Dion McKinley (left) shows election results from WWL's website to judicial candidate Jennifer Eagan and supporters at an election night party at Eagan's home. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
Two Uptown residents lost their bids for lieutenant governor and city judge Tuesday night despite strong support from their own neighborhoods, according to an analysis of precinct-level results.
In a separate contest, voters in the Upper Hurstville neighborhood overwhelmingly renewed the fee that pays for private security patrols on their streets.
Caroline Fayard, an Uptown Democrat making her first bid for public office in the lieutenant governor’s race, lost to Republican Secretary of State Jay Dardenne by a vote of 60-40 across the state. Fayard’s result actually improves on the 64-36 split between Republican and Democratic candidates for the job in the open primary Oct. 2 despite an overwhelmingly Republican mood Tuesday night.
The city of New Orleans turned out strongly in Fayard’s favor, giving her 74 percent of the vote, (well above the 50 percent she earned Oct 2), an improved standing that echoed across almost every Uptown voting ward. She took about 70 percent or more in each ward upriver from Felicity Street, except the 14th. There, in her home ward, Fayard narrowly lost to Dardenne with 49 percent of the vote – but that too represents a substantial improvement over October, when the three Democrats in race together took only 35 percent of the large Audubon-area ward.
Orleans Parish turnout Tuesday was about 36 percent for the lieutenant governor’s race, up from about 15 percent in October.
Jennifer Eagan, who ran unsuccessfully for a seat on First City Court, smiles Tuesday night as she watches early election results come in favorably on television at an election night party at her Uptown home. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
Likewise, Uptown resident Jennifer Eagan lost the race for a seat on First City Court to Veronica Henry by a margin of 55-45, but she was strongly supported in the Uptown wards near her home.
Eagan dominated the 14th Ward, where she also lives, with 85 percent of the vote, and also easily won the two neighboring wards, the 13th and the 16th Ward, with 64 and 70 percent of the vote respectively. Eagan also won the 11th and 12th wards – which together run from First Street to Napoleon Avenue, between Broad Street and the Mississippi River – by about 55 percent of the vote.
Turnout in the judicial race was about 32 percent, also up from 15 percent in October.
Finally, 80 percent of Upper Hurstville voters cast their ballots in favor of renewing a fee for private security patrols in their neighborhoods. The ballot question reauthorizes a fee of up to $650 per parcel for the next eight years to pay for the patrols, but the security district’s board voted last month to lower the fee from last year’s $485 to $425 in the coming year.
The 467 votes cast in the three Upper Hurstville precincts represent a turnout of 39 percent.
