On Saturday, Rep. William Jefferson [3] (D-La.) defeated Democratic challenger Karen Carter [4] in a runoff election, 57%-43%, to keep his seat in Louisiana's 2nd District. Jefferson is currently being investigated [5] by the FBI for allegedly accepting a bribe from the owner of iGate Inc. to arrange deals for the high-tech company in Nigeria and several other African countries. Federal authorities videotaped him taking $100,000 in alleged bribe money, and $90,000 of it was later found in a freezer in his Washington D.C. apartment during an FBI raid in May. The Justice Department [6] is also looking into "at least seven other schemes [7] in which Jefferson sought things of value in return for his official acts." The ongoing investigation led House Democrats to remove Jefferson from the influential Ways and Means [8] Committee earlier this year, and the Louisiana Democratic Party to endorse Carter in the election.

With Jefferson's victory, only two House races now remain contested:

• Texas-23rd District: Incumbent Republican Rep. Henry Bonilla [9] faces off against former Democratic Rep. Ciro Rodriguez [10] in a runoff set to take place tomorrow. Bonilla fell just short of obtaining the 50 percent he needed to win on November 7th after a judge threw out the congressional district in place during the primary, ordering the general election open to all interested candidates. The district had been drawn under a plan orchestrated by former Rep. Tom DeLay [11] (R-Texas) in 2003 and was ruled to violate the voting rights of Latinos.
• Florida-13th District: Republican Vern Buchanan [12] has been certified the winner of Rep. Katherine Harris [13]'s open seat with a 369 vote margin over Democrat Christine Jennings [14]. However, voting irregularities, including 18,000 missing votes, were rampant during the election and Jennings and several organizations have filed suit to challenge the results. They are seeking a new election because the electronic voting machines used in the district have no paper trail.