Facing a political party adversary, who happens to be an ambitious politician, hoping to be the next Louisiana governor, is not the way that New Orleans Mayor-elect, LaToya Cantrell, wants to spend the next six month as she pieces together her transition team and ultimately her city government staff-- until she gets sworn in as New Orleans Mayor, May 2017.

With the election of LaToya Cantrell as the new Mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu is officially a lame duck. His term will extend for a few more months, but the focus and attention of voters will now turn to the Mayor-Elect.

Landrieu could have used this period to exhaustively prepare for a seamless transition, but, instead, he decided to travel to Paris, France with a massive entourage, including three other lame duck politicians. Joining the Mayor in Paris are New Orleans City Council members James Gray and Nadine Ramsey, who lost bids for re-election and Susan Gray who is term-limited.

Indeed, the New Orleans Mayor’s race just got a lot more interesting.

The issue is—not whether the city’s education system is adequate, or how to improve our economic development deficiencies or whether we have money for pumping water.

No. Right now, for one candidate who is now running commercials--the focus should be on credit cards, belated payments for personal expenses and potential violations of law.