New Orleans mayoral candidates jockeying for early lead
3rd July 2017 · 0 Comments
By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer
Five weeks ago, LaToya Cantrell nearly lost momentum in her bid to become the next Mayor of New Orleans. The District “B” Councilwoman contended with Desiree Charbonnet’s entrance into the race, and the former Municipal Court Jurist’s near-instant ability to assemble a campaign warchest amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Just days after her announcement, Charbonnet’s supporters at a fundraiser at Dooky Chase’s had already begun to call the Judge “Madam Mayor,” so far ahead in the money battle—just out of the gate—did she appear than Cantrell.
And their boasts appeared to have merit. At the time, Campaign Manager Victoria Short-Coulon, projected that the campaign would raise at least $500,000 by the July 14th qualifying deadline. However, she beat that goal. Just 40 days into the campaign, Charbonnet for Mayor has already collected over $650,000 in donations.
The haul has allowed the former Judge to begin speaking as if she were already the Mayoral frontrunner. In a widely circulated press release, Charbonnet said, “I am extremely overwhelmed by the positive response to our campaign and the number of people who have made a decision to invest in this campaign and the future of our great city. I do not take the trust that they are putting in me lightly. We all have the same desire for a brighter safer New Orleans with a focus on all our neighborhoods and all our people.”
However, Desiree Charbonnet may have spoken too soon. Her councilmanic rival has rallied on the financial front. LaToya Cantrell’s campaign finance reports show $184,000 raised in the last quarter, with $254,000 on hand—more than enough to fund the kickoff of a competitive mayoral race, even if the sum amounts to far less than the former Judge has garnered.
A new survey conducted by pollster Verne Kennedy provides even more good news for the District “B” Councilwoman. In the fight to succeed Mitch Landrieu, the poll ranks Cantrell in the first place position, with backing from 23 percent of the electorate. She also enjoys a decent lead over Charbonnet, who clocked in at 16 percent. Cantrell is even further ahead of the other announced candidates as well, with just six percent opting for former Mayoral candidate and CDC Chief Judge Michael Bagneris and two percent for Confederate monuments activist Frank Scurlock.
At first glance, Cantrell’s profile as an outsider neighborhood-activist-turned-crusading-Councilwoman seems to have provided her an unassailable frontrunner status. This narrative encounters just one problem. Verne Kennedy’s poll also indicated that there was one potential candidate who rivals Cantrell in voter affection. If former garbage magnate, real estate developer, and outspoken reform advocate Sidney Torres should run, the survey indicates that he would statistically tie Cantrell, with 21 percent of voters backing his Mayoral bid.
The Councilwoman’s campaign has argued that Torres is not a strong a threat as some have suggested. In a survey commissioned for the Cantrell campaign June 5-11 from pollster Silas Lee, Cantrell again earns 23 percent support and Charbonnet and Bagneris stand at nearly statistically identical 14 percent and eight percent respectively. Yet, Torres appears in a far diminished third place at 13 percent. To further bolster her argument that Torres does not affect her numbers considerably, a survey excluding him puts Cantrell at 26 percent.
The Silas Lee poll, though, in each case includes State Rep. Walt Leger III as a potential candidate. He earns six percent if Torres is included in the survey as well, nine percent if not. Including the white Uptown Moderate Democrat might be a mistake. The Speaker Pro Tem has flirted with a bid for mayor, but as of this week looks unlikely to run. Take Leger out of the equation, and that support pretty clearly falls to Torres—allowing him to tie Cantrell.
Fortunately for the District “B” Councilwoman, Torres is not an announced candidate and has no immediate plans to change that status. Despite retaining several campaign strategists to explore a bid over the last few months, Torres did confess to a local media source “my head and my heart” say to get into the race, but “my gut is not sure.”
So unsure that he would wait until just an hour prior to the qualifying period’s end on July 14 to decide. “It’s a personal decision. The polls show that I have a great chance of winning,” Torres said. “Obviously, if I’m going to do it, I want to win it. But I’m not doing it to win it. I’m doing it to fix the city because the city is broken, and you need someone who can fix it.”
Should he run, though, Torres would instantly vie for outsider popularity which currently underpins Cantrell’s campaign strategy, particularly with the large undecided vote in both polls — 32 percent and 33 percent respectively. Nor could she pivot into becoming this race’s “the cool hand of experience.” Charbonnet and Bagneris enjoy political resumes which stretch back decades, and which Cantrell could never match. The one-time Broadmoor Improvement Association President—who made her reputation as an anti-establishment community organizer—could never transform herself into some form of “mainstream contender” in order to rival them.
She must own the angry outsider vote to win, so strongly that Torres does not think of qualifying in two weeks. To achieve that end, Cantrell has labored to bolster her grassroots support over the last month.
Focusing on her “neighborhood firewalls,” the District “B” Councilwoman embarked on her “LaToya Listens” neighborhood tour, visiting of 12 New Orleans neighborhoods over 12 days. According to her campaign spokesman, she sought to listen “to citizens’ priorities and discuss her vision for the city’s future. Cantrell says only by deeply understanding the concerns of New Orleanians can the next mayor develop an agenda, which addresses New Orleans’ persistent inequality and moves the entire city forward as one.”
As the mayoral candidate herself explained, “As a neighborhood leader and as Council Member for District B, I’ve found that the people who know a neighborhood best are the people who live there. As we approach the qualifying period for this campaign, I want the citizens of this city to understand I am running a campaign for the people. I will listen to you — I want to know your hopes and concerns for our future. Your hopes and concerns will guide me every day as your mayor.”
The tour began in her home territory of Broadmoor on June 12, reaching the Lower Ninth Ward’s Burnell Cotlon’s Store on June 14 and Gentilly’s Juju Bag Café on June 15, opening a New Orleans East Campaign Office on June 17, dropping into Central City’s Ashé Cultural Arts Center and the CBD’s Pythian on June 19, hosting gatherings at Treme’s Basin Street Station on June 21 and Lakeview Coffee Café on June 22, opening her Algiers Campaign Office on June 23, then dropping into Mid-City’s Neyow’s Reception Hall on June 26, the Seventh Ward’s Dooky Chase’s on June 27, and Carrollton’s Chalstrom House on June 28.
In other words, Cantrell visited every corner of the city to remind her supporters in the various neighborhood organizations and at the grassroots level that they need not look for another outsider—riding in on a garbage truck.
This article originally published in the July 3, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
