With a mayor’s race on the ballot this fall for Baton Rouge and another to follow in New Orleans in 2017, jockeying is well underway for what are arguably two of the most high-profile municipal positions in the state.
State Sen. Bodi White, R-Central, is making a strong approach from the right in his bid to become the next mayor-president of Baton Rouge. The East Baton Rouge Parish Republican Party has endorsed his candidacy and White has raised more than $400,000 to lead the money side of the race.
White has $370,000 in the bank and a supportive super PAC waiting in the wings to spend its dollars promoting his candidacy.
Politicos are keeping a close watch on former Sen. Sharon Weston Broome, a Democrat. She has $76,000 in the bank. Rep. Denise Marcelle, a fellow Democrat, is lagging behind with just $6,300 in cash on hand. But community activists say they aren’t counting her out. She has deep pockets of support that she cultivated as a former metro councilwoman.
Republican metro Councilman John Delgado is another contender. With $50,000 in the bank, he’s hoping for crossover votes, and is positioning himself as a moderate candidate.
The biggest surprise in the race so far comes from real estate developer and first-time candidate Darryl Gissel. He raised $133,000 from May 15 to July 31, and has $65,000 in the bank. Gissel has already made a small local TV buy and is staffed up.
The race for mayor of New Orleans, meanwhile, is still more than a year away. But chatter is ramping up over who will be on the 2017 ballot.
When he was originally elected, Mayor Mitch Landrieu was rather late to the field. But he’s advising friends and acquaintances that anyone serious about the job needs to start early.
Speculation has finally come around to state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, the chairwoman of the Louisiana Democratic Party. She’s viewed as a senior-level politician in the Crescent City, and someone who could start to lightly clear a field that’s already filled up with maybe-candidates.
While she hasn’t publicly made a move or even hinted at it, Peterson is one of many personalities being watched closely, and community leaders are urging her to run.
Yet given that she’s a former congressional candidate, it’s thought that a job in Washington, D.C., has always been on her wish list. If she doesn’t run for mayor, and if she doesn’t end up with a gig in a Hillary Clinton presidency, Peterson could end up back on a federal ballot sooner rather than later.
Former New Orleans Judge Michael Bagneris, meanwhile, is expected to make a run for mayor again after opposing Landrieu’s re-election three years ago.
Next year will be the first time in recent memory that New Orleans will host its election for mayor in the fall instead of the spring — meaning candidates won’t have to compete against Mardi Gras. The Legislature agreed to the change, hoping it would increase voter participation.
The next mayor of New Orleans will still be sworn in the following May. But by the 2021 cycle, the elected mayor will begin taking office in January like other officials around the state.
The developing field has several other potential candidates, including, but not limited to, Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell, Speaker Pro Tem Walt Leger, Sen. J.P. Morrell, U.S. attorney Kenneth Polite, businessman Sidney Torres IV and City Council President Jason Williams.
Special Session Unlikely
As Gov. John Bel Edwards works to make sure the state’s financial condition — spending more than the revenue coming in — doesn’t hamper recovery efforts, he’s also signaling to lawmakers that a special session to address the flooding event will not be needed. A special session was held in 2005 following hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
From a policy perspective, one of the top priorities for the Edwards administration right now is carrying out its initial plan for housing. A total of 4,000 people are still stuck in shelters as of August 21.
Currently, assistance is being offered in the way of hotel rooms and rental properties. That could be expended in the coming weeks.
Trailers were made available after Katrina in 2005, and FEMA oversaw a “temporary housing mission” for seven years until all those households moved on to permanent living quarters.
Campbell Defers To Quadriplegic
Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell turned down an invitation to a U.S. Senate forum that was organized by the Pelican Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors. But he didn’t leave the group empty handed.
“We are respectfully requesting that you allow Derrick Edwards, the first quadriplegic to run for U.S. Senate in Louisiana, and a man for whom Commissioner Campbell has the utmost respect, to participate in the debate in his place,” Mary-Patricia Wray, Campbell’s communications director, wrote in an email reply to the invitation.
Edwards, a Tulane grad who was injured in a high school football game in 1989, met Campbell recently at a New Orleans event and expressed frustration over not being invited to participate in forums.
Campbell, in turn, promised to help him. The Campbell campaign said Edwards was not being offered as a surrogate, but rather as a replacement candidate to talk about his own platform.
A spokesperson for the local ABC chapter, however, wrote in an email to Wray that the venue had been changed and that the number of forum participants had to be cut as a result.
Lawmakers Worried About Medical School
Funding for Shreveport’s medical school has become a growing concern for members of north Louisiana’s legislative delegation. They’re lobbying the Edwards administration to give it a closer look.
A letter sent to Gov. John Bel Edwards outlining those worries was signed by 14 representatives and senators from the Shreveport and Monroe areas.
The lawmakers say that during the second special session, they stressed the importance of securing $30 million in state general fund money and generating an additional $50 million in federal funds so that the state’s safety-net hospitals could be made whole.
But the lawmakers added that they were told at the time by officials with the Louisiana Dept. of Health that the money would not be needed because new rate increases would cover the shortfall. A proposed rule was drafted to implement the rate increases. “These increases have not occurred and (LDH) has indicated they are not scheduled to be implemented,” the letter states.
The Division of Administration has since informed the Biomedical Research Foundation, the operator of the University Health hospitals in Shreveport and Monroe, that it will have to be responsible for funding an additional $37 million in costs for the Shreveport medical school, and that its own budget will be reduced by $22 million.
“As a delegation, we write to you with very grave concerns about these post-session developments,” the letter from the lawmakers says, claiming the lack in funds will “destroy the financial model for operating the hospitals in Shreveport and Monroe.”
State Dept.’s Spread Thin With Flooding
In response to record levels of flooding across south Louisiana, state offices in 27 parishes were shut down on the first business day of the Aug. 15 work week as essential personnel turned their attention to ongoing search and rescue operations.
Enforcement agents at the Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries had already rescued nearly 3,000 people as of Monday morning, having begun their efforts at 4 am on Friday of the previous week. The department’s agents also conducted rescue missions for 566 animals during the same timeframe.
Gov. John Bel Edwards, meanwhile, has been working with the federal government to expand the major disaster declaration that was issued Aug. 14. It initially included East Baton Rouge, Livingston, St. Helena and Tangipahoa parishes.
“This is an ongoing event, and we are confident that every available state and federal resource will be brought to bear,” Edwards said. “I fully expect that more parishes will be added to the declaration on a rolling basis.”
Edwards said on Monday morning that he had included all of the affected parishes, stretching west into Acadiana, in his office’s latest request to the federal government.
The governor is actually a flood victim himself; the basement of the Governor’s Mansion received chest-high waters. Electricity had to be turned off, forcing a relocation of the Edwards family.
Officials at the Dept. of Health were overseeing a separate declaration of a public health emergency that temporarily suspended licensure requirements for emergency medical technicians.
With floodwaters expected to rise again along rivers and creeks as the upstream floods flow south, state officials consider this an ongoing crisis. The National Weather service said areas in Ascension, East Baton Rouge and Livingston would remain at risk until the end of the week.
PSC Race Underway Early
Even though the 2nd District of the Public Service Commission isn’t technically an open seat, Dr. Craig C. Greene of Baton Rouge is already campaigning boldly.
And he has Sen. Neil Riser, R-Columbia, joining him on the trail. Riser introduced and essentially endorsed Greene during a meeting of the Lafayette Parish School Board.
Greene, an orthopaedic surgeon, told the local elected officials that he’s also a former youth pastor. “So I’ll keep it to under 30 minutes and I won’t pass the plate,” he said.
Not interested in the seat is Sen. Fred Mills, R-Parks, who said recently he has no intentions to seek the post that would be vacated by his childhood friend Scott Angelle, should Angelle win his bid for the 3rd Congressional District.
Baton Rouge Metro Councilman Joel Boe, who did not qualify for re-election last month, has been gearing up for the run.
Looking at it or thinking about it are former GOP Rep. Joe Harrison of Napoleonville and Rep. Nancy Landry, R-Lafayette.
Governor Involved In Another PSC Election
Never one to miss a good political fight, Gov. John Bel Edwards has thrown in with Mary Werner in the PSC’s 4th District, which spans northeast Louisiana and small portions of Acadiana. That race is on the ballot this fall.
The governor will be a special guest at a Werner fundraiser on Aug. 26 in Lake Charles.
Edwards has also endorsed Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell for the U.S. Senate, so there may end up being some synergy with the Werner campaign as the primary draws near.
Mike Francis of Crowley, Reldon Owens of Alexandria and Patrick Richmond of Glenmora are also running. All three are Republicans.
All four PACs operated by the Louisiana Assoc. of Business and Industry have endorsed Owens, a LABI board member and executive with Diamond B Construction.
For more Louisiana political news, visit LaPolitics.com or follow Jeremy Alford on Twitter @LaPoliticsNow.
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