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May 20, 2006

The Mayor of New Orleans

I haven't had a whole lot to say about the mayoral race in New Orleans.

Partly because all the logistical details of moving back there (possibly, still, even now, not definitely) have been consuming all my waking thoughts, at least when I'm not either working or puking.

Partly because, as much as my mind has already disengaged from Austin and moved on ahead of me, it's not my election. I grew up under the elder Mayor Landrieu, I left town when the elder Mayor Morial was in office, and I've not got much of an informed opinion about how City Hall has or has not changed in the era between the World's Fair and The Thing.

But mostly I haven't said much because the New Orleans blogger community has covered the election so spectacularly that I've felt like a been-away-too-long ex-pat living in Texas can't possibly add anything other than a big Me Too.

There are so many angles to this story that the national media doesn't cover. How the Landrieu family is unfairly vilified as being the origin of the City Hall corruption that has decimated the city in recent decades, and how this smear is often the public face of a deep-seated resentment against Moon Landrieu's anti-segregationist stand. Or the Oyster-Adrastos theory that proposes that heavy GOP support for Nagin is designed so that he will remain in office as a convenient whipping boy to use for GOP advantage in later state elections. Schroeder, Markus, Da Po' Blog, Ashley Fucking Morris, The Third Battle, Bayou St. John David, all have been writing brilliantly over the last few weeks.

The latest post from Tim's Nameless Blog, though, entitled My Letter To Ray, sums it up perfectly.

I'm not a Nagin hater. I've defended him to my Republican brother in Baton Rouge countless times. Up until a few months ago, I would maybe have even supported him for re-election. But not now. Being back in April and seeing how little had changed since February, or November, is just maddening. I don't see the job getting done. I don't see leadership, I don't see coalitions being built, I don't see plans being implemented. Where progress is being made, it's by individual citiizens digging in and hanging on by their fingernails. And that's not going to be enough for the city to come back.

New Orleans needs a change. It needs decisiveness and confidence at City Hall, and Nagin is just tired. He did the best he could for us at the darkest moments, but it's time to turn things over.

Y'all who can vote, get yourself to the polls.

Posted by ray at May 20, 2006 1:43 PM |
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Comments

I'm voting Ray (You Ray not Nagin) for new orleans mayor.

Posted by: Karl Elvis [TypeKey Profile Page] at May 20, 2006 2:50 PM

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