Fauli. The fog is gumbo thick outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, making it impossible to see the city below. Cao is explaining to Timothy P. Ryan, chancellor of the University of New Orleans, who has stopped by seeking help from Congress, that they need to work fast.

"The Republican leadership . . . is going head over heels" about his victory, Cao says. "I'm a Republican in a Democratic district. The outgoing Bush administration isn't going to be here much longer. I'm not sure how much can be accomplished, but let's strike while the support is still hot."

He reaches in his pocket to hand Ryan a business card. It turns out he doesn't have one yet.

"We really need to get cards," says Nelson.

"We really need to get an office," Cao counters, good-naturedly.

People are still getting used to the idea that Cao really did win.

Mayor C. Ray Nagin, who is black, once said he wanted to keep the Big Easy "chocolate" after Katrina. In an interview in City Hall recently, he described Cao's election as a "stroke of luck and brilliance." He acknowledges that there is a "feeling of loss" among the city's black residents that Cao defeated Jefferson. "But if he delivers on post-Katrina things -- really delivers -- I think he could be tough to beat," Nagin says.

The mayor is being nice.

Most people think Cao will be a political one-and-done. Once the Democrats unite behind a fresh candidate, the logic goes, they'll churn out another victory.

"People are already lining up to run against him," says John "Spud" McConnell, an actor and the hugely popular host of WWL radio's "Talk Gumbo." "He's going to have to come home with a lot of pork for the 2nd District, to stand a chance in two years."

Barbara Lacen Keller is one of those black voters whom Cao will have to sway.

An activist in city politics for 40 years, she voted for Jefferson, her fellow church member, in part because he'd come through the Democratic ranks and knew what black residents needed, she says.

But she lives in east New Orleans, not far from Cao. The area is still one of the poorest in the region. There are power lines and the interstate in the distance. There are the little shopping centers where every store has a Vietnamese name. There are junkyards and transmission shops and Gill's Crane and Dozer Services.

"This is my city. I love it. I want it to have the best," she says. "I look at the disparity Joe's been able to overcome, to come to a country where he was totally lost and had to fend for himself. He had to learn the language and culture, not just in America, but in New Orleans, a place that's so unique. To come out as successful as he is, that says something."

Somewhere, past miles of canebrake and marsh and canals and fishing shacks on stilts, there is Joseph Cao, out for his pre-dawn five-miler, believing beyond faith that he can represent this city and its people who still can't pronounce his name, if only he runs hard enough.