OPP, Gusman, Midura

Kudos to Katie Moore at WWL-TV and Councilwoman Shelley Midura for having the guts to take on Criminal Sheriff Marlin Gusman. OPP has been a bastion of corruption, inhumanity, and dirty politics for the last 30 years, but no one has ever been willing to take that monster on. Until now.

How Clarkson Beat Willard-Lewis

A lot of people did not expect Clarkson to win this race, including some of our local pundits like Clancy Dubos who thought Willard-Lewis would pull it out. What was the deciding factor in this race? Was it turnout? "Crossover" vote appeal? Race? The rotten garbage contract and Willard-Lewis's amendments to the ordinance that set the 25 pound debris limit? Was it Nagin's endorsement?

I think you could legitimately argue that all of these played a role in the outcome of this election, but the early poll data indicates that the most significant factor was the disparity between black turnout and white turnout.

New Orleans is still a majority black city by a significant margin. We have about 15 percent more blacks than whites in New Orleans, even after Katrina. Yet the early poll data indicates that the disparity in registered voter turnout between blacks and whites was dramatic. It looks like registered black voter turnout was somewhere between 10 and 20 percent while whites turned out somewhere between 30 and 40 percent. According to the data I've seen and the conversations I've had with various campaign staffers and other sources suggests that it was about 15% black turnout and 35% white. This tremendous gap in turnout eclipsed any difference in white or black population numbers and was likely the most significant factor in several local races including victories for Jackie Clarkson, Laurie White, Walt Leger, and Cheryl Gray.

For Clarkson and White, the turnout gap was really the deciding factor as those two races were very close. For Leger and Gray, it was the fuel for their ass whoopings of their opponents, Judy Bajoie-Phillips and Jalila Jefferson-Bullock.

Despite the fact that Gray and Jefferson-Bullock are both black, this turnout gap propelled Gray over Jefferson because of Gray's "crossover" appeal with white voters in contrast to that of the Jefferson family name which is a more than tarnished name with most white voters.

I don't know if this is a reliable indicator for future campaign strategies, as this race had some interesting combined circumstances such as no gubernatorial runoff, a wave of media stories and federal indictments against black elected officials, and an unpopular poor performing black mayor who became at least partially a referendum issue in the City Council election.

Personally, the only candidate who won locally that I felt really good about was Cheryl Gray. I'm hopeful however that Clarkson will be the 4th reform vote on the Council. It will be interesting to see what effect this has on James Carter, who had been seen as the swing vote on the current Council.

Also, is there any bigger loser in this last election cycle than John Georges who blew $11 million to finish 3rd in the Governor's race and then donated $15,000 to Willard-Lewis and sent out a mailer on her behalf thanking her for her support (and Fielkow's) in Georges' Governor's race? And now he wants to be Mayor of New Orleans?

Dartboards with Black People In the Bullseye

Jeff Parish City Hall, yall rock man. Nooses aren't enough for yall. No, you gotta go the extra mile and get the Deluxe Klan Kit for More Advanced Racists and get the whipping post and bonus dartboard too.

Thanks for reminding us how backwards some folks here still are. You are why this blog exists.

Una Anderson

So, these Stephanie Grace and James Gill columns have succeeded in casting further doubts in my mind for Una Anderson.


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NOPD's Integrity

The Captain of NOPD's "Public Integrity" Bureau was just arrested for a hit and run accident. Way to go Captain Gremillion.

Walker Hines - A Complete Fuck-Up for State Rep.

Walker Hines is a 23 year old son of a rich connected white Uptown guy, Bill Hines. Walker's resume:

- Expelled from 2 high schools.
- 5 different colleges in 4 years.
- Graduated from Michigan only because they let him in as a displaced Katrina evacuee and he then successfully petitioned (begged) them to let him finish school there.
- Was a rabid Republican in high school, now claims to be a Democrat (dubious).

He made the runoff for the seat based on his daddy's last name. He has accomplished nothing in his life. He has done nothing for communities or neighborhoods. He's a little rich kid with a sense of entitlement who has never had to struggle for anything, never had to earn anything.

He's been lucky enough to have a scandal fall on his runoff opponent, Una Anderson. I don't particularly like either of them. Una is a former Oliver Thomas staffer who hangs out with some sleaze, though I can't say that I know that she herself is corrupt. But she is, at the least, the lesser of the two evils. She may even turn out to be something good. She was an Amato supporter at OPSB, which is a good thing. Hines though is absolutely not qualified to be in any position of political leadership. Maybe he will go on to do great things and make something of himself. But thus far, he simply has not proven anything except that he's the fuckup son of a well known uptown millionaire.

Council At-Large, Willard-Lewis, Inspector General

I was watching the WDSU Council debate and I was stunned at Cynthia Willard-Lewis's deceptiveness when she stated her support for the Inspector General and insisted her number one issue and campaign priority was fighting corruption. When the new Council had its first vote on the Inspector General, the vote was 6-1 against Midura and Willard-Lewis led the charge to kill the vote with a ridiculous and disingenuous technical move, arguing that it should be killed based on it's lack of a fiscal note.

Dangerblond covered this excellently at the time. WDSU and Norman Robinson's failure to call her on this is just sloppy journalism. It's another major issue where the local blogs have been better informed and ahead of the local TV news media.

It should also be noted that according to sources I've talked to, Willard-Lewis was the only Councilperson who did not co-sign with the last package of supporting amendments for the IG ordinance.