New Orleans DA Race: Landrum vs Williams – A question of turn

By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer

In December of 2008, just a few weeks after Democrats had swept most elected offices nationally riding Barack Obama’s coattails, a Republican won Louisiana’s Black majority 2nd Congressional District.

Admittedly, that December election was something of a fluke at the time, a general election delayed due to a hurricane and featuring indicted incumbent Bill Jefferson – whom in contrast even a Vietnamese-American Republican like Anh “Joseph” Cao proved a preferable choice despite the liberal lean of the seat. He lost a term later to Democrat Cedric Richmond, when the general election returned to November.

Nevertheless, political pundits have held it as a truism that December elections tend to benefit more conservative candidates, Republicans in statewide elections in the South, more moderate Democrats in majority-minority counties and parishes. Stacey Abrams works to beat this historic trend in Georgia, by registering African Americans to vote and encouraging turnout against the two Republican incumbents seeking to return to the U.S. Senate – and to deliver control of the Upper Chamber to their party.

LANDRUM

Likewise, Councilman-at-Large Jason Williams attempts to defeat the historic advantage of moderate candidates in December runoffs in the Orleans District Attorney‘s race. In a strange rerun of the 2008 race (though some argue the comparisons are closer to Karen Carter’s bid in the 2006 Congressional contest), DA frontrunner Keva Landrum enjoys the support of institutional players who hope to defeat the well-known politician under indictment. Like Bill Jefferson, Williams hopes that his populist appeals and his stature of having been elected citywide before will defeat his more conservative challenger, despite her strong support from the local political establishment (especially the law enforcement and legal/prosecutorial communities).

Also like Bill Jefferson, Jason Williams proves an unusual standard-bearer for the Left. Jefferson had been one of the founders of the “Democratic Leadership Council,” the centrist organization which sought to yank control of the party from the McGovernites, and whose policy proposals became the centrist platform for Bill Clinton. Equally, Jason Williams – while long a critic of Leon Cannizzaro – ran for the City Council as more of a pro-business, neighborhood reformer than the law-enforcement skeptic displayed in his bids for District Attorney.

WILLIAMS

Williams runs as a criminal justice reform advocate seeking to tame what he defines as an out-of-control DA’s office, a frequent mantra the Councilman has used against the current incumbent. He seeks to label Kiva Landrum as an ideological clone of Leon Cannizzaro. It’s a problematic strategy, as Landrum has tacked slightly to the Left of the current DA by embracing both criminal justice reform and greater evidentiary restrictions on criminal cases if elected.

Still, even though Cannizzaro has not openly endorsed her, Landrum has inherited his law and order community support – which the DA has long enjoyed. In a December runoff, Caucasians tend to make up a larger percentage of the Orleans electorate than when a president or governor leads the ballot choice. Historically, African-American turnout declines, and those that do come to the polls tend to be more affluent, middle-class Black super-chronic voters more open to a moderate candidate.

Keva Landrum would be the first elected female African-American DA, and while more centrist than Williams on many criminal justice matters, she is no Republican. As a partisan Democrat, she has little trouble winning the backing of party loyalists. It’s also worth noting the success of female African-American judicial candidates in the November primary. Black women make up a plurality of the Orleans Parish electorate already, and this constituency demonstrated its willingness to support African-American female candidates this past November. (The vast majority won their elections, even against well-financed, long-time incumbents.) Earning 35 percent of the vote, Landrum led the primary on November 3 to Jason Williams’ 29 percent, thanks in large part to female voters.

Yet Jason Williams counts on the very same sea-change in progressive electoral motivation upon which Stacey Abrams banks in Georgia. Progressives in general, and African Americans in particular, have begun to turnout to the polls at levels at, or above, white conservatives. Record Black voter participation in November elected Joe Biden, and swung Georgia to the Democrats. It also sent many longtime incumbents packing in metropolitan New Orleans. Councilman Williams contends that a surge of progressives and working class African Americans will come to vote on December 5, undaunted that they had to go to the polls just a month before, and he wagers that he will be the beneficiary.

He also hopes for another last-minute ad blitz from a Washington, D.C. political action committee targeting Landrum, as occurred in the primary. The PAC, bankrolled by a $220,000 donation from liberal investor George Soros, has shaken up district attorney races nationwide with campaign cash. That with his outsider, reformist message, Williams believes, overshadows Landrum’s infrastructural support from figures like Senator Karen Carter Peterson and Mayor LaToya Cantrell. He bets that the 28 percent of the local electorate who backed Judge Arthur Hunter will choose him, despite the indictment for tax fraud.

There are other races on the ballot on December 5, which might drive turnout, but only to a very moderate degree. In the Orleans Criminal District Court, Section K race, Democrats Stephanie Bridges and Marcus DeLarge face off. Two Juvenile Court sections engage in tight contests – Kevin Guillory versus Clinton “Clint” Smith and Ranord J. Darensburg versus “Niki” Roberts. Most of the Orleans Parish School Board seats also are in runoffs. And the city’s GOP voters will decide several Republican State Central Committee elections. While it is hard to tell which DA contender benefits from the judicial turnout, it appears likely that the stronger Republican partisan vote might lean towards aiding Landrum’s more moderate profile.

This article originally published in the November 16, 2020 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.