Newell Normand believes New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell and her administration must be nervous about the recall movement by nolatoya.org to get her out of office. There have been a few sightings of yard signs urging people to recall the recall. Do those signs pop up organically? Normand is skeptical to say the least.
He’s also skeptical of Cantrell’s shifting explanations regarding her first-class travel arrangements. First, the mayor said the first-class section offers a black woman such as herself a better sense of security and safety.
She later added that she suffers from anxiety and the front of the airplane apparently can ease that condition.
Normand questions why the mayor and others like her take feel good trips and label them as “work” and “duties” connected to the city. If she does have anxiety, Normand wonders if it’s coming from the civic, business and political pressure exerted by the NOLA Coalition which is demanding better local government response to the violent crime in New Orleans.
On the Newell Normand show this week, Normand wondered if Cantrell flew first-class this summer to Florida to view what turned out to be a scrubbed lunch of the Artemis 1 rocket. More recently, did she fly first-class to Houston to discuss infrastructure while recall supporters have called her out for unnecessarily spending tax-payer money for the first-class treatment? Normand wants to Cantrell to be honest about the real-life utility of these trips and her first-class choices.
“Why do we need to do all that? Stay home. Block and tackle, every day. You’re worried about yourself. You’re worried about your anxiety. It’s amazing to me. I guess all of that went away. I don’t know if she drove to Houston or flew to Houston. It’d be interesting and it’d be interesting to see if she’s flying on Southwest, where there is now first class, because I understand the trip that she took to Florida to Cape Canaveral was Southwest,” Normand said.
Any way you cut it; the mayor has an uphill climb regarding the optics of her travels. If she has started flying coach, as city policy requires of all its employees, then she and her inner circle may believe they’re caving to public scrutiny by the recall effort or public opinion.
If she sticks to her guns that her anxiety is “forcing” her to cling to the first-class section, then she sends a clear message that what many constituents demand doesn’t matter. Normand says the public in New Orleans deserves a clear explanation.
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“It’d be interesting to see if she’s flown first class since all of this popped up. I wonder. I’d love to see that. That would be the true test to see just how arrogant this mayor can be. And I certainly hope that folks out there are putting in public records requests on her travel, if she flew to Houston to find out if she flew first-class and whether the taxpayer is paying for her anxiety,” Norman said this week.
If LaToya Cantrell suffers from anxiety as she’s stated, there are remedies. She could seek professional help from medical professionals. But Normand can’t see how even that would ease things for the mayor. Normand believes there is one option that could eliminate all of the talk about Cantrell’s anxiety.
“You want to know what the magic potion is? I’m going to tell you what it is. The NOLA Coalition and the recall effort by nolatoya.org,” said Normand.
Listen to Normand’s full opinion: