Nagin says win would send racial message

NEW ORLEANS — Mayor C. Ray Nagin says a victory in tomorrow’s election will send a message on race that “will echo throughout America.”

“This election will say in spite of American prejudice, I was able to attract votes from all races and classes and move forward with the process of healing,” said Mr. Nagin, who has hinted that whites locally and nationally are working to unseat him from the post, which blacks have held for nearly 30 years.

Mr. Nagin questions the source of “$6 million” that opponent Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu has raised, hinting at an effort to return the city to the “good-old-boy system,” and says Hurricane Katrina exposed the soft underbelly of race and class in America.

“I have said this before publicly that if this had been South Beach Miami or Orange County, I’ll bet you a dollar that the response would have been different,” said Mr. Nagin, who was elected in 2002 with 85 percent of the white vote.

Mr. Landrieu, whose father was the city’s last white mayor, says this election provides an opportunity to deal with race and class in a unique way nationally.

He said the tightly contested runoff election will turn on whether “African-Americans [will] vote for white politicians and will whites vote for black ones.”

“You can’t win anymore with an all-black vote or an all-white vote,” Mr. Landrieu said.

Voters here, regardless of whom they support, agree that there are a lot of lessons to be learned about race, class and politics from the aftermath of Katrina.

Morris Reid, Democratic political analyst and former adviser to the Clinton administration, said the real story is whether black New Orleanians will stand up and take advantage of the voting rights that their parents and grandparents fought and, in some cases, died to get.

“These [black] folks were relying on a government and a democracy that they didn’t participate in, and when they went to cash the check at the political bank, it was bankrupt because they never deposited any money there,” Mr. Reid said, referring to the slow hurricane response by local, state and federal officials.

For Robert Richardson, 52, a construction maintenance worker and resident of the Ninth Ward, a largely black neighborhood crushed by the flooding, Mr. Nagin has become part of the problem and is in bed with the developers.

“There is no national conspiracy; it’s a land grab, not a white power grab. It’s a shame when things like this come down to race, and I hate to say it, but it looks like Landrieu might be the one who will work with us,” Mr. Richardson said.

Jimmie Perry, 57, a former utility systems operator-turned-real estate investor, said he owes his newfound wealth and entrepreneurial spirit to Mr. Nagin.

“He made it possible for us to get loans working with the banks and opening the doors, cleaning up the permits process; you know it used to be that only whites and friends of the mayor knew about the property-tax sales; now we know, and we can go and buy the homes,” Mr. Perry said.

“Mitch is a nice guy and I’ve always supported him, but I think they want Mitch because he will be more accommodating.”

Story Continues →