release

I guess if Marion Barry could keep doing it, who are we to write off Ray Nagin? In a move that stunned me, New Orleans voters sent School Bus Ray back to the mayor’s office while Mitch Landrieu, who almost everyone thought would win, goes home just a few points shy.

Harry Shearer said it was Landrieu’s to lose - and that’s what happened:

There were rumors around New Orleans that Landrieu was already looking ahead, confident of victory in the Mayor’s race and conceiving of it as a stepping stone to national office. If so, he won. His campaign puts him in the mainstream of Democrats on the national scene. He fits right in.

To anyone outside the city, it seems inconceivable that voters could cling to Naigin given the choice of a highly electable, much more credible, no-nonsense opponent named Landrieu. But they did exactly that, if only by a few points, and now the rest of the country is left scratching our collective heads. Did Landrieu lose because he got cocky? Did Nagin win because the majority of those left in town really, truly, believe in him? Did someone, somehow, rig the election? Or was it just the unpredictable nature of bayou politics?

We may never know.

Update: Ernie Svenson has known Mitch Landrieu for many years, and has a nice positive message about the man and, indirectly, from him.