The Information Super-Frog

Its been a beautiful day here in District A New Orleans. The sun is shining. Spring is in the air. Plum Street snowballs opened up for the season -- yum! And best of all, Susan Guidry won the City Council race. With 62% of the vote!

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Mayor: Yay, Mitch Landrieu won in the first round. No need for a run off, unusual in New Orleans. I smile at seeing that although John Georges spent far more than anyone else in the race (possibly more than everyone else in the race) he won only 9% of the vote; nice to know that it isn't always all about the money. On the other hand, James Perry was smart on all the issues and impressive in the debates, but never really generated campaign traction outside of the digirati. I hope New Orleans will be seeing Perry's name on ballots again in a few years. (&/or: Hey Mitch: How about hiring Perry for your staff?)

City Council: Fielkow also got in on the first round. Other at large seat will be a run off between Clarkson and Willard-Lewis. [Update: Final results show Clarkson just squeeking in to a first round victory.]

In District A, Susan Guidry and Jay Batt will face a run off, which I sorta expected (though I didn't totally count out Virginia Blanque). What I didn't except was that Guidry came in a strong first despite Batt's much higher name recognition and better funding. That doesn't look good for Batt in the run off; knowing Batt expect much mud to be slung and likely shenanagins. RightHandTheif: Guidry for Council

Froggy's first endorsement for the run off: Susan Guidry for District A

Less good news in the race for the new post of combined assessor. The most dedicated reform candidate Janice Lemle didn't make it into the run off. Erroll Williams will face Claude Mauberret in the run off. Froggy's second endorsement: Erroll Williams for assessor. Williams has been 3rd Municipal Assessor; if uninspiring he's a much better choice than Mauberret who has proven himself to be a real sleaze.

Today's the election run off here in New Orleans. We'll see which of the low-key bald Democrats known for their cross racial appeal will be mayor. Also other stuff; like if a corrupt incumbant city councilman will succeed fooling folks again with great gobs of money spent on ads explaining how he's the candidate of change.

Mayor Ray says if we stay the course, that money and help the Feds have been promising us should start coming in any day now.

Meanwhile, the Picayune's Chris Rose did a short-attention span flippant questioning of the mayor candidates.

  Rose: There's another flood. You are in a rescue boat. You arrive at a rooftop to find Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. There's only room for one in the boat. Who do you take?

  Landrieu: They both get left.

  Nagin: I give them the boat and get on the roof and wait for the helicopter.

Mitch actually took part in rescues during the great flood, but here he demonstrates he's a true humanitarian...