Well, he sure made that look easy:
Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu appears to have routed five major challengers in today’s mayoral primary, riding a sense of regret among voters who rejected him four years ago and extraordinary biracial support to claim a rare first-round victory.
With 90 of the city’s 366 precincts counted, Landrieu had 64 percent of the vote, according to WWL-TV. His closest challenger, businessman Troy Henry, had 15 percent.
When he takes office May 6, Landrieu will become the city’s first white chief executive since his father, Moon Landrieu, left the job in 1978. Early analysis shows that Mitch Landrieu’s victory owed to widespread crossover voting by African-Americans, who make up two-thirds of the city’s residents.
This was Landrieu’s third try at the office – he lost in a runoff to outgoing mayor Ray Nagin in 2006. State Sen. Ed Murray’s unexpected departure from the race in January was a big part of Landrieu’s landslide, but the NYT identifies another interesting reason:
Just as the election was gaining heat, the Saints happened to win a trip to the Super Bowl and all talk of the mayor’s race was drowned out for its last two weeks. That made it much harder for lesser-known candidates to gain traction.
As a Jets fan, I am definitely rooting for the Saints over the Colts. Feel free to use this as a Super Bowl open thread!
UPDATE: As Izengabe points out in comments, Gov. Bobby Jindal will get to appoint a replacement for Landrieu (his pick has to be confirmed by a majority of both houses of the state lege). GOPVoter provides a list of possible names, but note that Jindal is also trying to get rid of the Lt. Gov. position entirely.
For anyone curious about the fate of the coroner’s race the incumbent (and target of the ad) destroyed his opponent.
Who becomes the new Lt Gov of La? How to the pick Mitch Landrieu sucsessor?
I dismissed that poll showing a divide on who rooted for the Saints and the Colts, but I have not heard one democrat on here cheering for the colts. Maybe it was somewhat accurate 🙂
GO COLTS!!!!
I’m glad to see that so many African-Americans voters supported Mitch Landrieu in the N’awlins election. Could a piece of this be that some blacks are now more willing to vote for a white candidate, since they saw many whites vote for Obama?
Racial polarization has badly hurt Democrats in the South. The Republicans are happy when we are seen as the party of blacks only. And some racially charged primaries, or potential ones (e.g. the Senate race in Alabama in 2008), have not given us the strongest candidate.
When more whites will vote for black candidates and more blacks vote for white candidates, it could help build, or rebuild, the Democratic Party in the South as a coalition of labor-union/working-class and liberal whites, instead of limiting our opportunities solely to ghettoized VRA districts.
I hope that Mitch Landrieu will carry on his family’s progressive record by governing New Orleans in a fair and inclusive way, so the black voters in NOLA do not ever feel cheated by this election.
Stupid Brett Favre and the Vikings blowing our shot!!!!! Ugh, we just had to throw that game away. Im just really waiting for the day that the Vikings make it to the Super Bowl because I have been getting teased for YEARS about it happening. And it’s gotta be with Favre because that would really piss off the cheese heads. 🙂
If anything, our great showing this season with Favre leading us has gotten the governor’s office working out a deal to get the public funding the Vikings want for new a stadium, which makes me quite happy. (The Twins, the Vikings, and the U of M Gophers have all shared one stadium and then all wanted their own few years ago when their leases’ were running up so now us Minnesotans have been trying to figure out how to fund three stadiums, a light rail transit system, and fund part of the Mall of America expansion, all during an economic downturn.)
Also not watching because CBS really pissed me off by them showing the pro-life Tebow ad during the game and now four times during the pre-game stuff while rejecting all the pro-gay ads.
So Mitch won the election and then the Saints won the Super Bowl. I’d bet more than a few New Orleans voters will take that as a positive omen. And he can’t be worse than Nagin, right?
According to the Times-Picayune, she: “swamped Corey Watson in District B, which comprises the Central Business District, Garden District, Central City and much of Uptown.”
The media narratives seem to range from impassioned reformer to divisive whiner and I was curious to see what folks in the know thought…
Anyhoo, here’s to all the little future “Drew” and “Reggie” babies being conceived right at this very moment. And to Head…
Ahem. Sorry.