Last night Mitch Landrieu won New Orleans' mayoral contest, outright, in a landslide election in the primary round. He captured 66% of the vote, and his nearest opponent, Troy Henry, had 14%. John Georges ended up spending around $400/vote to get a measly 9%. The internals on Landrieu's win are extremely impressive, and should be studied as a guide to what is politically achievable in this city. NolaStat's map shows that Landrieu convincingly won every precinct (except one that he barely missed), which is a mind-blowing achievement for a non-incumbent in an open primary. And remember, we're talking about New Orleans, here. A city of wards and factions and allegiances unlike any other in the South. How do you win a majority of the vote for mayor in every New Orleans neighborhood in a multi-candidate primary? (Well, it helps to have un-established opponents and a disastrous predecessor who was elected with the help of "strategic" conservative voters who told us ... well, they told us all kinds of b.s. four years ago-- most of which still holds, if you're dumb enough to believe such crap. YRHT whipping post Mike Bayham who was one of the tools at the forefront of the conservative vote-Nagin effort in 06, advised New Orleans to "choose wisely" in this election, though he didn't make a specific endorsement this time. Yeah, thanks for the tip. You could get more consistent "wisdom" from Emilio Estevez' directorial debut than you can from Bayham. But, indulgently, I digress.)Pistolette humorously summed up my viewing experience watching WWL for the results. WWL was consistently ahead of the other networks with its information, and Clancy Dubos' political analysis was light years more incisive and sophisticated than the professors and pundits on the other networks (although I do like WDSU's Dr. Burns). All due credit to WWL and Clancy and demographer Rigamer-- they were simply much better at delivering solid information, and they correctly called the race 25 minutes after the polls closed, which was pretty shocking. But, as Pistolette describes, there were some hiccups:
I was mostly watching WWL so I could watch Clancy DuBos’ anaysis, but oh at what a price. WWL is running somekinda podunk HD where they hover the oldskool analog box in the middle with HD borders. Then the crapola signal in the middle has news anchors older than the St Louis Cathedral. This doesn’t bug me at all compared to the lighting issue, which makes everyone on that station’s face look like the lunar surface, sans the decency to remove the color.The visuals were pretty rough. But it was worth looking past that, because Dubos went deeper than the usual warmed-over political generics served on other channels, and explained the political dynamics that prevented Troy Henry from employing the "2006 Nagin strategy" that some simplistically assumed would occur. These dynamics were important, in that they prevented Henry from becoming a real threat to Landrieu in this race. Dubos accurately described the mayoral election result as a "repudiation of Nagin". Absolutely right: this was a city-wide repudiation of Nagin, in every single corner of every single neighborhood. I couldn't be happier about that fact. Maybe Nagin will move to Dallas after May
One disappointment was the low turnout. Given the Super Bowl, Carnival and everything else, I guess it makes sense. But it was even lower than I expected. The Secretary of State was predicting "high turnout", which was way off.
Credit goes to John Georges, who made a very gracious and sincere concession speech not long after the race was called, which was not long after the polls closed. A tip of the hat to Troy Henry, who was equally gracious and unifying, and even went over to Landrieu's victory party to congratulate him in person. That's a noble move.
So the Mayor's race is decided. New Orleans is a predominantly black city with a white mayor-elect, a Vietnamese-American U.S. Representative, and a state governor of Indian descent. Gumbo coalitions, baby.
Well done, Mayor-elect Mitch Landrieu! YRHT wishes you every success in your efforts to lead this city to a brighter future.
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Update: I might be able to get do a Saints post before the game, but don't count on it. And don't count on one any time after the game, either. In the interim, though, don't miss this post at Noladishu.
Labels: Elections and Campaigns, Mitch Landrieu
