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Vote of the day
Nov. 7th, 2006 06:52 pmVoting Day!
The most interesting of the state constitutional amendments on the ballot here in the Greater Debrisville Area is #7, to consolodate the property assessors of Orleans Parish (the equivilent of a County in other states, and in this case legally the same as city of New Orleans proper) from 7 to 1. This needs to pass both state wide and in Orleans Parish to become law. This is one of the parts of reform legislation movement here. Last election some tried to do an end run around the multiple assessors by putting up candidates for each of the offices who pledged to resign and turn their duties over to a hired professional accountant if elected, but the "IQ" (for "I Quit") failed to get all the districts. There's hope that now we have it on the ballot as an amendment this will finally be taken care of.
Greater New Orleans and various surrounding pieces of the state are the Congressional districts 1 through 3 of the state. The area at present has 1 Republican and 2 Democrats, and no change is expected there. However the District 2 race is of interest none the less-- the incumbant is Congressman William "Bill" Jefferson. Alligations of sticky fingers earned him the nickname of "Dollar Bill" even before an FBI raid turned up $90,000 in his freezer. He hasn't been indicted and claims that there's an "honorable explanation" for the moolah (which he hasn't yet elaborated on), but it is time for him to go. The state Democratic Party nomination went to Karen Carter, but Jefferson is running for reelection anyway. We don't have seperate party primaries here; so there are a dozen candidates on the ballot; if no one wins a majority, the top two go to a run off election. Pundits think the most likely result is Jefferson and KCarter in the run off. I voted for Troy Carter, one of 3 others (all Democrats) within the margin of error to stand a chance of getting in the run off. Troy seems more informed on the issues to me than Karen. I think Jefferson will certainly be out; whoever makes it into the run off with him is almost certainly to pick up most or all of the voters for Jefferson's other opponents.
The big national story is the Democrats apparently having a good chance of taking the House, and possibly the Senate, mostly as a vote of no confidence in the BushCo regeme. Do to local circumstances, that's not really relevent to anything on the ballot here. In the presidential race 2 years ago, 78% of New Orleans voters went for The Other Guy. (I think that's the best way to describe the vote-- I'm sure there were some who were voting for Kerry, but I'm also sure they were outnumbered by those voting for the leading choice that wasn't Bush.) As you might expect, Bush's popularity has dropped drastically since then.
The most interesting of the state constitutional amendments on the ballot here in the Greater Debrisville Area is #7, to consolodate the property assessors of Orleans Parish (the equivilent of a County in other states, and in this case legally the same as city of New Orleans proper) from 7 to 1. This needs to pass both state wide and in Orleans Parish to become law. This is one of the parts of reform legislation movement here. Last election some tried to do an end run around the multiple assessors by putting up candidates for each of the offices who pledged to resign and turn their duties over to a hired professional accountant if elected, but the "IQ" (for "I Quit") failed to get all the districts. There's hope that now we have it on the ballot as an amendment this will finally be taken care of.
Greater New Orleans and various surrounding pieces of the state are the Congressional districts 1 through 3 of the state. The area at present has 1 Republican and 2 Democrats, and no change is expected there. However the District 2 race is of interest none the less-- the incumbant is Congressman William "Bill" Jefferson. Alligations of sticky fingers earned him the nickname of "Dollar Bill" even before an FBI raid turned up $90,000 in his freezer. He hasn't been indicted and claims that there's an "honorable explanation" for the moolah (which he hasn't yet elaborated on), but it is time for him to go. The state Democratic Party nomination went to Karen Carter, but Jefferson is running for reelection anyway. We don't have seperate party primaries here; so there are a dozen candidates on the ballot; if no one wins a majority, the top two go to a run off election. Pundits think the most likely result is Jefferson and KCarter in the run off. I voted for Troy Carter, one of 3 others (all Democrats) within the margin of error to stand a chance of getting in the run off. Troy seems more informed on the issues to me than Karen. I think Jefferson will certainly be out; whoever makes it into the run off with him is almost certainly to pick up most or all of the voters for Jefferson's other opponents.
The big national story is the Democrats apparently having a good chance of taking the House, and possibly the Senate, mostly as a vote of no confidence in the BushCo regeme. Do to local circumstances, that's not really relevent to anything on the ballot here. In the presidential race 2 years ago, 78% of New Orleans voters went for The Other Guy. (I think that's the best way to describe the vote-- I'm sure there were some who were voting for Kerry, but I'm also sure they were outnumbered by those voting for the leading choice that wasn't Bush.) As you might expect, Bush's popularity has dropped drastically since then.
