According to his press release, “John Georges will end speculation regarding his candidacy for Mayor of New Orleans during a news conference” today.   

The Georges press release also said "I have discussed this decision with my wife Dathel after a successful fundraiser last week. I have made my decision and will make it known Wednesday," Georges said.

The release also states “John Georges has over 30 years of experience in the public and private sectors and is building a broad-based coalition of support. His successful private sector ventures as well as his governmental experience in education and management give him a unique blend to tackle New Orleans' problems.”

Without doubt, Georges has come a long way since he was first mentioned as a possible candidate for Mayor back in 2001.  While his run for Governor was unsuccessful, it built him strong name recognition in the New Orleans market—good enough to enable him to beat Bobby Jindal in New Orleans. 

It comes as no surprise to anyone that Georges is entering the race for Mayor of the city.  Today he is announcing his intention to run.  Qualifying is early in December.

Georges wants to pitch himself as the candidate who can obtain strong votes from all sectors of New Orleans.  His decision to announce his intention at a popular Esplanade Ave restaurant represents that he can mix it up with the

“working class” and the economic elite.  His strong fundraiser in which he reported to me on Monday that he has raised at least 500,000 at a single event shows that he is not just going to dip into his own pocket and that others are jumping onto the Georges bandwagon. 

Today is Georges day to showcase himself and to argue his reasons to be elected the next Mayor.  His intentions to run also come days after former Recovery Czar Ed Blakely sent ripples across the area and the nation and at a time where the New Orleans budget is in shambles.  Blakely warned that unless the new upcoming mayor is “clever”, race riots would likely occur.  The former Czar spoke of an institutionalized racism heavily entrenched in the New Orleans community.   Worse, Blakely said he thought it would be likely that New Orleans would not exist in one hundred years.

Unquestionably, whoever is the next Mayor of New Orleans will have his or her  work cut out to rebuild New Orleans, to attract business and families and to retain those loyal citizens who are trying to eke out an existence.  With the stimulus and future Katrina money running low after the first couple years of the next Mayor’s administration, the national economy possibly in the “uncertain mode”, the Louisiana budget on a “crash course” where it can offer very little help, winning the position of Mayor is one thing, running the city without resources is another.

True New Orleans has great potential even if its population was dwarfed by other major Southern cities even before Katrina.   But, the operative word is “potential”.  It must deal with the stigma of crime, racial disharmony, a poor economic base, a state that views the city unfavorably, an encumbered federal purse and quite a few other challenges that has caused the city’s rapid decline over the past half-century.

Today is Georges’s chance to not only express why he would be the best person to lead New Orleans into the “Promised Land” but to explain why he would be able to win in a city that has not seen a white Mayor since Moon Landrieu and who did not vote for a very popular Mitch Landrieu who also had very strong ties to the African American community.

Hopefully, the election will not be about race since New Orleans has more problems on its back that that heavy weight.  Still, while Blakely stated the race situation in such ugly terms in his interview, it would be foolish and ignorant to not acknowledge that race is a major issue in this election and in improving the city’s position in this nation.

This election is not solely about Georges or race since there are other candidates who will qualify and as mentioned, other issues that transcend white and black differences.  In many political circles, Georges is currently the man to beat as he has the momentum and the money.  But Election Day is a good bit away.  Eight years ago another candidate was the heavy favorite to run away with all the marbles.  However, a brash, fresh and different type of candidate entered the field and as the favorite politically decomposed in front of our eyes, Nagin then

became the great “hope” and went onto win.  The new mayor must be able to prove to the voters that he or she is not just about race or money, but ideas, and more importantly, the ability to get things done.  Today is John Georges’s challenge to do exactly that.  We will have a few months of tomorrows to see if he has succeeded.

Vitter, Openess and The Rape Victim

On Monday, I wrote about an incident involving an unknown “alleged” rape victim who had encountered David Vitter at a Baton Rouge town hall meeting this weekend.    At that time, I wondered if the victim-Senator Vitter confrontaton was staged for political purposes.

The Advocate has provided the woman’s name.  The paper also said that prior to the event, the woman met with Democratic officials and that an un-named camera person affiliated with the party was present to shoot the event.  Nobody is questioning this woman’s emotions and her past experience assuming she did suffer such a horrific experience.  However, it is unseemly that any political party would meet with a victim and then film it possibly for the purpose of distribution if that indeed occurred. 

If the woman had gone to the event without any prior discussion with any party representative and had engaged the Senator on her own without the aide of a party-related videographer, there would be no reason to raise questions about the incident.  Senator Vitter’s actions as it relates to women, campaign contributions, race, Hispanics, and his wisdom of pursuing an census Amendment that could cost America billions of dollars is still fair game.  To the extent that the Baton Rouge event was manipulated or staged by either party or anyone, would be unfair and would demean the political process.  

However, the video does show one area that Senator Vitter should and must confront if he is going to obtain the support or respect of even his most vocal detractors.  In Baton Rouge, Vitter turned away from the woman after he tried to make his case “calmly”.  Unfortunately, Senator Vitter has had a habit of turning away from any confrontation.  He has never given one bit of information about his DC Madam affair so the voting public can determine if he broke the law and he attempted to take the 5th Amendment in DC Madam case at a time when our greatest criminal justice problem in this state is the inability to get witnesses to testify.  He refused to provide any real details about his position on issues such as the Bardwell matter although others including Governor Jindal were explicit with their opinions.  Most importantly, even prior to DC Madam incident, he vindictively put people into an “Nixonian-like enemy’s list” instead of attempting to engage these individuals to ascertain if they were actually opposed to him.  He refused to discuss issues of policy  to various people he perceived (in his own mind) were his opposition.  He closed the door on anyone he felt was out to get him.   I believe his actions absolutely bordered on paranoia.  As a result, I feel he hurt both himself and the state.

 He defied the very basic tenets of our country and put people in an "me" versus "them" basket.   He did exactly what conservatives and others are blaming Obama relating to Fox News.  He assumed certain people were out to harm him when they were not and he intentionally blocked anwers and important information (even during the horrible days of Katrina when citizens were needed critical information from him) to  those individuals apparently either out of hate or fear.   

By comparison, Governor Jindal has had many detractors and individuals who have disliked his policies or positions on issues.  Without doubt, Governor Jindal has played politics on issues sometimes to the detriment of Louisiana citizens.  Nonetheless, even if he disagrees with individuals, he will engage them which action demonstrates the utmost of respect.  Yes, on occasion he will not squarely answer the question asked.  But, on balance, he will honor those who might disagree with him on issue or issues.  Louisiana deserves answers from our elected officials about substantive policy issues no matter the anger or motives from those individuals asking the questions.  Senator Vitter must learn not to turn his back on Louisiana citizens whom he represents.  He must tear down those “enemy lists”.  If he wants to earn our vote and more importantly our respect, he must not hide anymore.

The Baton Rouge incident showed an extremely civil and then a very ugly side of Senator Vitter.  I am going to assume that he felt he answered the woman’s questions and also felt he was being set up.  Whether the incident was contrived should be determined in the future but the Advocate article raises some very disturbing questions in this case about the Louisiana Democratic Party apparatus which questions absolute demand answers.  However, as a US Senator, David Vitter does owe the public (even those people who might disagree with him on certain issues) the respect to answer the hard questions that are in the public domain even those that have a legitimate bearing on his character and  that impacts upon the future of our state including the way our state is being perceived.  We citizens have a right to know how he stands on important issues even if those questions are raised in a "non-manufactured" unfriendly audience.  

Thus, I  hope that Senator Vitter and Congressman Melancon both make themselves available as often as possible to all audiences so we can discuss questions involving this state and this land we call a democracy.  When an elected officials or candidates play coy or become non-responsive so they can protect their political hides, they are only hiding from the civic arena of ideas and information.  This very unfortunate behavior betrays our country’s basic principles of enlightenment and transparency in government.  It debases and figuratively rapes the most important values of our government being “of the people, by the people, for the people” not of, by and for our elected officials own political careers.  It is an election season and political games will be played.  When those games are apparent and unfair, they must be outed.  But, those who represent us or who want to represent us must come out of their fortresses and must not turn their backs on the people.  We do not live in the former Soviet Union or Communist Cuba.  Our current and future government officials do not and will not be representing only their friends and allies.  They get paid to represent us all even those people who might disagree with various policies at different times   We deserve answers to legitimate questions in a straight-forward manner such as the way Senator Vitter initally responded to the Baton Rouge rape victim.  At that time, he showed a profile of courage which hopefully he and others will continue since our state and our country greatly depends upon openess and candor by our public officials.

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