Cao's fund-raising plummets after vote for health care reform

WASHINGTON -- The lone Republican lawmaker to support Democratic health care legislation has seen his fund-raising drop by nearly 40 percent since his vote.

Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao (gow), the unlikely congressman from New Orleans, is facing the perils of bipartisanship unlike any other lawmaker in Washington -- trying to please a heavily Democratic constituency while relying on core conservatives for money to fuel his campaign.

Although Republican leaders have continued supporting Cao with money from their campaign committees despite his health care position, the conservative donors he's courting around the country may not be so forgiving.

A Vietnamese-American, Cao won his seat in 2008 even as President Barack Obama took 75 percent of the vote in the district, which is 60 percent black. Like Louisiana's Indian-American governor, Bobby Jindal, Cao was hailed as a next-generation Republican who could put a more diverse face on the party's predominantly hite image.

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