Election Recommendations for March 20, 2021 Special Election
15th March 2021 · 0 Comments
It is hard to believe that another set of elections are upon us, so soon after last November. In fact, early voting began on March 6. Nevertheless, the decision of which candidate should replace Cedric Richmond and whether the first Black state representative from Metairie could win election to the state House stand as no small matters. Voters must go to the polls, regardless of the distractions, and it has never been easier to vote. COVID-19 reforms make postal voting even simpler, and new early voting locations like the Jefferson West Bank Regional Library, make the options to cast a ballot even easier. Don’t Wait! Go Vote!
U. S. Representative 2nd Congressional District: Troy A. Carter
In what was a particularly difficult decision for the editorial board of The Louisiana Weekly, our editors opted to endorse a candidate who could both push an aggressive progressive agenda and maintain close relationships across the political aisle to best represent the New Orleans Metro Region and the River Parishes. In other words, we searched for a contender who could replicate the service of Cedric Richmond, as well as have the policy experience to serve from day one.
The Democratic Minority Leader of the Louisiana state Senate, past city councilman and Algiers state representative best exemplifies that tradition of leadership. Troy Carter can both push a $15 minimum wage as well as count many Republicans as friends and allies in his attempts to bring attention to infrastructural problems in his district. It is not a surprise that Carter enjoys wide GOP support on the West Bank at the same time as he earns strong backing from labor and pro-worker constituencies. He may not be able to replicate the close relationship that Rep. Richmond had with his best friend Steve Scalise, but if elected to Congress, Troy Carter could easily join forces with Scalise or Garret Graves to bring crucial dollars back to the metropolitan area.
Moreover, it is time for a West Bank candidate to represent the 2nd District. While the Congressional seat does include most of East Bank Orleans, and pieces of Shrewsbury and South Kenner in Jefferson, this U.S. House seat remains overwhelmingly West Bank in nature, from Algiers to Westwego, up the River Parishes to Baton Rouge. For too long, the West Bank has been the proverbial stepchild of the metro region. It needs a representative who has advocated for the “Best Bank” and yet still can build coalitions with his neighbors across the Mississippi River to pass legislation.
State Representative 82nd Representative District: Raymond Delaney Jr.
This special election has some unusually good candidates seeking to replace Charles Henry. Dr. Raymond Delaney Jr. impressed us the most. The SUNO professor of criminal justice serves as the president and CEO of the nonprofit Louisiana Coalition for Offender Resources (LaCOR), which helps formerly incarnated inmates re-enter society.
One might question whether a Black advocate for the recently jailed would seem to be the most improbable candidate to win the metro’s most affluent suburb, especially one where in 2019, the last Democrat to stand for District 82 only earned 29.6 percent. In that same election, however, John Bel Edwards won District 82 with 53 percent of the vote. Democratic partisans argue that the strength of the brother of the former incumbent might have temporarily disguised the fact that District 82 constitutes just the type of affluent, educated inner suburb that has begun to turn away from the GOP in the wake of Donald Trump.
This district, stretching from Bonnabel to Old Metairie to Old Jefferson to the North Bridgedale and Willowdale neighborhoods, resembles a giant U, running along the Mississippi River from the Orleans Parish line to the edge of Harahan at Hickory, with West Napoleon Ave. generally providing the border on the central Metairie peninsula and Veterans Blvd. on the Old Metairie one. Nevertheless, the very changes to the lines of the seat in the 2010 redistricting may make the seat competitive. Caucasian-majority neighborhoods were drawn out into neighboring seats, while the historic African-American Shrewsbury/New Harlem neighborhood remained. Moreover, the upper-class Old Metairie precincts with its educated, affluent electorate, which historically branded the seat quintessentially suburban Republican, also created the best chance for the Democratic Party to increase its caucus in the state House in the March 20 special election. Black voters joining with educated whites to create an upset in a core GOP seat could potentially elect the first African-American representative ever to come from Metairie.
Parish of Jefferson, Consolidated Waterworks District No. 2 – 5.0 Mills – PC – 10 Yrs.: Vote NO
Parish of Jefferson, Consolidated Sewerage District No. 1 – 5.0 Mills – PC – 10 Yrs.: Vote NO
These two 10-year-long property taxes would collect $18,381,984 and $15,230,872 respectively, each levying five (5.0) mills on all property subject to taxation in Jefferson Parish. While the details remain a bit sketchy to our editors “of acquiring, constructing, improving, maintaining and/or operating waterworks facilities in the District,” as the propositions read, that alone did not engender our opposition.
A collective ten mill property tax levies a significant cost on the average homeowner and small businessperson. The entire electorate should have a chance to decide upon such a matter. The fact of the matter is that most of Jefferson Parish will not be going to the polls in the March 20 election. Other than District 82 and South Kenner, virtually no part of East Jefferson has any candidate for which to vote. To put a major sewerage millage on the ballot when no one has a reason to go to the polls counts for electoral malpractice. The Lee Sheng administration and the Jefferson Parish Council deliberately cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars to run polling stations in neighborhoods where the voters have no idea that an election will be occurring – as there are literally no candidates on the ballot. Putting a millage measure on the March 20 ballot constitutes a cynical move by the Jefferson political class to pass a tax without true voter input. The current millages do not expire until 2023. This tax election could have waited until next fall or next year, when the voters had real reasons to come to the polls. For that reason alone, the property tax must fail – to send a message to the Jefferson Council never to hold such a farce of a millage election again.
Municipal Elections in Gretna and Westwego: Our editors opted not to make recommendations in this election cycle.
This article originally published in the March 8, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
