Rep. Jefferson holds on to his seat in Louisiana

Jefferson, plagued by more than a year of scandal, received 57% of the vote in complete but unofficial returns. His challenger in the runoff election, Democratic state Rep. Karen Carter, had 43%.

Voter turnout was only about 16% on what turned out to be a cold and windy election day.

At a victory celebration, Jefferson called for unity "on the East Bank, on the West Bank, [between] black and white, rich and poor, with one objective: to recover this wonderful city."

In conceding, Carter told supporters that she had called Jefferson and offered to work with him because "we certainly can't do this alone."

Political analysts said voters in the district, which spans most of New Orleans and the West Bank of neighboring Jefferson Parish, were more concerned with maintaining the status quo than with change.

"It's a vote for continuity," Brian Brox, a political scientist at Tulane University in New Orleans, said of the results.

Jefferson trounced Carter among African Americans and had a strong showing in Jefferson Parish, according to a preliminary analysis by Greg Rigamer of GCR & Associates Inc. More whites voted for Jefferson than blacks did for Carter, according to the analysis. Both Jefferson and Carter are black.

Analysts believe that Carter's fate might also have been sealed by her failure to garner enough votes in Jefferson Parish, where Sheriff Harry Lee mailed out fliers during the final week of the campaign urging parish residents not to vote for her.

Lee and other Jefferson officials were outraged over comments Carter made in a recent Spike Lee documentary, criticizing Jefferson law enforcement officials for blocking Katrina evacuees from crossing a bridge to safety in their parish in the aftermath of the storm.

Jefferson, 59, has held his congressional seat for 16 years and rarely faced a serious challenge for it. The climate changed this year as a federal bribery probe unfolded. He was ousted from the House Ways and Means Committee after agents in an FBI raid said they found $90,000 stashed in a freezer of his Washington home.

Jefferson has not been charged with any crime, and insisted he was innocent.