Up up and up

This Advocate profile of Mitch Landrieu's ambitions now that he's in the home stretch of his term in office is very good. But it mostly tells us things we already know.

For example it tells us Mitch, the technocrat, doesn't think democracy is really very good. 

He pointed to the dramatic swings the state has had as it has lurched between Republican and Democratic governors with sharply different politics and philosophies over the last few decades as a contributing factor to the problems it now faces, and he argued for a smoother transition in the city itself.

“Cities work or entities work when there’s a good person running it and a good structure. They’ve both got to line up,” Landrieu said. “In terms of continuity, the city ought to decide what direction they want to go in and elect a person who’s going to do it.”

"Continuity" is better for "cities or entities" than all that inconvenient public input and government by assent of the people and such. But, again, we've known this was a core belief of Mitch's for years. It's one reason he's bound to fit in with the Clinton Administration when or if he gets a job there as Resilience Czar In Charge of Entrepreneurial Innovation or whatever. 

Landrieu has been a longtime supporter of Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, and there’s been speculation that he could be looking to move into a role with her administration if she wins.

Getting a position with a Democratic president’s administration could be a logical step for Landrieu, and it essentially would mean following in his father’s footsteps. Moon Landrieu, who was mayor in the 1970s, went on to serve as President Jimmy Carter’s secretary of housing and urban development.

Having already stumped for Clinton in the Democratic primaries in Virginia and South Carolina, Landrieu said he’s preparing to head back on the campaign trail between now and November.

“If asked, I’ll go. Even if I’m not asked, I’ll go,” he said. “I am very interested in her being the next president of the United States. And more interested in Donald Trump never getting close to the White House.”

But we've all been speculating about Mitch's next job for years so none of that is surprising either. The article also reminds us that the municipal election schedule has been changed. We vote for the next mayor next fall rather then during the spring of 2018 which means we don't get a year off from politics in 2017. So yay! or boo! depending on whether you prefer democracy or "continuity."  With regard to all that, we get this review of the likely candidates.

No one has formally declared their intention to seek the mayor’s seat, though there’s been widespread speculation about a number of potential candidates, including trash magnate-turned-crime app sponsor Sidney Torres IV; City Council members Jason Williams and LaToya Cantrell; a handful of state lawmakers; and former Judge Michael Bagneris, who ran against Landrieu two years ago.

Again, no surprises. But if we can do anything to promote the continued use of "trash magnate" as a modifier wherever Sidney Torres's name appears in print, please let us know how we can help.

Anyway, there is one new bit of information (to me anyway) in this article about Mitch's post-mayoral plans.  Whatever those may be, they're going to be well-financed. 

He recently launched a political action committee, NOLA PAC. An invitation to its inaugural fundraiser last month suggested donations of between $1,000 and $2,500 and billed the group as a “leadership PAC that supports people and activities that will keep New Orleans moving forward together.”

“I didn’t just give eight years of my life to just turn around and say, ‘Well, now that I’m not the mayor, I’m not even a citizen,’ ” Landrieu said. “I fully expect in my (post-mayoral) years — and I’m sure there are a lot of people who would rather I leave sooner rather than later — to be an actively involved citizen in the city of New Orleans, however that manifests itself. I’m not going to walk away and say it doesn’t matter.”

Citizen Landrieu is going to stick around distributing monies to allies.. you know..  for the greater good. That's nice.  But this brings up one point we would have liked to see this article address that got skipped o over somehow. Did anyone in this Advocate editorial board meeting with mayor ask anyone who attended the NOLA PAC fundraiser?  Might be neat to know about. They got hold of an invitation, after all.  Maybe Mitch forgot to send them a receipt afterwards.