There's a new sheriff in town: former Independent Police Monitor Susan Hutson has unseated long-time incumbent Marlin Gusman in a contentious runoff election, according to WWL-TV's projections.
Related
The runoff quickly turned nasty with one side accusing the sheriff of running an inhumane, overcrowded jail, and the other claiming out-of-state liberals were trying to take over New Orleans' criminal justice system.
A progressive criminal justice reform political action committee backed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg donated $200,000 to the effort to defeat Gusman.
“Out-of-state interests are funding mailers, robocalls, TV and social media, so they can have their puppet go easy on crime,” Gusman said in a campaign video.
“Marlin Gusman may want to distract from the jail contractors that fund his campaign, but at the end of the day, voters will choose if New Orleans is ready to turn the page on 17 years of scandals and mismanagement of our city’s jail,” Sade Dumas, co-chair of the PAC, responded in a statement.
“Many of the same political actors from outside of the state a year ago did the same thing to help elect Jason Williams (District Attorney),” said political analyst Clancy DuBos. “They’re all progressive, pro-criminal justice reform.”