Columnist
Ray Nagin is in a political bind. A former cable TV executive, he was elected mayor of New Orleans four years ago with strong support from the corporate community. Blacks voted against him and after his first term in office, they remain convinced that they made the right decision.
Entering Saturday’s election, the corporate community has abandoned Nagin in favor of two white candidates, Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu and former Chamber of Commerce Chairman Ron Forman. Nagin has no chance of getting re-elected without carrying the black vote.
Not only is Nagin in a bind, he has placed black residents of New Orleans in one as well. They are faced between voting for Nagin, knowing that he has not served them well, or helping a white person become mayor of a city with a two-thirds black majority for the first time in nearly three decades.
According to a poll conducted last month by Ed Renwick, director of the Loyola University Institute of Politics, Landrieu was leading the mayoral field with 27 percent of the vote, followed by Nagin with 26 percent and Forman with 16 percent. More than one in five voters were undecided.
Among black voters, Nagin led with 41 percent, followed by Landrieu with 28 percent. Forman, who was endorsed by the New Orleans Times-Picayune and is the favorite of big business, received 30 percent of the white vote. With 22 candidates vying for mayor, a May 20 runoff is all but certain.
Landrieu would pose a major challenge for Nagin. His father, the last white mayor of New Orleans, was considered a progressive part of the “New South” and hired African Americans in unprecedented numbers. Landieu’s sister is a U.S. Senator. And more than any other candidate, he has been able to fashion a bi-racial coalition.
Despite early predictions that Hurricane Katrina would wash out black political power in New Orleans, early indications are that black voting strength in this election will be equivalent to what it was four years ago. Although final figures were not available at press time, during the first four days of early voting last week, African Americans made up 70 percent of voters. That compares favorably to the 68 percent black population of New Orleans and 65 percent black electorate.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas painfully reminds us that having a black face in a high place is not enough. If that black face is going to vote against the interests of African Americans, we’re better off with that black face being in a low place.
Shortly before Nagin filed for mayor, he had been a registered Republican. And while in office, he committed political suicide by endorsing an unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor. With his ranting and cursing immediately following Katrina, Gov. Kathleeen Blanco, a Democrat, wasn’t inclined to work hand-in-hand with a mayor who had sought her defeat.
Now, Nagin wants blacks to trust him to be “our mayor.” Yet, he has said nothing on the campaign trail or in his position papers that would indicate that the Ray Nagin today is any different from the Ray Nagin that abandoned African Americans before and during Katrina.
Nagin shouldn’t get a pass simply because he’s black. Let all of them compete for the black vote. Let’s hear all of the plans for restoring the Lower 9th Ward and making sure black business owners get a fare share of city jobs and contracts. It should be on that basis that a candidate receives our vote.