opinion

Viewpoint: Candidates offer new voices for Second Congressional District voters

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Charter school co-principal Mindy McConnell and small business owner Jenette Porter —along with state Sen. Troy Carter, state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson and Baton Rouge activist Gary Chambers — all qualified yesterday for the open Second Congressional District seat recently vacated by former U.S. Rep Cedric Richmond, now a high-ranking aide to President Joe Biden. Qualifying continues until Friday (Jan. 22) at 4:30 p.m.  The race will be fast, furious, expensive and very competitive. The entrance of McConnell and Porter into the race will make the campaign more interesting to a wider range of voters. McConnell, 37, is a Libertarian who believes that it’s time to break up America’s two-party system.

opinion

Viewpoint: Political newcomers Desiree Ontiveros and Gary Chambers Jr. prepare to qualify for congressional seat

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“Oh my God, I can’t believe it’s happening,” said Desiree Ontiveros about yesterday’s congressional vote to impeach President Donald Trump for a second time. A Latina who moved to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, Ontiveros, 39, has formed an exploratory committee to seek Louisiana’s the Second Congressional District seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond. 

Also recently announced for the race is Baton Rouge activist Gary Chambers Jr. Qualifying will begin Wednesday, Jan. 20, and continue through Friday, Jan. 22. A sixth-generation native of El Paso, Texas, Ontiveros attended New Mexico State University and received a degree in marketing from California State University in Los Angeles.  She considers New Orleans a “special city” that welcomed her with open arms. 

In 2016 Ontiveros started the Badass Balloon Co.

opinion

Viewpoint: It will take more than a vaccine to restore America’s spirit

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Amid an Epiphany Day marred by an unanticipated insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and the state’s highest COVID rates, 87-year-old Isiah Steele received his long-awaited COVID-19 vaccination at New Orleans East Hospital. “I am so blessed to have gotten this vaccine,” said Steele, before lighting a candle at the Shrine of St. Jude. “I will sleep a little easier tonight.”

Steele has been locked down in his family home since mid-March, where he has fretted about his grandson, a senior soon to graduate from LSU, and his caregiver daughter, who goes to work almost every day despite the pandemic.  “While I worry about their health and safety, I am mourning the loss of a year of my life at a time when I don’t have too many years left,” he said. 

A chronic voter, Steele is also troubled by how ugly and divisive politics have become. “I pray that our elected leaders will seek consensus, get the virus under control and everybody back working again.

opinion

Viewpoint: Piper Griffin, Jason Williams to ring in 2021 with fresh promise; Lambert Boissiere eyes Richmond’s seat

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As a newly elected Louisiana Supreme Court Associate Justice, Piper Griffin takes the bench on Monday (Jan. 4), she said she is humbled by the overwhelming support from the community. “I want to thank the people of New Orleans for the opportunity to be of service and the trust they place in me for such an important position,” Griffin said. 

Joined by her mother Betty Griffin, a retired Charity Hospital nurse; sisters Kaci and Lisa Griffin; nephew Keenan Fortenberry; and ministers Rev. Samuel Gibbs Jr. and Pastor Calvin Woods Jr., Griffin took the oath of office Monday (Dec. 28). Her formal investiture, a public event, is tentatively scheduled for Jan.

opinion

Viewpoint: New School Board members bring promise of systemic change

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The four new members recently elected to the Orleans Parish School Board will shake up the system and chart a new direction for an organization that has been ruled in large part by outside influences since Hurricane Katrina. 

Representing a vast number of New Orleans families, this quartet will function as the School Board’s voting majority with the clear ability to pass or eliminate any policy they deem necessary. They will also have to find better solutions to major issues such as school financing, equity, perpetually low-performing schools and how to bring high-quality schools to every neighborhood.  
Katie Baudouin

Incoming District 5 board member Katie Baudouin will represent Central City, the Garden District, the Irish Channel and other neighborhoods above Canal Street. She said her highest priority is helping schools students and families get through the pandemic. “I want to work with schools to develop a plan to measure any learning loss so we can help our students continue to learn and grow,” said Baudouin.  The policy director for Councilman Joe Giarrusso’s District A office and mother of a charter school student, she would like to serve on the policy, property, budget and finance committees. The Bureau of Governmental Research recently issued a detailed report on how to better fund NOLA Schools.

elections

Viewpoint: With Romero victory on School Board, LGBT community seeks greater political power

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LGBT leaders were ecstatic when Dr. J.C. Romero, an openly gay educator, won a seat on the Orleans Parish School Board last Saturday. Romero defeated two-term board member Leslie Ellison, who frequently spoke out against gay rights. LGBT community members believe they will not achieve “full citizenship” until gay candidates are elected to the Louisiana Legislature and the New Orleans City Council. Chief of staff at Einstein Charter Schools and adjunct professor at Delgado Community College, Romero is the city’s third gay-identified elected school official, following in the footsteps of two former Orleans Parish School Board presidents Thomas Robichaux and Seth Bloom. Robichaux and other LGBT attorneys provided free services on Romero’s behalf.

opinion

Viewpoint: Criminal justice reform movement the big winner in Saturday’s elections

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Criminal justice reform is an idea whose time has come. 

City Council President Jason Roger Williams won the election for Orleans Parish district attorney Saturday because the 71,889 voters — especially millennials — yearned for the kind of reform that Williams was offering. New Orleans now has the unique opportunity to become America’s foremost leader in developing a new model for criminal justice. Williams was an excellent candidate who was able to bring his institutional knowledge to the race. His message was right on point. Surrounded by a solid campaign team, Williams meticulously executed a well-thought-out plan that branded former Judge Keva Landrum as a flawed prosecutor unable to enact additional reforms. Despite her well-funded efforts, Landrum was never able to shake that yoke. 

Williams’ candidacy also drew enthusiastic support from criminal justice reform advocates around the country who hoped that if Williams’ proposed operational style was successful, it could be replicated in other cities. 

Williams understood the minds of the voters.

opinion

Viewpoint: Cedric Richmond’s path to the White House began on the UTNO picket line

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Louisiana Second Congressional District Rep. Cedric Levan Richmond, who recently became the highest ranking Black staff member to join President-elect Joseph Biden’s administration, was introduced to politics at a very early age. Richmond was just 5 years old in 1978 when his mother, Maple Richmond Gaines — a dedicated New Orleans public school teacher — would wake him and his brother Sidney Jr. before dawn to accompany her to the picket line, where the United Teachers of New Orleans were striking for higher wages and better working conditions. Richmond would hold up a sign while his mother, the strike leader, made sure no cafeteria workers or other early arrivers entered the school building. “Cedric’s father, Sidney Richmond Sr., was an entrepreneur and very involved in the community,” Richmond Gaines said. “Although he died when Cedric was 7 years old, he left an impression on Cedric about the importance of community service.”

Richmond’s stepfather, Ulis Gaines, was an electrical contractor who imparted a similar message, Richmond Gaines said.

opinion

Viewpoint: Has Keva Landrum delivered the knock-out punch to Jason Williams in the DA’s race?

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By most accounts former Judge Keva Landrum should be running away with the district attorney’s race. Landrum has raised and spent bucket loads of money and is the politically correct gender and ethnicity. She knows how to do the job because she has done it before, albeit in an interim capacity. 

When “tough on crime” was all the rage, Landrum was praised as a no-nonsense prosecutor. Now she is being attacked for her then-appropriate performance as the office holder and also is being burdened by other people’s political baggage. These factors among others are keeping the window open for City Councilman at-large Jason Williams to become New Orleans next district attorney.  

Williams is darn lucky that he was indicted for tax fraud last June, not last week.

Danae Columbus

Viewpoint: Protect our libraries by defeating Proposition 2

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The diverse group of parents, librarians and concerned citizens that make up the Save Our Libraries coalition got a boost this week when the Bureau of Governmental Research added their voice to those opposing Proposition 2 which is on the Dec. 5 ballot. 

In their analysis of the ballot proposition, the BGR said the Cantrell administration had failed to give voters “adequate information for decision making on taxes that would run for 20 years.” BGR also said that Proposition 2 lacked a strategic plan or a clear roadmap for right-sizing the library’s budget before reserves run out.  

The library’s current millage dedication was approved by the voters in 2015 under Mayor Mitch Landrieu. Mayor LaToya Cantrell is asking voters to approve a 40% cut — at least $6.5 million in 2021 — from the library’s budget, which she would rededicate to funding additional early education slots at day-care centers in the community. It would be impossible to make such deep cuts from the library’s budget without significantly eliminating some staff and services as well as closing branches. According to SOL researchers, many of the branches like Mid-City are old, outdated or not on city-owned property.  They could be closed as a way to save rent and maintenance costs.