Dirty South Bureau

The Dirty South Bureau has been a little slow lately, having taken a well-earned break during jazz fest (well, OK, I had to get a second job to support my freelancing). But I haven’t been out of it enough to not notice Rob Couhig endorsing Ray Nagin. This goes against my theory that in a post-Katrina racial frenzy both black and white people are voting against their economic self-interest this election (see the first part of The Mayor’s ‘Race’), thanks to Rob Couhig remembering where his bottom line and the bottom line of his supporters lie. So maybe now we can get back to big-business Ray Nagin v. democratic party machine Mitch Landrieu, which is a less hysterical way to look at things than black v. white, but also boring.

Of course, the Louisiana Weekly had led the way on this one with their editorial on why black people should vote for Landrieu, which was a less courageous stand to take than, say, endorsing Tom Watson, but was a sensible argument against Nagin.

This endorsement also narrows Landrieu’s lead over Nagin, and the race heats up. And I am reminded that all the descriptive terms that we use for political campaigns can also be used for horse races, which is how I tend to see not only this race but electoral politics in general, a day at the track, only with serious but mostly pre-ordained consequences.

Personally, I am much more concerned with the City Council seats which is our opportunity to defeat the Clarkson cabal- because as much as Gisselson-Palmer tries to distance herself, she is Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson’s hand-picked successor. More importantly, she is supported by the same people- Algiers Point, the French Quarter, and the gentrifricationists in the Bywater and Marigny. Palmer is trying to distance herself publicly from Jackie because Jackie’s support has fallen so much, particularly in the downtown part of District C, and I fear that many who are not as aware may fall for it.

However, her opponent Carter had a wide lead in the primary- 32%. Let’s just hope that everyone who voted for former council member Mike Early doesn’t go to Palmer- which unfortunately is likely. Incidentally, it would warm my heart to see a dark-skinned black man like Carter on New Orleans City Council. Maybe then you could think that we’ve made it to the twentieth century at last.

The HMS Clarkson herself is running for Council-At-Large against Arnie Fielkow, former VP of the Saints for the council-at-large seat. Recently several candidates who didn’t make the runoff against Clarkson endorsed Fielkow, but Clarkson has good name recognition, is already on the City Council. Tight race.

For those of you not familiar with New Orleans politics, why do I hold such personal enmity for Jackie? Let’s see… removal of the benches from Jackson Square (we got them put back)? An attempt to make street performers illegal?… no those all pale in comparison to what she and Jay Batt from district A in Uptown did in December. These two humanitarians held up Nagin’s plan for ninety-some public trailer sites for eighty-one hundred trailers, thus giving FEMA the excuse that they needed to do nothing. The reason- Jackie didn’t want trailers on a sites like golf courses.

Does this qualify as pure evil?

Incidentally, when Nagin is criticized for not working with City Council, I am reminded that there are things that I like about the man, because with the current composition of the council, it can be nothing but a virtuous stand.