Former Orleans Parish Republican Party Chairman Jim Nugent once commented, "It was easier to find a Catholic in Baghdad than a Republican in New Orleans."
As a consequence, the influence of the endorsement body Nugent once chaired, the Orleans Parish Republican Political Executive Committee (OPEC), had been virtually irrelevant in New Orleans elections. Its bylaws had insisted that the body could only endorse Republicans, so it was left to parsing the few races where multiple GOP candidates stood for office--in Lakeview or parts of Uptown usually.
Elsewhere, a Republican candidate would be electorally dead on arrival. Only one Republican had won citywide since Reconstruction, a judicial candidate who beat a damaged perennial contender merely to switch to the Democrats before his next race.
Recently, though, the new Orleans GOP Chairman, Jay Batt, by a simple change of those Bylaws, transformed OPEC from the least effectual endorsement body in the CrescentCity to arguably one of the most powerful--second in influence only to the local chapter of the Alliance for Good Government.
Batt convinced his colleagues to endorse Democrats.
In races where no Republican stood, the Executive Committee resolved to put its proverbial seal of approval on the best the Democratic candidate. In doing so, OPEC has given a reason for the city's roughly 30% of Republican and GOP-leaning voters in to support one candidate over another in competitive Democratic races.
Chairman Batt told Bayoubuzz.com, "Many Republicans were confused on who to support. We wanted to give them guidance on which Democrat came closest to the values that the Republican Party stands for."
The impact has been felt this Fall as dozens of Democratic candidates filled the falls of OPEC's endorsement meetings, thoughtful Democrats begging for the GOP nod, knowing that for the first time, the Republican endorsement could mean the difference between victory and defeat in an Orleans Parish election.
The OPEC endorsement has already upset the balance of several judicial races. For the open Civil Court Division F seat, Caucasian Democrat Christopher Bruno faces off against African-American Democratic Paula Brown. Given the current political environment, Bruno would appear to be the prohibitive favorite.
On October 4th, the majority of the Orleans Parish electorate will likely be White, due to higher turnout rates and voter registration figures in the city post-Katrina. (While Blacks retain a numerical population advantage in New Orleans, lower voter turnout figures in the African-American community tends to render Caucasians a majority among likely voters.)
Race alone, then, would normally give Christopher Bruno an advantage, but his family name could also add an extra appeal to wavering Democratic whites. His father Frank Bruno was a legendary plaintiff's attorney, and his elder brother Joe launched the class action lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers for the failed floodwalls at the 17th Street and LondonAve.Canals after Katrina--hardly an unpopular move amongst flooded New Orleanians.
However, Paula Brown managed to best Bruno for both the official Democratic and Republican endorsements. The former gave her credibility, but the latter may steal a large portion of the white vote from Bruno. Sources in her campaign highlight the major push that she is making in the Republican precincts in Lakeview and Uptown, featuring Brown's endorsement from OPEC.
Brown has used the GOP endorsement to reach out to gun owners, angry that the Bruno & Bruno law firm led the fight on the class action lawsuit against Gun Manufactures in the 1990s. Her strategy of garnering the African-American base, and reaching out to Republican whites has created a new political dynamic in Orleans Parish.
It is affecting races with two Caucasian frontrunners. Democrats Ralph Capitelli and Leon Cannizzaro are fighting desperately on October 4th for runoff slots. Both are lifelong members of their party, but each actively sought the OPEC endorsement in the Orleans District Attorney's contest.
Cannizzaro emerged victorious against Capitelli, a candidate who had based most of his campaign on his experience as a strong law and order prosecutor and a veteran First Assistant District Attorney--the kind of contender that would normally walk away with the Republican vote.
Capitelli can still boast of Harry Connick's backing along with the support a hundred former Assistant District Attorneys, but a crucial outreach to the white voters he needed was lost when OPEC declared for his opponent. Meanwhile, Cannizzaro lists that official Republican endorsement alongside the numerous African-American politicians backing his campaign.
Capitelli argued that Cannizzaro's GOP backers will actually cost him votes, saying that an overwhelmingly Democratic electorate will not think highly of someone who surrounds himself with McCainiacs, yet the former DA remains squeezed between the former Appellate Court Judge and African-American Attorney Jason Williams.
Many Black judicial candidates like Criminal District Court Section F contender Robin Pittman list the OPEC elephant alongside the DPEC donkey and the Alliance for Good Government seal on their push cards, seeking to cover all of the political bases--transforming a previously political unknown into someone with credibility across the political spectrum.
The OPEC bylaws also retained the right to issue a no endorsement in races where a Republican challenged a strong Democratic candidate. It was nearly employed when Republican Donald Sauviac challenged Gerard Hansen, an incumbent Democratic judge of over 24 years in office. Hansen asked to speak in front of OPEC. Despite there being a Republican, Hansen was given the chance to give his piece to the committee.
Inside sources reveal to this newspaper that the committee members came within just a few votes of rewarding Hansen with a no endorsement. In the end, the body did back Sauviac, but the precedent has been set that when a Republican has little or no chance, OPEC might stand aside.
Those sources also reveal that had a Republican not decided to jump into the Second Congressional contest, OPEC would have endorsed in the closed Democratic primary, originally scheduled for September. Several candidates from Helena Moreno to Cedric Richmond had their supporters in the room, but at first glance, one wonders how a GOP nod would have affected DEMOCRATIC primary voters.
The answer comes from the city's second largest group of registered voters--Independents. The state Democratic Party allows Independent voters to participate in their primary, and a statistically considerable number of them in Orleans tend to vote for Republican candidates on the state and national level, while not formally affiliating themselves with the conservative party in highly culturally Democratic New Orleans.
Former WDSU reporter Helena Moreno was a favorite in the room, but other candidates, especially Rep. Richmond were favored as well. Had OPEC acted for a candidate other than Moreno, who counts on overwhelming support from the White Community on October 4th to make the runoff, the endorsement of the Orleans GOP Executive Committee could have potentially changed the landscape of the Democratic field.
Some Republicans opposed OPEC's desire to endorse Democrats, but Political Consultant David Huguenel believes that long-term the decision could open up new constituencies to the GOP in Orleans Parish.
As he explained, "What OPEC has done has revitalized the concept of "Big Tent" politics that the Republican Party used successfully in the late 1950s-1970s. They have attracted candidates, and with them their existing constituencies, to speak in front of what can be considered one of the most coveted swing voters post-Katrina: White Republicans. Also while PEC organizations in other regions might find this to be heresy, supporting and endorsing Democratic candidates, they fail to realize that what OPEC has done is open up doors into new demographics for the Republican Party, namely the African American communities of the Ninth Ward, Gentilly, and Algiers."
"From a campaign strategy standpoint," Huguenel continued, "this also raises another possibility hard to find in other parishes- the idea of dual endorsements by both political parties. Candidates can, and have, gotten endorsements by both the Democratic and Republican PEC, allowing them to tout a coalition of political support few candidates for office get to carry"
Christopher Tidmore is a contributing writer for Bayoubuzz
