Landrieu v. Nagin
The New Orleans primary election got much more interesting last night. Just when I thought that Nagin was dead in the water, he pulls off a nine-point lead in the primary. What happened?
Landrieu is still likely to win, but the odds are much closer now. You aren’t going to get thirty-eight percent of the vote without some white people voting for you, so my earlier hypothesis about Landrieu winning because Nagin doesn’t have enough white support to equal Landrieu’s biracial base is much shakier…
The real question now is what will happen to the 27% of voters (mostly white) who voted for Audubon Institute CEO Ron Foreman and republican businessman Rob Couhig. Conventional wisdom is that Nagin’s chocolate city comment froze him out of much of the ‘pro-business’ uptown white vote, but such voters are unlikely to find Landrieu, the candidate of the democratic dynasty, very appealing either. How many will sit out the election altogether?
Landrieu has more money, but Nagin has incumbency and a new groundswell of support among pissed off black voters who know that people tried to keep them out of this election. Too bad he hasn’t actually done anything for them in the past.
But hell, even I have to like Nagin. My argument goes like this: sure, Landrieu has a better platform (in a very safe, compromised, Democratic party kind of way), but they aren’t that much better, and he’s boring and sleazy (never trust a man with hair implants). Whereas Nagin is a son of a bitch, but he’s funny and somewhat insane, which more than makes up for the small gap in policy improvement. Even his ‘victory’ speech was in a self-depricating and charming in a style that Nagin has developed since the storm.
My housemate Aimee says that she voted for Nagin. She says that she likes to see us elect someone who known to be nuts, and that cussed out Bush during Katrina. Like a middle finger to the rest of the nation, just to prove that we’re still crazy.
If my well-educated, politically savvy housmates and I are not immune to the sort of leader-worship that comes out of disasters, even when we know we are being played, what does that say for those who don’t realize what is happening? It’s a humbling thought. Or is it that Nagin has developed real charisma?
Why am I even talking this much about the man? He tried to sell out the whole planning process to developer Joe Canizarro, and shipping mogul Boise Bollinger. How could I support him?
I don’t, really. I just don’t support Landrieu, either. A mayor’s race is not going to change what is fucked up about New Orleans. So we mine as well go with the amusing asshole to lead the city. It will make for more colorful news. Because if Landrieu gets elected, my job is going to be a lot more boring for the next few years.