Members of the New Orleans City Council haven’t signed a petition calling to recall Mayor LaToya Cantrell.
JP Morrell, New Orleans City Council President, explained why to WWL’s Newell Normand.
“A lot of folks are asking when I’m out and about,” said Normand, “why is it that no one on the council has yet to sign a recall petition?”
“I’ve been very public since the recall started that I was not going to sign the petition and I was not going to talk about recall. And the reason why is because the recall is a citizen led process. And once you start having politicians involved in advocating for the recall or not advocating for the recall, it creates a whole new dynamic where suddenly people start questioning... and it creates a tremendous distraction in the recall effort as a whole.”
Normand – who has called for the mayor to be recalled, citing various issues, including city crime rates and government spending – pressed Morrell. The council president said that “this, this mayor and her behavior,” have stressed the “need to have a structure in this city where mayors are not so powerful.”
However, Morrel said it is still “damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” for council members as far as the recall petition is concerned.
“Because if I, if I were to go endorse the recall, as many people would say, finally, he’s doing what I said. The rest would say, Well, obviously JP’s doing this for political reasons and it would just give the mayor who’s fighting the recall another avenue to attack the recall,” he added.
“There’s no correct answer on it.”
According to the petition website, 53,700 signatures are needed in the petition, but organizers are aiming for 63,000 in case some are tossed out. Organizers hold regular signing events.
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