Nagin Wins Reelection as Mayor of New Orleans

Voters re-elected Mayor Ray Nagin, the colorful leader whose blunt style endeared him to some but outraged others after Hurricane Katrina, giving him four more years to oversee one of the largest rebuilding projects in U.S. history.

"This is a great day for the city of New Orleans. This election is over, and it's time for this community to start the healing process," Nagin said Saturday in a joyful victory speech.

"It's time for us to stop the bickering," he said. "It's time for us to stop measuring things in black and white and yellow and Asian. It's time for us to be one New Orleans."

Nagin won with 52.3 percent, or 59,460 votes, to Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu's 47.7 percent, or 54,131 votes. While the vote was split largely along racial lines, Nagin got enough of a crossover in predominantly white districts to make the difference. He also won a slim majority of absentee and fax votes cast by evacuees scattered across the country.

Nagin, a former cable television executive elected to office in 2002, had argued the city could ill-afford to change course as rebuilding gathered steam.

I feel sorry for the people of New Orleans. I really do. Those who voted for Ray Nagin think he's actually going to do something different or better than his actions immediately prior to, during, and after Hurricane Katrina hit.

Paul at Wizbang thinks that this is a better outcome for Republicans than Democrats. I think it sucks - for New Orleans residents. I don't know if Landrieu was better, but was this a big surprise? Well, pollsters had Landrieu winning so I guess that it was.

Anyway, I wish New Orleans the best of luck with their choice. They've got to live with the repercussions of those who actually voted in this crucial election that will determine the rebuilding path of the damaged city. I'd like to think that Nagin will somehow change his style and resolve to not flip flop on key rebuilding issues so that the businesses and residents who need to rebuild will have stable decision making on which to base their own business and personal decisions. If the local government keeps changing or reversing course on key rebuilding issues, it only increases the time to rebuild.

I understand the need to get those key decisions right, and that hindsight is 20/20, but there are times when you simply have to commit to a decision and stick with it. The decision was to rebuild in a certain fashion. So, now it is Nagin's job to make that happen.

UPDATE:
Drudge has an interesting scoop that claims that Howard Dean and the DNC backed Landrieu against Nagin, and steered significant sums of money towards Landrieu. Landrieu had a war chest of $3.3 million, compared to $541,981 for Nagin.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) secretly placed political operatives in the city of New Orleans to work against the reelection efforts of incumbent Democrat Mayor Ray Nagin, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

DNC Chairman Howard Dean made the decision himself to back mayoral candidate and sitting Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu (D-LA), sources reveal.

Dean came to the decision to back the white challenger, over the African-American incumbent Nagin, despite concerns amongst senior black officials in the Party that the DNC should stay neutral.

The DNC teams actively worked to defeat Nagin under the auspice of the committee's voting rights program.

The party's field efforts also coincided with a national effort by Democrat contributors to support Landrieu.

Landrieu had outraised Nagin by a wide margin - $3.3 million to $541,980.

Step back for a moment and ponder the significance of this. The national party backs a candidate, throws huge amounts of money to defeat the incumbent who is widely panned (including by myself), and Nagin still wins. What does this say about the ability of the national party to affect the outcome of other closely contested elections come November? Democrats think that they've got a perfect storm brewing in order to take back Congress from the Republicans, but this should be a warning - sound and fury does not signify results. Dean clearly has the sound and fury, but his resume is looking mighty thin.

Democrats have time to sort things out if they want to retake Congress in the fall, but I doubt that they want to make any changes.