La. Governor Postpones New Orleans Vote

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The Dems were worried Bush would do this:



La. Governor Postpones New Orleans Vote

Dec 12, 2005

BATON ROUGE, La.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco has postponed the New Orleans mayoral election indefinitely, setting up a legal battle with voters who filed a lawsuit seeking to ensure the election is held as scheduled.

Blanco's executive order cites the recommendation of Secretary of State Al Ater, the state's top elections official. Ater has said the city is incapable of holding elections in February because Hurricane Katrina caused so much damage to polling sites and voting machines.

The order was released Monday but Blanco signed it Friday. It did not set a new date for the elections, saying only that they should be held "as soon as practicable."

The postponement affects primaries for mayor, sheriff and city council seats, as well as runoffs in those races that had been set for March 4. Qualifying for candidates to get on the ballot had been set to begin Wednesday.

A group of New Orleans voters last week filed suit against the governor, seeking to force her to hold the election as scheduled. No hearing has been scheduled in that case.

The lawyer who filed the suit, Rob Couhig, said Blanco cannot postpone elections indefinitely because the city charter requires that they take place before May 1, the date newly elected officials would legally take office.

He said postponing the elections would infringe on his clients' right to select the city leaders who will determine how the city is rebuilt.

Couhig said he and lawyers for the state planned to meet Tuesday to discuss scheduling a hearing before a judge in Baton Rouge.

Blanco's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

http://www.townhall.com/news/ap/online/headlines/D8DSL4I86.html
 
He said postponing the elections would infringe on his clients' right to select the city leaders who will determine how the city is rebuilt.
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Seems like a solid argument, until you realize it's a trick question:

The city of New Orleans should NOT be rebuilt. :p Not unless we want to keep paying billions of dollars every time something like this happens in the future.


-azurefly
 
I'm confused about something. Baghdad has had two elections in difficult conditions, why can't a US city have elections under simple hurricane damage conditions? Free elections or corruption? Governor or dictator?
 
why can't a US city have elections under simple hurricane damage conditions? Free elections or corruption? Governor or dictator?
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Well, I have an entirely untested opinion on this -- keeping in mind that I lived in the greater N.O. area for a few years so I've seen it first hand, not just the touristy parts.

Personally, I think that there is an underlying political reason why the elections are being held up -- one that is based on a shifted demographic. Problem is that if you look at the areas most affected and look at who actually live(d) there, it seems that they were populated by a demo that voted heavily Democratic. The 9th Ward was mostly minority, and the area around the 17th St levee break was largely upper middle class soccer-mom types -- trendy, chic, society and society wannabes. And a whole lot of those people haven't returned yet. And probably a whole bunch of them may never. Anyway, I think that the voting electorate that is left there has shifted away from the left into a more centrist stance. And that means that the leftists that are currently in power there are feeling the heat and want to delay things until some more of their constituents return, thus shifting the demo back to the left -- after all, what they really want is to keep their phoney jobs, if you know what I mean.

That's my take on it, anyway.
 
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