Charbonnet enters Mayor’s race: Money vs. Campaign Infrastructure
5th June 2017 · 0 Comments
By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer
Municipal Court Chief Judge Desiree Charbonnet resigned her post on Friday, May 19, and announced her candidacy for Mayor of New Orleans the following Monday, May 22. She jumped into the race to succeed Mitch Landrieu despite the fact that establishment backing and outsider anger have already begun to coalesce behind her two opponents—Michael Bagneris and LaToya Cantrell.
Charbonnet, the scion of a storied Creole political dynasty, can best her two more prominent rivals in only one area. Nevertheless, it is a category that most observers consider the most important: Money.
CHARBONNET
Recent history proves that fact.
Bagneris managed to construct a coalition four years ago ranging from white Republicans to Black Democrats in his attempt to unseat Mitch Landrieu. He has a good chance of repeating his feat of winning both the official GOP and Democratic endorsements, as he did running citywide in 2013, so strong are his relationships with party leaders on both sides—grateful he took on Landrieu.
It was a point that Bagneris did not hesitate to make on the author’s radio program just 34 hours before Charbonnet’s announcement. At 8 AM Sunday on WRNO 99.5 FM, the day prior, the Judge said of both of his opponents, “I believe the audience knows my experience has prepared me for this office more than anyone who has announced… or plans to announce.”
Charbonnet’s repeated citywide runs for Recorder and Judge failed to impress Bagneris, who faced the voters similarly, and knows memories of those type of elections are short.
On the contrary, he contended, his Mayoral bid in 2013 provided a name ID that Charbonnet will find hard to match. “I wouldn’t say that she is unknown, but I don’t know about citywide. She may be known in political circles, but I don’t know if she’s know by the voters… You can run for office and six months later, no one knows who you are in today’s market.”
Bagneris argued that winning 33 percent of the vote against Landrieu, comprised almost equally of large portions of both the white and Black electorates, despite being outspent by $2 million, provides him with a political base this year. “If I receive just the votes that I earned four years ago, I will make the runoff,” he contended. Essentially, the former CDC Judge maintained that Charbonnet does not have the time to build the same degree of voter ID in the next six months that Bagneris earned over the last four years by becoming the champion of the anti-Landrieu electorate.
Nor will Charbonnet be able to easily claim the “outsider” position in this mayoral contest.
District B Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell reminded the former Municipal Court Judge of that fact last Monday just hours before Charbonnet’s announcement at the Sheraton Hotel on Canal St. To remove any doubts over the seriousness of Cantrell’s bid for Mayor, the Councilwoman loudly touted that seasoned political talent was joining her existing neighborhood activist base, in an effort to undermine perceptions of her “connected” rival.
In a well-timed press release designed to rob media attention from Charbonnet (released just as the TV stations were setting up at the former Municipal Judge’s announcement party at the Sheraton), Cantrell proclaimed that New Orleans political “Godfather” Bob Tucker had joined the Councilwoman’s team as Campaign Chairman; veteran communications specialist and political strategist Bill Rouselle had come on board with Cantrell’s bid as Chief Strategist; former Gambit political reporter David Winkler-Schmit had taken the position of Communications Director, Xavier’s veteran guru Dr. Silas Lee would serve as Cantrell’s pollster; former “Hillary for America” staffer Jessica Montgomery would become her Field Director; and one of the architects of BR Mayor Sharon Weston Broome’s victory Ryan West would assume the Finance Directorship for the Councilwoman’s campaign.
And then she added for the benefit of the media who were about to attend Charbonnet’s 230 person-strong event at the Sheraton, that Cantrell would soon meet with even more supporters — as her “LaToya Listens” neighborhood tour commenced in June. “You need to meet the people where they are and that’s in our neighborhoods,” chided Cantrell. “I’m not interested in a lot of fanfare. I want to listen to our people and find out what they need so everyone in New Orleans can reach their full potential.”
There is just one problem with the popular support that both Bagneris and Cantrell have each locked up. Money has not followed. Campaign contributions have been astonishingly hard to come by this season.
When Charbonnet said at her announcement at the Sheraton, “I am not asking you to vote for me because I am a woman, but because I am the right woman and the right person, at the right time,” her claim promised to be more than just rhetoric. It’s financial.
For months, potential contributors have kept their pocketbooks closed, in a worry that Orleans District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro might make a bid for Mayor. An opponent of Mitch Landrieu’s with strong backing in the middle-class white and Black communities would dominate a contest, even despite the palatable desire in the city’s African-American community to elect a Black mayor. Contributors did not wish to commit too soon.
The recent “fake subpoena” scandal has lessened the likelihood of a Cannizzaro run, but his flirtation with a bid has exhausted the very months which most candidates normally use to build up campaign warchests for the fall. Not a lot of time remains to fundraiser. Qualifying comes quickly on July 12-14, with the Mayoral primary October 14. Candidates will have to start airing their TV ads by Labor Day at the latest. For that, they need hundreds of thousands of dollars—which so far remain in the bank accounts of the city’s political financer class.
LaToya Cantrell had garnered just $100,000 in her previous reporting period, a pittance. Currently, Michael Bagneris’ campaign account is hardly more flush. As a Charbonnet, though, Desiree might prove the exception to this wave of financial drought. She already possesses a health campaign warchest, and her family’s political connections mean that there is a cohort of Charbonnets who could demonstrate their appreciation for support of their sister, regardless of her mayoral victory or defeat.
It is perhaps a sign for her financial potential that State Sen. Troy Carter abandoned his own consideration of a bid for the city’s Chief Executive post to endorse the now-former Municipal Court Judge. His first words at the Sheraton, introducing Desiree, noted, however, that the Charbonnet clan first arrived in New Orleans in the 1790s. Familial connections emphasized to the crowd, Sen. Carter then spoke of Desiree’s sacrifice in standing for mayor instead of seeking a vacant seat on the state 4th Circuit Court of Appeal “because this city needs strong, effective, honest leadership, she chose to pass on the easier road, and take on the great challenge.”
Perhaps, it is also a sign of her vast financial potential in the race for Mayor that Desiree Charbonnet’s first mayoral fundraiser on Wednesday, May 31, 2017 occurred at the same famed 7th Ward restaurant from which Michael Bagneris proudly announced his candidacy four weeks ago, at Dooky Chase’s. The cost was $5000 per person.
This article originally published in the June 5, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
