During a time when voter apathy is a major factor in the democratic process, voters in New Orleans have participated in an effort to remove Mayor LaToya Cantrell from office.
Wednesday, February 22, 2023, the organization to recall Mayor Cantrell delivered over 10 boxes with what they say were enough signatures to meet or exceed the number needed to force a recall of Cantrell. During the recall campaign, there was much skepticism over whether that threshold would be reached.
We still have to wait New Orleans Registrar of Voters Sandra Wilson to go through the process of verifying the names on the petition to ultimately find out if the recall campaign hit the threshold. But, for now, the celebration that accompanied the delivery of the names was warranted.
Eileen Carter, one of the organizers and a spokesperson for NoLaToya.org said, “Six months ago, it was a saddened, sorrowful day because we had filed for the recall of the Mayor of the City of New Orleans. It’s not something we did lightly. As you know you all have been on this journey with us for six months. A lot of people didn’t believe in us, or even hear what we had to say.”
In addressing this moment, Carter continued, “So many times we’re fearful, and we’ve been living in that type of fear for entirely too long. Today we are confident that we have enough signatures to recall LaToya Cantrell as mayor of the City of New Orleans.”
Securing the number of names needed to meet or exceed the number required to remove Cantrell from office would be a major step forward, but it is only the first step. Gov. John Bel Edwards would need to sign off on the recall movement after the names are verified, and then there would be an election. So the process is long, and the greatest advantage Mayor Cantrell has is time.
Would the time it takes to bring about an election to remove Cantrell ease the negative impact the mayor has had on our city? Will Cantrell change her behavior and through acts of contrition win over enough New Orleans voters to save her job? These are legitimate questions that may not seem important following the excitement over the delivery of the names on the recall petitions, but voters have a collective tendency to forget the past and relate only to the present.
Cantrell has time to attempt to change the massive disapproval of her as mayor. But her pattern of deep-rooted arrogance and self-righteous entitlement may prevent her from showing signs of being contrite. When faced with challenges to her behavior that was proven to be inappropriate and possibly illegal, Cantrell has always doubled-down on her insistence that she is right.
Cantrell’s behavior as Mayor of New Orleans has been so out-of-line with past mayors that federal investigations into Cantrell could pose a greater threat than a recall.
While we wait for Wilson to verify the names, let’s congratulate the voters of New Orleans for actively participating in the democratic process of the recall effort. Considering that only 28% of the voters turned out to vote in the 2020 election to re-elect Cantrell, the reality that so many New Orleans voters signed the petition to recall her from office must be a shock to Cantrell, who always acted like she had the numbers of “my people” to support her.
A large number of voters Cantrell thought she could depend on have turned their back on her because of her arrogant behavior that always suggested that she was royalty and we were the peasants in her kingdom.
It is interesting that throughout the recall process, LaToya Cantrell has never seemed to embrace the city of New Orleans as her city with the intent to make New Orleans her home after she leaves office - whether forced to leave or her second term ends.
The fact that the recall campaign has come this close to passing the first test must be unsettling to Mayor Cantrell, who has been forced to change her behavior when caught misusing city funds or misusing her position of power - whether it was illegally flying first class on taxpayers’ dollars or abusing the use of a taxpayer-owner apartment in the historic Pontalba building at Jackson Square where she also occupied the time of an NOPD officer for hours and hours over days and weeks.
This recall effort should be seen as a warning to ALL politicians that we - the people - will no longer stand by while an elected official abuses their power and looks down at us from a pedestal of privilege.
