Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Another national publication on the N.O. elections.

Hotline On Call: New Orleans Dispatch:
"There are only two certainties in the New Orleans mayoral race: It is one of the weirdest, most unconventional races anyone has ever seen in American politics, and it will have historical consequences.

In less than two weeks, on April 22, New Orleans voters will choose one of 22 candidates in the primary election. The first and second place finishers will face off in a May 20 run-off election. Less than two weeks after the mayor is decided, on June 1, hurricane season will begin."
I don't have a horse in this race, but I have heard some really pitiful stories about Forman's administration of the Audubon Zoo. I was kind of sorry to see that the Picayune endorsed him.

1 comment:

bayoustjohndavid said...

As harsh a critic as I am, I wouldn't call Forman's administration pitiful. I don't like the way ANI seems to try to limit public input, but that's pretty much par for the course for quasi-public entities. However, it's hardly what I'm looking for in a city government.

If his backers claimed that he turned an already transformed, nationally praised zoo (it was all that when he took over in 1978) into a wildly sucessful business enterprise, that would be fine. Of course, it had tax breaks and subsidies that normal businesses don't have.

What disappoints me is that the media coverage of his campaign seems to be the opposite of the coverage of the Gore campaign. The claim that his choice of location for the aquarium was visionary is laughable. And the only difference between his claim to have turned around the zoo and Gore's claim to have invented the internet is, Forman really claims to have turned around the zoo.