Posted on 04/04/2006 5:00:38 PM PDT by Libloather
New Orleans Election Hinges on Race and Not Rebuilding
By ADAM NOSSITER
Published: April 4, 2006
NEW ORLEANS, April 3 — As the first vote since Hurricane Katrina, the April 22 mayoral primary was supposed to be about the critical choices facing this battered city — an issues-filled debate about whose reconstruction plan was best.
Instead, with the city's majority-black status in doubt for the first time in decades, one dominant motif has emerged in the campaign: race, which for nearly 30 years has been merely a muted subtheme in politics here. Since 1978, New Orleans has elected black mayors, and there has been little doubt about the racial identity of the eventual winner.
This year, the three major candidates or their supporters have aligned themselves along racial lines, with each camp hoping it has singled out the correct, and as yet unknown, demographic. In part, this is a measure of how far the office of mayor has been reduced in the seven months after the storm.
Though the candidates' promises and speeches have filled the airwaves in advance of the primary election, there is little doubt that the real force in rebuilding will be the billions in pending federal aid. That money will be doled out largely by the State of Louisiana; the role of any future New Orleans mayor will be strictly secondary.
**SNIP**
An unknown executive in 2002, elected largely through white support and for years the target of sharp criticism among blacks here as failing to favor black-owned companies, Mr. Nagin has been all but abandoned by the white businessmen who enthusiastically supported him the first time. They now fault his posthurricane leadership and are donating thousands to Mr. Nagin's white opponents.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson, reaches out to touch Rev. Jesse Jackson's hand at the start of a protest rally in New Orleans Saturday April 1, 2006. Joining them is Al Sharpton and Urban League President and former Mayor Marc Morial. The protesters are seeking attention for disenfranchised evacuees of Hurricane Katrina. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Check out Fat Albert -
(Sorry, I couldn't resist!)
Interesting comment.
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