Make no mistake about it, there are strong national undercurrents in a race that will be decided 100% on hyper-local issues.  For the folks in NOLA, it's about one thing: Katrina.  Many don't seem to care about $90,000 in a freezer except to the extent FBI investigations and no committee seats for the congressman breed impotence in advocating for much needed Katrina recovery funds and legislation.  Nationally, this is a chance to show the Americans of all political stripe that Democrats will not tolerate corruption on either side of the aisle.  What's more, netroots involvement and contributions to Karen Carter's victory signal the new Democratic majority that it is our party's responsibility to make recovery a top priority in the new congress.  Discussion on MyDD (and other national blogs) might not change the mind of a single 2nd CD voter, but as one resident declared:

The national and state press will then celebrate "the message of reform" New Orleans sent. And I won't rush to qualify and correct their storyline.

I haven't had interets for two days, and will put something else up shortly, but here a few more local links providing background on the race.  

• Library Chronicles believes there is something "localer" about New Orleans elections.  He dives into race, the "alpahbet soup" of local machine politics, and even takes me to task on some of what I've written this far.  A good read.

• Maitri follows up on the post by Jeff at Library Chronicles.

• Ashley Morris presents the template to defeat Congressman Jefferson.

• Right Hand Thief participates in a bit of a link-fest of local work as well.

• Moldy City discusses why the race in LA-2 is so important locally.  
  

• Blogs have raised over $6,000 for Karen Carter since Tuesday and $27,000 so far. Almost at 700 contributors total.