On Tuesday, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell called the investigations into her, her administration, and the New Orleans Police Department "a waste of time and money." She also called those inquests "political trickery" and said they were aimed at her personally.
On Wednesday, Mayor Cantrell continued to rail against the city council, calling their investigation into her use of city dollars to send out a pamphlet that, some council members believe, was designed to stymie the recall effort against her "bullying" and "disrespect." She also called the investigation "personal" and "harmful."
"It's unfortunate," Cantrell said during a Wednesday news conference. "I'm so disappointed, I have to say, in the actions of leadership of the New Orleans City Council from the start, I would say, of this tenure.
"We have 858 more days to go," Cantrell added. "I really would hate that we would continue to see this behavior, these type of bullying tactics, the political trickery, (and) the disrespect."
Is this blame game good political strategy for Cantrell? According to pollster John Couvillon of JNC Analytics, it might work for now.
"In the short term, it is a winning strategy," Couvillon said. "If you deploy that strategy to demonize your opposition, in the short term, that works."
Couvillon says Cantrell's pushback against the city council and the federal judge overseeing the NOPD's consent decree could work because Cantrell was reelected by a wide margin and beat the recall effort against her. However, Couvillon says this strategy could come back to bite Cantrell.
"The cautionary note I have is that if you make that your only play--which is constantly blaming others for your problems--I do think that gets to be a self-defeating strategy in the long term," Couvillon said.
Couvillon also notes that Cantrell's accusations against others could raise flags for voters if she were to run for another office, especially for a seat in Congress. He also says Cantrell's claims that others are targeting her could also turn away federal officials who would consider hiring her once her time as mayor ends.
"If she were to seek a federal position, I think that kind of conduct, if it were repetitive, could be a big question mark," Couvillon said.
Couvillon added that Cantrell needs to be careful when publicly discussing the consent decree case and the federal judge handling it. Judge Susie Morgan is expected to render a decision on Wednesday in the latest case surrounding the consent decree governing the NOPD. Federal monitors accused the NOPD and its public integrity bureau of violating that decree through its payroll fraud investigation of the mayor's bodyguard, Officer Jeffrey Vappie. Couvillon warns the mayor not to get on the federal judge's bad side.
"You always have to be careful about what your saying when you're talking about the court of law because judges don't like that attempt to, let's just say, alter public opinion while an investigation is going on," Couvillon said.
