New Orleans held its jungle primary Saturday to replace termed-out Mayor Mitch Landrieu, and City Councilor LaToya Cantrell and ex-Judge Desiree Charbonnet will face off in the Nov. 18 runoff. Cantrell led the field with 39 percent of the vote, while Charbonnet beat ex-Judge Michael Bagneris, who unsuccessfully challenged Landrieu in 2014, 30-19 for the other runoff spot. Either Cantrell or Charbonnet would be New Orleans' first female mayor, as well as the first African-American woman to lead the city. Both finalists, like almost every notable political figure in the Crescent City, are also Democrats.
Charbonnet decisively outspent both Bagneris and especially Cantrell, and she had the support of Rep. Cedric Richmond, who represents most of New Orleans in the House. But unlike her main rivals, Charbonnet was attacked on TV by two different groups. One super PAC, called Not For Sale NOLA, raised $190,000 from prominent local business people. Bombastic reality TV host Sidney Torres IV, who stars in a reality TV show that features him as a real estate investor/guru, also went after Charbonnet after she decided to cancel on a debate he was hosting, and his own group has also been airing ads against her. We'll see if those dynamics continue to play out in the runoff.
Charbonnet and Cantrell also have very different backgrounds. Charbonnet hails from a well-connected political family that has lived in New Orleans for centuries, and also operates the prominent Charbonnet Funeral Home in the Treme neighborhood. By contrast, Cantrell is originally from Los Angeles and moved to New Orleans for college. Cantrell rose to prominence for her work helping her neighborhood recover from Hurricane Katrina, and she won elected office in 2012 by beating a city council candidate backed by Landrieu and Richmond.
Both women have earned national media attention before their mayoral campaigns. Charbonnet was the subject of a 2016 piece in The Atlantic for her efforts on the bench to steer repeat offenders in drug and prostitution cases, as well as offenders with mental illnesses, towards treatment programs rather than sending them back into the criminal justice system. In 2015, Cantrell was the subject of an in-depth Politico Magazine profile titled "LaToya Cantrell, Madame Mayor?" that highlighted her post-Katrina work and her successful drive to ban smoking in bars and casinos.