New Orleans city elections have come and gone with little fanfare and voter turnout. Many people probably have questions about Mayor Cantrell’s reelection, given the sharp criticism of the mayor by local lawmakers, residents, and even myself. Clancy Dubos, Political Editor for Gambit Weekly and WWL-TV Political Analyst, joined me Monday to help make sense of the low voter turnout and other election outcomes.
Mayor Cantrell wins reelection with a resounding 65% of the vote. What does the outcome tell us about the mayoral race?
It was the smallest turnout since I've been covering politics for almost 50 years. 28% of residents voted in a mayor's race, that's pathetic, it's anemic! Mayor Cantrell received 48,000 total votes. No mayor in my professional lifetime got elected or re-elected with that few votes since the 1960’s and Victor Schiro.
In the mayor's victory speech she was talking about this as “our time”. What happened to the first four years when she was mayor?
In fairness, she did have to deal with COVID and Hurricane Ida. I think she handled COVID very well, but she did not handle Ida very well. If qualifying had been after Ida, she would have had a major opponent. Timing and luck has a lot to do with politics and she's one of the luckiest politicians. She's an excellent campaigner, but I don't know if she's going to get high marks as an actual manager of the city.
A lot of the talking heads are saying a big issue in the race for Orleans Parish Sheriff is the mental health jail. Sheriff candidate Susan Hutson believes that it will expand the climate and culture of incarceration in this city. We're talking about having 89 beds. If we believe that there are not 89 inmates who suffer from mental health disorders in the jail right now, I think we're kidding ourselves.
Hutson says there’s room in the current jail, and that’s really the debate. It’s not about whether or not we treat prisoners who have mental health issues. The real questions are: do we need a separate facility, and who should run it? What the general population hasn't been told loudly enough is that whoever is elected sheriff will be under a court order to build a new jail facility. Orleans Parish is unique in that the sheriff doesn't control the prison population. The cops arrest people - the sheriff just houses them.
Who benefits the most from a runoff, incumbent Marlin Gusman or Susan Hutson?
Traditionally I would say Gusman, but Hutson has a very committed vote. There are a lot of progressive voters in New Orleans. That's who got LaToya Cantrell elected the first time, and she has held onto that base… the mayor could play a decisive role in that campaign. She is very strong with her base and if she wants to make a difference in that race, she could.
