Early voting starts Saturday in the New Orleans mayoral election.
UNO Political Science Professor Ed Chervenak says mayoral candidate Helena Moreno has such a big lead in the polls that the other two major candidates in the race, Royce Duplessis and Oliver Thomas, are just hoping to get the race to a runoff.
“She’s well within the margin of error of winning it on the primary. And so, the goal of the other two campaigns is to make sure that she does not get to 50 percent-plus-one,” Chervenak explained.
Chervenak says while Moreno, who’s currently one of two at-large New Orleans City Councilmembers, is resonating with voters, Duplessis and Thomas are having a much more difficult time doing so.
“Senator Duplessis is relatively new and hasn’t really been able to introduce himself. Councilmember Thomas wants to bring back some of the things that had been done in the past, and people are more interested in looking to the future than they are to the past,” Chervenak noted.
Chervenak says with Duplessis and Thomas trailing in the polls by a wide margin, they’re pulling out all the stops in portraying Moreno in a negative light.
“The argument is that she’s responsible for the chaos that we see at City Hall. This confrontation between the administration and the City Council,” Chervenak said.
Early voting ends October 4, and the primary election is October 11. If no candidates reach the 50 percent-plus-one threshold, a runoff between the top two vote getters will be held November 15.
Related
