After New Orleans election, a new City Hall dynamic awaits
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Even with two City Council district races still to be determined in the Nov. 15 general election, New Orleans loudly voted in a new City Hall dynamic come January.
Why it matters: It'll be a big shift over the past several years in which City Council has chipped away at the powers afforded by Mayor LaToya Cantrell's office.
Zoom in: Incumbent JP Morrell and City Council newcomer Matthew Willard won their at-large races outright.
- It'll be the first time those seats have both been held by Black people.
- And it secures for Mayor-elect Helena Moreno a close ally in council leadership — a stark change after years of friction between Morrell and Moreno (council president and vice president, respectively) and Cantrell's office.
What he's saying: "We wanted to work with a mayor who wanted to move the city forward and had a plan," Morrell told Axios New Orleans on Election Night. "The conflict arose because the council had to step into the role as the executive and create a plan while being the council."
- "Having a mayor with a clear vision for the city will allow the council to focus on the issues that we are tasked with and really be, for the first time in four years, all pulling in the same direction."
The big picture: New Orleans voters also reelected Councilmen Freddie King Jr. (District C) and Eugene Green (District D).
- Candidates for Districts A and E head into a runoff. Voters in A will decide between Holly Friedman and Aimee McCarron, and voters in D will choose Jason Hughes or Cyndi Nguyen.
- As the only unopposed council-member, Lesli Harris maintained her District B seat.
Other outright winners included Sheriff-elect Michelle Woodfork, ousting incumbent Susan Hutson, and incumbent assessor Erroll G. Williams.
- A home rule charter amendment to add conviction history to a list of banned reasons for discrimination also passed.
The intrigue: A once sleepy election for New Orleans' Clerk of Criminal Court suddenly become one of the most interesting in the final days of the race thanks to some controversy over whether candidate Calvin Duncan was allowed to use the term "exonerated" to describe his own criminal justice history. Go deeper.
- Duncan faces incumbent Darren Lombard in the runoff.
Go deeper: Explore full election results from the Secretary of State's office.