New Orleans Votes- Chapter Two

Democartic National Committee chairman Howard Dean says that the Republicans- in particular the Bush administration- will pay for their response to Hurricane Katrina come the forthcoming midterm elections. This in the LA Times (click on the title for the link). But will the city be run by a Republican? The Republican candidates are former New Orleans city councilwoman Peggy Wilson ( read about her plan at http://www.peggywilsonformayor.com). and former New Orleans Zephyrs (minor league baseball team) owner and businessman Ron Couhig, who plans a 'Rudy Guiliani' style, restricting rebuilding of the Lower Ninth Ward and New Orleans East areas- both areas had high African-American populations prior to Katrina.

For Ray Nagin, the incumbent, to have at least a chance of reelection, he must get at least 35% of the city vote, a high percentage of the black vote (thus the journeys from across the country...it's pretty obvious to them that a "bad nigga is better than some honky"- sorry for the epiphets...English: "better to have a bad black [running the city] than a good white." You know that the racial climate in the Big Easy is...shall I say, politely chaotic...), and a vote of the displaced black residents. On the other hand, one of the white candidates, Ron Forman (D) has to have a high white turnout, and be first in Uptown, where parts of the Garden District is located. But that, of course worries the black population.

The runaway winner could be, however, current Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu, who is, of course, scion of the Landrieu political dynasty (his sister Mary, is a U.S. Senator; his father Moon was mayor of New Orleans). He's popular with both the white voters and the African-American voters.

To get a better idea of how the candidates, watch the mayoral debate, which was nationally televised on MSNBC and locally on WDSU-TV (WDSU, of course, is the NBC affiliate in NewOrleans) at http://www.wdsu.com/video/8796955/detail.html.