Politics after Katrina

For the first time in 22 years, the New Orleans city council has a white majority.

The political change reflects the transformation of the city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Previously New Orleans, a predominantly black city, had an overwhelmingly black city council.

But many people who evacuated the city relocated elsewhere and many of the victims of Katrina were African-American, two factors that have had an impact on the political and racial makeup of the city after the hurricane.

John Nichols of the Nation writes there is a new political landscape in New Orleans:

“…The pattern of white contenders defeating and replacing African-American candidates in New Orleans is unmistakable. In contest after contest, whites politicians defeated their African-American competitors…There is no mystery about what has happened. For the first time in decades, it appears that whites may be casting more ballots in New Orleans than African Americans. Officially, the voter rolls still show a black majority. But the rolls have not yet been purged of the names of Katrina’s victims. The names that will eventually be removed are, for the most part, expected to be those of African Americans.

These patterns have dramatically altered the electoral politics of a city that had been in the forefront of African-American political strength and advancement since the 1960s. The change was rapid and radical, but it is only now coming into something akin to full perspective. An initial mayoral race following the storm saw a significant amount of absentee voting, but Saturday’s run-off voting was more reflective of the new political reality of New Orleans.”