“Chocolateville” Ray Nagin won - and it’s a good thing.
May 21, 2006 by Laura | Trackback URI
In Da Winner! C. for Chocolateville Ray Nagin! I said “C. Ray took it by about 5,000 votes and I for one am glad.”
This article seems to be everyone’s source on Nagin’s win. Looking at the other blogging on this topic, I’m struck by several things.
Bloggers who normally wouldn’t dream of believing the MSM unequivocally seem to have swallowed the “Nagin is evil” meme which has been pushed since Katrina, hook line and sinker.
The prevailing view seems to be that “politics as usual” won out, when in fact the exact opposite is true. Bloggers that I read regularly and respect have it completely wrong on this issue, including Paul at Powerline, and Michelle Malkin.
Over at Captain’s Quarters, Captain Ed got it pretty much on the mark. Paul from Wizbang, another NOLA blogger, predicted Nagin’s win and explains why whites support Nagin. I would disagree with one thing in his linked post - follow the trail, it’s worth it - to say that whites don’t hate Nagin. Nagin has a D next to his name, but he acts like a Republican in many ways; he’s far more conservative than Mitch Landreiu. Nagin crossed party lines to endorse Bobby Jindal, which earned him Governor Blanco’s enmity - and her enmity cost this city dearly during Katrina. She played politics during Katrina. Nagin made plenty of mistakes, but they were honest mistakes, and we can tell the difference. This is anecdotal, but every white person I know was for Nagin because they like him for his anti-corruption record. A vote for Nagin was a vote for honest government. Is Nagin perfect? Of course not. Do we like the fact that the race card (deck!) was played? Of course not. Do we want our money - and yours! - handled honestly? Yes, we do.
New Orleans had a choice between a man who has actively fought corruption from his first week in office, and a man well entrenched in Louisiana politics, a “Cajun Kennedy” who spent almost a million taxpayer dollars redecorating. Given the amount of federal money that will hopefully, eventually, flow through New Orleans, who would you prefer we elected?
New Orleans made the right choice.
Ray “School Bus” Nagin killed more black people in one day than all the white supremists in America’s history. And these idiots re-elected him? You all get what you deserve I hope another hurricane finshes the job this season.
Don, it’s a free country and you can certainly be a Dittohead if you choose. But do take another crack at reading what I wrote, and follow the links to Captain’s Quarters and Wizbang. Of all the involved parties, the Corps of Engineers is most responsible for what happened here, and politicians at every level, not just mayoral, contributed to it. Given the choices, New Orleans chose the right mayor.
Where does this concept of Ray Nagin as “honest government” come from? Have you read even some of the recent news reports on Nagin’s less than upfront dealings? What about the deal he cut with company to tow cars at a cost of $1000 per car with a Denver-based company, when a Texas car-crushing company’s offer to PAY the city $100 per vehicle, which would have put millions in the city’s coffers (You can read about these “honest dealings at these links:
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-5/114301126783720.xml
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2006-03-28/politics.php). Do you really think this was an “honest mistake” by Nagin? Or, how about his deal new parking meters with Parking Solutions LLC, a local minority-owned company with political ties to City Hall. Did the old meters become obsolete as soon as the old contract was paid out, or was it simply perceived as an opportunity to award a lucrative deal to some friends? Do you think the deal could have withstood an objective financial analysis?
The concept of Ray Nagin as “honest government” comes from this:
and this:
I read both of those articles you linked, and while they do raise questions, they are hardly damning indictments of Nagin. They just raise questions. Because of his past anti-corruption record, I think he’s earned the benefit of the doubt and I’m willing to see how it plays out before I mentally convict him for it.
Here’s a quote from a more recent article in th T-P:
For instance, his administration was only weeks old when it presided over a much-publicized raid of the city’s Taxicab Bureau and the arrest of a handful of city employees and dozens of cabdrivers accused of gaming the permit system. Few of the arrests resulted in convictions, though, and promises of landing bigger fish fell flat.
(link: http://www.nola.com/elections/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1144475972309480.xml)
Actually, only one person was convicted because he was advised by court-appointed attorney to plead guilty. ALL other charges were dropped for lack of evidence. Sounds like a “dog and pony” show to me. Meanwhile, Nagin’s own brother-in-law (link:http://nolassf.dev.advance.net/z_newsstory/rta10.html)
was under inivestigation for a large contract with the RTA.
It’s interesting how positive that first article is about Nagin’s integrity. For example:
- “During his four years in office, Nagin generally has won high marks for doing some of the things he promised as a candidate: running a mostly scandal-free administration, introducing more advanced technology to City Hall, trying to make the city friendlier to business.”
- “He’s likable and appears to bear few grudges. And his reputation for integrity and ethics has mostly survived the tumult of Hurricane Katrina.”
- “Often, there’s one direction that is better supported by the law, but you might stretch to fit another direction,” Landry said. “Whenever we would have one of those situations, he would always say, ‘What’s the right thing to do? Sherry, do that.’ ”
- ” Nagin was the first mayor to hire a chief technology officer, Greg Meffert, and while Meffert’s roughshod ways haven’t always been popular, the city’s Web site has been overhauled and now lets citizens go online to pay parking tickets and property taxes and apply for building permits.
Meffert also took the unprecedented step of posting the tax rolls on the Internet, a move that has fostered spirited public debate about the inequity of the city’s assessment practices.”
- ” John Kallenborn, the New Orleans president of Chase Bank and a member of the Dock Board, who said he cannot endorse any candidate for mayor, said he is “amazed at how much more efficiently city government works now.”
For one, Nagin reworked the city’s system of depositing tax revenue, putting the money in a “lockbox” account within 24 hours, that has earned the city up to $400,000 per year in extra interest, helping maintain a positive cash flow. Kallenborn’s bank is one of two involved in the deal.”
-”To a degree, the contracting missteps haven’t tarnished Nagin because they appear in most cases to have emanated from his staff.”
And the majority of the second article negates the idea of any malfeasance on Nagin’s part.
Sorry, I’m still not convinced. But I will keep a closer eye on him, for whatever that’s worth to you. The questions you raised certainly warrant that much.
That’s all I ask. Monitor his dealings. I have a lot more links to questional contracts that I will enter in this blog for you to look at.
Here are some other links to Nagins dealings (I’m sorry that most of them are from the same source, but he includes links to other sources):
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/neworleans/index.ssf?/base/news-3/111095634087990.xml
http://nobulletin.blogspot.com/2005/01/like-business.html
http://nobulletin.blogspot.com/2005/03/gang-who-often-shoots-less-than.html
Scroll down to “Lowest rated vendor? Not to worry…”
http://nobulletin.blogspot.com/2005_03_01_nobulletin_archive.html
http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1119941794284440.xml?nola
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1132475712190650.xml
Companys and persons mentioned in these articles can be found in Nagins Campaign donor list:
http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-14/1147500782143670.xml?nola