The Black Owned Media Coalition sponsored a runoff debate for every race. All candidates participated. Journalists, like Anitra Brown, CC Campbell Rock, Courtney P, peppered the candidates with probing questions. Candidates discussed issues like Entergy bills, infrastructure, experience, housing and crime. The hour-long forums were designed to allow candidates time to fully express their opinions.
Sheriff Gusman accuses Susan Hutson of lying
“Lies, Lies and more lies,” said Sheriff Marlin Gusman about his challenger Susan Hutson’s claim of scandal at the Justice Center. Watch the debate by clicking the link below.
Equally heated was the debate between Austin Badon and Darren Lombard. “He just doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” said Mr. Badon about Darren Lombard. You can see their debate here!
The most heated council district race debates were between current Councilman Jay Banks and his challenger Lesli Harris and the race between Councilwoman Cyndi Nguyen and challenger Oliver Thomas.
Banks claimed Ms. Harris was Polly Anna-ish. Ms. Harris shot back, “Mr. Banks calls me Polly Anna, which by the way is an 11-year-old white girl and I am not an 11-year-old white girl. I have real solutions.”
In the District E Race, Ms. Nguyen claims that the primary reason Entergy bills are so high is that people’s homes are old and not properly weatherized. Oliver Thomas responded and said that the housing stock in New Orleans East is newer. When built the homes were built with energy efficiency in mind. He blamed the high Entergy bills on the company’s speculative business model and their guaranteed rate of return.
Related: City Council will be different
While these are some of the highlights of the debates, detailed info on the views and opinions of all the candidates is available online. At your leisure you can scroll through the videos and hear for yourself what they think. Click here to listen. Then you can go vote.
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of Executive Appraisers Louisiana, an MBE-certified real estate appraisal firm, and EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu
Publisher — Black Source Media
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of Executive Appraisers Louisiana, an MBE-certified real estate appraisal firm, and EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu