It's very difficult for those of you outside of New Orleans to understand the dynamics in the run-off for the Congressional seat currently held by Dollar Bill, so I will try to sort it out for you a bit....
The deal down here is not about fighting "corruption" or "democratic values" - trying to throw Karen's positions back in her face is window dressing. The real issues are:
- Which machine gets to sit at the trough and therefor control the flow of contracts and non-profit grants
- the undercurrent of racism. The wealthy white, therefor GOP, establishment, and who they support
- Westbank/Eastbank dynamics
- Jefferson parish v. Orleans parish
City Hall Contracts and Non-Profits
New Orleans has (or had) a sizable african american majority that was effectively segregated out of City Hall (and thus City Hall contracts) until Mayor Moon Landrieu desegregated key adminstration positions in 1970's.
Karen Carter's father benefitted hugely from the desegregation of City Hall and became the first black assesor. It is therefor, not surprising that they are among one of the wealthiest families in town. The carters have a fat house on the Avenue and another daughter (Karen's sister) who is one of the executives of one of the leading real estate developers in town (that also does projects outside of new orleans).
There is a big reason why republicans have trouble winning blacks on the idea of "smaller government" At least in New Orleans, most positions are held by blacks. The idea of cutting government bureaucracy translates to them as "cutting my job"
....and more intricate to the situation is the awarding of City Hall contracts, in addition to state and municipal grants for non-profit work.
Everybody knows the deal here in New Orleans - the brother-in-law system. A brother-in-law sets himself up on "The List of Approved Vendors" or they set up a "Non-Proft" and then pretty soon they have funds for an "office" or a "company car" and well, then nothing seems to be left over to actually complete the municipal project or fund the philanthropy. It happens elsewhere, where multi-million dollar fundraisers actually only generate a small protion to the actual philanthropy. However, in New Orleans - this is how now generations of families have been able to move out of the middle class and into upper echelons, send their children to better schools and carry on with life.
You could have the best project in the world, but you aren't going to get a dime if you aren't part of the team. I know first hand how many obstacles are purposefully placed in your way in order keep certain people on or off "The List."
This is why initially Ray Nagin was VEHEMENTLY opposed by the black community when first elected. Nagin was pushed into the game by white business republicans in town. He was a former Steele-Watts Republican, turned democrat for his first election. A new sheriff was in town and all went topsy-turvy for everybody who lived off the "grants" and "contracts." His right hand man literally had to hire body guards for all the death threats because all of a sudden people's livelihoods were in danger.
For more on non-proft scams - look no further than recently ousted city council woman Renee Gill Pratt who got caught up in a real tizzy over some FEMA SUV's that she funneled to a non-profit of which she was "Executive Director."
THE MACHINES
There's a million - BOLD (Karen Carter), Progressive Democrats (Bill Jefferson), Regular Democrats (who are actually republicans), etc. etc. They all have their "voter lists" they distribute and with open elections in a democratic stronghold, it makes for some interesting alignments.
But the deal is that each "machine" have their own campaign operations, from block captains all the way over to specific ministers and all the way down to sign-waving people. These machines know how to turn out campaign staff and more importantly, voters in specific neighborhoods.
...and then to the victor goes the spoils, i.e. key office positions, key contracts, key grants. Playing politics in New Orleans is a little like negotiating peace in the middle east - it is like navigating a mine field.
Karen Carter and her family are no strangers to machine politics. She is not a victim, but has navigated it very well to survive as a state representative with a pretty solid reputation in tact.
WHITE GOP
So then as a segue from Nagin to the GOP - you have some real die-hards here in Louisiana. There was no handwringing here over Mark Foley at all. The Louisiana congressman where the complaints originated sailed right on through his election without question and completely untainted.
The R's were such a minority in Louisiana for so long, we haven't had time to develop many moderate thinkers. The R's in this state are a solid block. The biggest guys on the block are Boysie Bollinger and Joe Canizaro. Nagin's political birth is due to his being groomed by these guys as the "only hope" to wrest control of the direction of the city away from these machines that had been dominating City Hall since it was desegregated.
Unfortunately, for as mixed as New Orleans is, it's just as divided racially. It's a deep rooted yin and yang and who controls the city, and therefor business and money. There was an enormous amount of white flight out of the city when the schools were desegregated, there was a lot of ugliness on both sides of the situation. I heard stories of white teachers and white students having to be locked down in the cafeteria for fear of their lives. So consequently, most white people live outside of the city. They see New Orleans as a black city controled by black political machines who exclude them. And then the black folks see white communities as excluding them.
Black people are very suspicious of people like Joe Canizaro, who is a huge real estate developer. They see him as a person who wants to take over their neighborhoods and kick out their people in the name of "revitalization." More on Canizaro is vehemently pro-life, and just as vehemently GOP. He was a bush pioneer and was nominated to be Ambassador to the Vatican, but Canizaro declined.
The GOP abandoned Nagin briefly after Katrina and leading up the spring '06 election and tried to put their eggs behind an unsuccessful candidate. But then decided that the worse nightmare would be having Mary Landrieu's brother as Mayor. So while they shipped Nagin off incognito to a fundraiser in Chicago and blanketed New Orleans with anti-landrieu garbage, they continue running anti-Nagin ads in the rest of the state as a showpiece for "see how incompetent democrats are." Hypocrites.
For this seat, Joe Lavigne was the "real" republican (there were 2 other blowhards running) thrown in as a sacrificial lamb to see if the GOP could claim a victory in New Orleans. But then Lavigne "went off the reservation" this past summer and did an anti-Bush radio ad criticizing Fema or something. That was an unspeakable breach in the opinion of the GOP kingmakers, so they abandoned Lavigne and put their money behind Karen Carter early on.
But the bottom line is that there is a deep mistrust of the black community in New Orleans of a) republicans and b) white power brokers - a big yin and yang of who controls the city.
In the mayoral race, the GOP was successful in scaring black voters about Nagin being the black mayor who was being attacked by a white candidate, Landrieu, even though Nagin has absolutely everybody's worst interest at heart.
Jefferson Parish and West Bank
New Orleans straddles the river, so you have the west bank and the east bank of the river. I kid you not that there are people who spend their entire lives and have not crossed the river to either side. And there are people who are deathly afraid of crime in New Orleans who wouldn't set foot across the parish line.
The City of New Orleans claims a strip of the westbank from Algiers Point (literally the point in the river where it curves to form the "crescent city") to Algiers to English Turn. English Turn is the white flight subdivision actually inside New Orleans proper. The rest of the westbank along the river is Jefferson Parish.
You mostly have blue collar whites in Jefferson Parish, with random pockets of very poor black neighborhoods. Jefferson Parish is what I consider the "white bubba" vote - blue collar workers, secretaries, firefighters, policemen, etc.
Karen Carter did not win ANY precinct in Jefferson Parish or the West Bank. She won only the bedroom community of Algiers Point - which is basically an extension of the French Quarter. It's a tiny enclave of historic homes, it's ridiculously inaccessible to the rest of the westbank and more easily gotten to by a ferry from downtown. Mostly bohemian types and yuppies who work downtown live in the Point. It has the feel and character of Uptown New Orleans or Mid-City New Orleans, but at a better price point.
Sheriff Harry Lee of Jefferson Parish is actually chinese decent. It was his police officers who blocked access on the Crescent City Connection bridge into the city of Gretna for those fleeing the superdome during Katrina. He pledged to fight tooth and nail against Karen Carter for speaking out about the bridge situation. The latest is that most Jeff Parish officials are thinking about sitting it out for the run-off and not get involved.
Other Stuff
The guy who came in third, Derrick Shepherd, won most of the black precincts on the Westbank and in Jefferson Parish. He is a state senator (D), but about as conservative as they come. He has endorsed Jefferson. CW says it is because Shepherd wants to be next in line for consideration should there be an actual indictment and sentencing for Dollar Bill.