Posted on 05/03/2009 8:33:35 PM PDT by reaganaut1
As Mayor C. Ray Nagin approaches his final year in office, he faces scandal, an acrimonious stalemate with the City Council and the worst popularity ratings ever recorded for a mayor here.
Term limits will keep him from running again, so Mr. Nagin’s eight tumultuous years of leading what he called a “chocolate city” will come to an end next May. He has not been popular among middle-class white voters since the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but now, with the city still in a halting recovery more than three and a half years later, residents citywide seem eager to see him go.
In a recent poll by the University of New Orleans, Mr. Nagin was cited as one of the “biggest problems” for the city, coming in third after crime and education. Just 24 percent of residents over all said they approved of the mayor, a drop from 31 percent the year before.
“It’s the worst approval rating we’ve reported since 1986,” when the poll was first conducted, said Robert T. Sims, the director of the university’s survey research center.
Among African-Americans, support dropped to 36 percent from about half of those polled last year. Among whites, who constituted much of Mr. Nagin’s voting base in his first election, the approval rating was 5 percent. (The survey’s margin of sampling error for whites was plus or minus five percentage points.)
Edward F. Renwick, a retired professor of political science at Loyola University and a pollster himself, said he found that figure surprising. “I have hardly ever seen 5 percent,” Dr. Renwick said. On the other hand, he added, “I have never met a white person who doesn’t hate him.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
How many of the Katrinicans who were bused from Houston to re-elect this man still do not live in New Orleans again?
Sounds like some are now willing to admit that the failings of Katrina recovery efforts were NOT all Bush’s fault expect the Move On Morons demanded he be IMPEACHED over Katrina. Never let a good crisis go to waste, right?
And the MSM helped spin this worldview. I loathe the Pravda Media.
I would love to know what the reaction would have been if some mayor somewhere said his city is a “Cloud City” or was like vanilla ice cream. I never understand why liberals can get away with saying such vile things with no consequences. Don Imus says something stupid and is forced off the radio. Al Sharpton lies in the Tawana Brawley case and faces no consequences. Nagin says he wants New Orleans to be a chocolate city. Miss California believes marriage is a man and a woman and is pilloried by the politically correct crowd. Those who pillory her face no consequences. Yet if anti-gay slurs had been made against anyone by a conservative at the level that Miss California has faces, they would have been forced off of the radio or TV, or whatever their profession is. Even a liberal like Larry Summers gets forced out as president of Harvard University for saying we should ask the question about why few women are in the hard sciences.
I don’t understand the politically correct world we live in. There are no consistent standards. Or perhaps there are standards that the conservatives are supposed to abide by, but the liberals get a free pass.
“Among whites, who constituted much of Mr. Nagin’s voting base in his first election, the approval rating was 5 percent.”
They must now feel they’ve been absolved of their guilt for the crime of being white....
FEMA still has trailers full of Katrina “victims.” They will not dare evict them.
How long has it been? Almost 4 yrs?
“The idiots living there clearly are too stupid to govern themselves as they voted to reelect that complete moron of a mayor they currently have.”
If I was from Maryland, I would be very careful about calling anyone stupid.
The Republican party had a hand in electing the mayor since they didn’t want the Democrat Senator’s brother elected. Great strategy wasn’t it since she won. Great candidate selection works everytime.
Any Freepers in NO know if there is a GOP candidate in this race with a chance? Or does it just have to be another black guy regardless of his inability to manage even the school buses?
Curiously, Louisiana could turn out to be a GOP blueprint for revitalizing America. It’s a hell of a resume item for Jindal if he’s got the only state who isn’t shedding jobs.
“Name that party”
About what you would expect from the despicable NY Times.
The interesting thing about Nagin is that he won his first election as mayor by having the support of the business community, white conservative voters as well as middle class blacks. His opponent had support of the black activists as well as the working class and underclass blacks.
In his second election Nagin won by capturing the black vote almost in its entirety and conservative white voters.
As for the 2010 New Orleans mayoral race, the best candidate with a chance of winning would be Arnie Fielkow who is currently on the City Council.
Fielkow will build a winning strategy much like Nagin did in his first election. However, Fielkow will have to fight Mitch Landrieu for the votes white liberals.
BTW- I was in New Orleans the day before Katrina and the people who did not evacuate did no on their own accord and not because there were no school busses to help with an evacuation.
I remember Nagins original race dynamics.
What is Fielkow like? Sounds Jewish. (Not like that would make me trust him automatically even as a jew since most political Jews are liberal nuts)
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