NOLA Elections and the future

jimmyjude · #1 (**permalink**) 04-22-2006, 03:33 AM

New Orleans is on the verge of elections. The demographics have shifted a little and the first white mayor since 1978 might get elected.

Race politics is an issue that must be discussed here, if not only because it is constantly being harped on by the alphabets (ABC, CBS< MSNBC< CNN< etc).

Apart from this election; what have the pols (black/white/green and R or D) done to make the likelihood of this happening agains less likely?

jimmyjude · #2 (**permalink**) 04-22-2006, 03:34 AM

I will post some links as I come across them by the end of the weekend (hopefully)

jimmyjude · #3 (**permalink**) 04-24-2006, 12:19 AM

I was kind of hoping that ididn't would have something to say in this thread considering she admonished me to not post in hurricane jj.

I guess it is more her just trying to tell people what to do.

jimmyjude · #4 (**permalink**) 04-24-2006, 06:06 PM

I am still surprised that ididn't chose to reply on the hurricane jj thread even though it bothers her that it is there and there is this thread here that deals with the much more important issue of the hurricanes and their aftermath.

hypocrite?

jimmyjude · #5 (**permalink**) 04-24-2006, 07:17 PM

When has that ever happened?

ididnotvote4him · #6 (**permalink**) 04-24-2006, 09:08 PM

JJ I am reading all the threads but I do not know anything about this why do you want me post here. I am on call and my sons have track meets so like I said I will not be posting much until Wed. Also i never admonished you about hurricane Jimmy. I thought it was hilarious. Its fun to have a humorous thread now and then. i dont know... reread the thread you must have me mixed up with another poster.

jimmyjude · #7 (**permalink**) 04-25-2006, 02:58 AM

Quote:

The third-place finisher in the New Orleans mayoral race endorsed the runner-up, Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, on Monday over Mayor Ray Nagin in next month's runoff election.

Ron Forman, head of the organization that runs New Orleans' zoo and aquarium, said Landrieu has his "full support" in the contest to decide who should lead the city in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

"Mitch Landrieu has the experience to implement a plan, to manage a plan and to rebuild our city," Forman said.

Forman said that his campaign was about the need for new leadership, and that Landrieu represents the best opportunity for change in a city that was struggling with poor schools and poverty even before the storm.

Forman, whose wife was Nagin's press secretary before the campaign, said of Nagin: "The man is tired. He's worn out, in my opinion."

Landrieu said he was pleased to get Forman's endorsement so quickly. "It needs all of its people to come together. I cannot do this by myself," Landrieu said.

A spokesman for Nagin said the mayor was not immediately available for comment. In his campaign, Nagin argued that the city should not change leadership amid rebuilding and with another hurricane season looming.

Forman received about 17 percent of the overall vote Saturday to Nagin's 38 percent and Landrieu's 29 percent.

Forman is white, and much of his support came from Nagin's 2002 base, white conservatives. Nagin, a former cable TV executive who is black, was largely abandoned by whites this time but was supported by black voters.

If Landrieu wins the runoff May 20, he will be the first white mayor of New Orleans since his father, Moon Landrieu, held the office in the 1970s.

Nagin and Landrieu led a field of 22 candidates, which included business leaders, a lawyer and a minister. But because no one got a majority of the vote, the top two vote-getters will meet in a runoff.

Black voters made up slightly more than half of the overall vote, according to a consulting firm analyzing demographic data for the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority.

Landrieu, whose father helped integrate City Hall, succeeded in winning over a portion of black voters, said Greg Rigamer, head of GCR & Associates Inc., the firm that did the analysis.

"It can't be about about race, because Landrieu has already bridged the racial barrier," he said. "Nagin has to do the same or he can't win."

Roughly a third of the city's 297,000 eligible voters participated in Saturday's election, some traveling hundreds of miles to help decide who will lead one of the biggest urban reconstruction projects in U.S. history.

Fewer than half the city's 455,000 residents have returned since Katrina devastated the city in August; most of those still scattered around the country are black.

http://www.theconservativevoice.com/...LR2O0&apc=9008

ididnotvote4him · #8 (**permalink**) 04-25-2006, 03:05 PM

Please correct me if I am wrong( I am sure you will)...the reason the New Orleans mayor race is such big news is because of katrina. My uncle is mayor of a city of over a million in the midwest. I am friends with our local mayor in a city of about 100,000. The position of mayor in both of these cities is mostly pubic relations, representing the city to attract new business etc.(supporting post disaster) It is a necessary and worthwhile position but not really very powerful or directly influential. I understand why the N.O. race is getting the airtime but in reality is it really such an important race in who wins. Guliani was a great cheerleader after 9/11. I admire how he was at ground zero 24/7 encouraging, supporting and speaking for the citizens of NYC. However he could not have prevented and did not have access to the intelligence that warned of this attack pre 9/11. Rice testified to the 9/11 commission exactly who was privy and it did not include mayors. They cut ribbons, attend meetings to attract new businesses, serve on committees that clean up blight in the city(Guliani did a tremendous job in that respect in NYC) I do not really care who wins this race..I think the people of that city would know best.

jimmyjude · #9 (**permalink**) 04-25-2006, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ididnotvote4him

Please correct me if I am wrong( I am sure you will)...the reason the New Orleans mayor race is such big news is because of katrina.

Yeah I would agree with that. And also there is alot of race politics involved.

Not only are they overlooking the other little cities like you mention, but the media is acting as if ONLY New Orleans was devastated.

Of course I have to say that I deliberately spent a week in New Orleans a couple of years ago, and had NO desore to go to Mobile.

Quote:

My uncle is mayor of a city of over a million in the midwest. I am friends with our local mayor in a city of about 100,000. The position of mayor in both of these cities is mostly pubic relations, representing the city to attract new business etc.(supporting post disaster) It is a necessary and worthwhile position but not really very powerful or directly influential.

Like my little city.

Quote:

I understand why the N.O. race is getting the airtime but in reality is it really such an important race in who wins.

Good question. My reply is that it probably isn't that important. The level of power that the mayor holds in New Orleans is significantly greater than that held in our little cities though. But being the mayor of New Orleans is probably nothing like being the mayor of NY, LA, or Chicago.

Quote:

Guliani was a great cheerleader after 9/11. I admire how he was at ground zero 24/7 encouraging, supporting and speaking for the citizens of NYC. However he could not have prevented and did not have access to the intelligence that warned of this attack pre 9/11.

Good point, there was NO secret that a hurricane was coming.

Quote:

Rice testified to the 9/11 commission exactly who was privy and it did not include mayors. They cut ribbons, attend meetings to attract new businesses, serve on committees that clean up blight in the city(Guliani did a tremendous job in that respect in NYC) I do not really care who wins this race..I think the people of that city would know best.

I think, for some reason, you are minimizing the importance of the position of mayor in larger cities, which includes NO.

jimmyjude · #10 (**permalink**) 04-26-2006, 03:08 PM

The only real interest most people on this forum have for this area is to bash Bush.

As if Bush was the only one to know that the hurricane was coming.