The Alliance Endorses With
a Few Surprises
With the Labor Day weekend over -- and hurricane
season permitting -- candidates from across the state are expected to sprint
for the finish line in the Oct. 4 primary election.
The St. Bernard chapter of the political organization
Alliance for Good Government will host forums for three statewide offices --
lieutenant governor, insurance commissioner, and secretary of agriculture and
forestry, respectively -- beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 4, at the St.
Bernard Council Chamber, 8201 W. Judge Perez Drive in Chalmette. The public
is invited to all Alliance forums, officials say.
In a surprise last week, all four chapters
of the Alliance -- representing the parishes of Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard
and St. Tammany -- endorsed outgoing Republican state elections commissioner
Suzanne Haik Terrell over Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff Charles
Foti, a Democrat, for state Attorney General.
Unlike Terrell, an Alliance insider said,
Foti's campaign had aggressively lobbied for the Alliance endorsement. But Foti
delegated sheriff's office lawyer T. Allen Usry to debate Terrell at
the Alliance forum while the sheriff attended a previously scheduled fundraiser
in Lafayette. "Stand-ins don't usually do too well," the Alliance source says.
Foti got high marks for special programs outside
the jail, the source says. But Alliance members were concerned that such efforts
also detracted from his main duty, operating the city's jail. "Another problem
Foti had was that everybody knew somebody who had been through the jail and
was angry that it took eight to 12 hours to get out," the Alliance source says.
In response, Foti spokesman Allan Katz
says, "There is a tradition at the Alliance of not giving the endorsement
to people who send surrogates. So Foti was going against history." The sheriff
received a special government award earlier this year from the Orleans chapter
of the Alliance, which had endorsed his seven consecutive campaigns for sheriff,
Katz notes. "I think it is fair to say that he feels that had he been there
to make his case himself, the outcome might have been different," Katz says.
Terrell could not be reached by presstime.
Elsewhere, the four chapters of the Alliance
endorsed the re-election campaign of Republican Secretary of State Fox McKeithen.
The Alliance also backed Democrat Barbara Ferguson's bid to upset Republican
incumbent Donna Contois in the race for state Board of Elementary and
Secondary Education (BESE) seat District 1. Ferguson is a former superintendent
of the Orleans Parish public schools system.
Locally, the Orleans Parish chapter of the
Alliance, which endorsed opponents of two incumbent state legislators last week,
will host two nights of campaign forums this week, beginning at 7 p.m. at Axel's,
3900 Tulane Ave. The first forum will be Tuesday, Sept. 2, and features the
race for BESE Board District 2, followed by the race for Clerk of Criminal Court.
On Wednesday, Sept. 3, forums are scheduled
for Judge of Criminal Court Section B, state representative of District 102
and state Senate District 3. "The featured race will be the Clerk of Criminal
Court because the clerk counts the votes -- it's a very powerful position,"
says Robert K. Moffett, president of the Orleans chapter of the Alliance.
Eleven candidates are vying for the seat vacated
by the election last year of Edwin Lombard to the state Fourth Circuit Court
of Appeals. In a field dominated by political unknowns, the candidates with
the most name recognition are lawyer Walter Willard, former District
E City Council member Johnny Jackson Jr. , former city Chief Administrative
Officer Kimberly Williamson-Butler and former District A City Council
member Scott Shea. All are Democrats.
The other key race will be for judge of Criminal
Court, Section B. Nine candidates are running for the seat vacated by the recent
death of Judge Patrick Quinlan. Observers say the front-runner is Chief
Deputy City Attorney Franz Zibilich, who ran for district attorney last
year. Zibilich has won the support of New Orleans District Attorney Eddie
Jordan and the Progressive Democrats, the political organization led by
U.S. Rep. Bill Jefferson.
Zibilich joins three other former candidates
who ran in different races last fall: Yancy Carter, who lost a two-man
race to Judge Quinlan; Sandra Cabrina Jenkins, who ran a strong race
for a vacant Section C Criminal Court seat won by Ben Willard; and Sonny
Armond, who ran for the Section J Criminal Court seat won by Darryl Derbigny.
Rounding out the field in the race for Quinlan's seat are former Assistant U.S.
Attorney Lynda Van Davis; former chief deputy city attorney George
Wallace, the only Republican in the race; criminal defense attorney George
Blair III; and lawyers Gregory Voigt and Benny S. George Jr.
The Orleans chapter of the Alliance last week
surprised political observers by endorsing opponents of two eastern New Orleans
incumbents in the legislature. In the state Senate District 2 race, the Alliance
endorsed Ann Duplessis, president of the board of the New Orleans Business
Industrial District, over veteran incumbent Sen. Jon Johnson. And in
the crowded House District 99 race, the Alliance endorsed former Assistant City
Attorney Charmaine Marchand over incumbent Rep. Leonard Lucas Jr.
, who ousted former state Rep. Sherman Copelin in a political upset
four years ago.
The Alliance also endorsed attorney Randy
Evans, the lone Republican among eight candidates for the newly drawn House
District 98, a heavily Democratic area that was largely represented by outgoing
state Rep. Mitch Landrieu.
In other House races, the Alliance backed
incumbents Rosalind Peychaud for HD91, Karen Carter for HD93,
Arthur Morrell for HD97, Pat Swilling for HD100, Cedric Richmond
for HD101 and Kenneth Odinet for HD103, whose district includes parts
of eastern New Orleans and the lower Ninth Ward.
In Senate District 1 -- state Sen. Lyn
Dean's old seat, which includes St. Bernard, Plaquemines and the Lake Catherine
community of Orleans Parish -- the Alliance supported businessman Walter
Boasso.
