Uptown Rulers!!
By Jeff Thomas
Congratulations and best wishes go to Mayor Elect Latoya Cantrell and all the newly elected members of the city council. The city needs each to be successful and help make our city the greatest place to live and raise a family in the world. But the back story of this election is the ultimate might of the uptown political power class which defeated the people’s base of the team from east of Canal Street. At the polls the people elected Latoya Cantrell and rejected Desiree Charbonnet. But make no mistake, Karen Carter Peterson defeated Cedric Richmond. Uptown beat downtown. And for the next four years the power and economic spoils associated with the mayor’s office remain in uptown New Orleans.
New Orleans is a small market with little economic diversity, so the contracts vested in the city budget are one of the major driving forces in this economy. Consequently the stakes are high and the fight to access those contracts is fierce. NOLA politics is a no holds barred death match. And the primary election negative campaign attacks on the Charbonnet campaign delivered blows from which the campaign never recovered. While Ms. Cantrell was the beneficiary of the negative campaigning, she actually was not the first choice of the Peterson allies who launched the attack.
Politicians are the faces of the agenda.
Michael Bagneris was the preferred choice of the Leslie Jacobs led alliance that wants continued dominance of the contracts let by the city budget. Using old school racialized politics, they excoriated Charbonnet’s closest advisors and knocked her off the perch as leading contender to second place finisher. But instead of Bagneris, Cantrell’s campaign rose to the top while Bagneris only climbed slightly in the polls. Combine the temper tantrum of Sidney Torres and Charbonnet’s campaign went from front running to floundering and flailing.
Charbonnet’s Attacks Ineffective
Going from leading the polls to falling sharply, Charbonnet’s campaign swung back with heavy blows at Cantrell. They brought evidence of improper credit card use by Cantrell. They questioned her financial judgement as her house faced foreclosure and she had tax liens. While these attacks stopped the slide of the Charbonnet campaign, Cantrell’s campaign gained momentum. Seemingly the personal financial issues legitimized Cantrell’s grass roots credentials while the credit card misuse exposed a problem with the internal controls of the city council. If Cantrell is indicted, then nearly every other council person will be as well. Ultimately the counterattacks were ineffective, and Cantrell’s 60-40 landslide victory was the third biggest margin in the last 30 years of mayoral elections in New Orleans.
Public Connection and Oratory Meaningful
And while Richmond and company lost the mayor’s race and the District’s C and E races, they convincingly won the council Division 1 at large seat. Helena Moreno was an effective communicator and skilled public speaker. Moreno was able to defeat a highly qualified and effective elected official partly because she possessed a commanding presence before crowds of people. Similarly, Mayor Elect Cantrell easily connected with people through skilled public speaking and a magnetic personality. Bluntly Latoya Cantrell was a much better candidate than Desiree Charbonnet. Ms. Charbonnet did not personally connect with voters. Her style was somewhat disjointed, and she often seemed nervous and not confident.
If you are keeping score, uptown now has a decisive lead over downtown. And if Karen Carter Peterson, whose campaign will be well financed, runs against Cedric Richmond next year there may be blood on the floor.
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 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 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