Louisiana Politics: Jockeying for big-city mayor posts underway

By Jeremy Alford
LaPolitics.com
With a mayor’s race on the ballot this fall for Baton Rouge and another to follow in New Orleans in 2017, jockeying is well underway for what are arguably two of the most high-profile municipal positions in the state of Louisiana.
State Sen. Bodi White, R-Central, is making a strong approach from the right in his bid to become the next mayor-president of Baton Rouge. The East Baton Rouge Parish Republican Party has endorsed his candidacy and White has raised more than $400,000 to lead the money side of the race.
White has about $370,000 in the bank and a supportive super PAC waiting in the wings to spend its dollars promoting his candidacy.
Politicos are also keeping a close watch on former Sen. Sharon Weston Broome, a Democrat. She has about $76,000 in the bank.
Rep. Denise Marcelle, a fellow Democrat, is lagging behind with just $6,300 in cash on hand but community activists say they aren’t counting her out. She has deep pockets of support that were cultivated as a former metro councilwoman.
Republican Metro Councilman John Delgado is another contender. With $50,000 in the bank, he’s hoping for crossover votes and is positioning himself as a moderate candidate.
The biggest surprise in the race so far comes from real estate developer and first-time candidate Darryl Gissel. He raised $133,000 from May 15 to July 31 and has $65,000 in the bank. Gissel has already made a small local TV buy and is staffed up.
The race for mayor of New Orleans, meanwhile, is still more than a year away, but chatter is ramping up there over who will be on the 2017 ballot.
When he was originally elected, Mayor Mitch Landrieu was rather late to the field, but he’s advising friends and acquaintances that anyone serious about the job needs to start early.
Speculation has finally come around to state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, the chairwoman of the Louisiana Democratic Party. She’s viewed as a senior-level politician in the Crescent City and someone who could start to lightly clear a field that’s already filled up with maybe-candidates.
While she hasn’t publicly made a move or even hinted at it, Peterson is one of many personalities being watched closely and community leaders are urging her to run.
Yet as a former congressional candidate, it’s thought that a job in Washington, D.C., has always been on her wish list. If she doesn’t run for mayor, and if she doesn’t end up with a gig through a Hillary Clinton presidency, Peterson could end up back on a federal ballot sooner than later.
Former New Orleans Judge Michael Bagneris, meanwhile, is expected to make a run for mayor again after opposing Landrieu’s re-election three years ago.
Next year will be the first time in recent memory that New Orleans will host its election for mayor in the fall instead of the spring, meaning candidates won’t have to compete against Mardi Gras. The Legislature agreed to the change hoping it would increase voter participation.
The next mayor of New Orleans will still be sworn in the following May, but by the 2021 cycle the elected mayor will begin taking office in January like other officials around the state.

Special session unlikely
As Gov. John Bel Edwards works to make sure the state’s financial condition — meaning spending more money than there is revenue coming in — doesn’t hamper recovery efforts, he’s also signaling to lawmakers that a special session just to address the flooding event will not be needed. A special session was held in 2005 following hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
From a policy perspective, one of the top priorities for the Edwards Administration right now is carrying out its initial plan for housing, with 4,000 people still stuck in shelters as last week.
Currently assistance in being offered in the way of hotel rooms and rental properties. That could be expended in the coming weeks
Trailers were made available after Katrina in 2005 and FEMA oversaw that “temporary housing mission” for seven years until all of those households moved on to more permanent living quarters.

They said it
“I don’t feel forgotten by the federal government.”
—Gov. John Bel Edwards, on MSNBC
“We welcome him to Louisiana, but not for a photo-op.”
—Edwards spokesman Richard Carbo, on Donald Trump’s visit last week,
in The Associated Press
“Michelle is very strict about me actually taking a vacation when I get a vacation.”
—A vacationing President Barack Obama, during a fundraiser last week as floodwaters
continued to flow in Louisiana, on CNN
For more Louisiana political news, visit www.LaPolitics.com or follow Jeremy Alford on Twitter @LaPoliticsNow.