Jefferson Parish politics

Pretty much.

The race for Jefferson Parish sheriff became a bare-knuckles affair weeks ago. But the campaign nearly came to literal blows over the weekend as Parish Councilman Mark Spears was handing out John Fortunato fliers to motorists in Marrero.

Spears called 911 to report that a passenger in a passing vehicle told Spears to stuff the campaign literature "in his ass," according to a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office report.

The passenger, Vincent Bailey, told deputies a different story, portraying Spears as the aggressor and saying the councilman threatened to "put a hit out" on him for refusing to accept the brochure.

Don't talk back to your elected people over there. They will call 911 or "put a hit out" on you.  Those are basically the same thing in JP anyway. 

Does Fortunato think he's got this?

This must mean the guy pretty much already thinks he is going to be the Sheriff, right?

Nearing the end of a relatively lackluster campaign, Fortunato made headlines and raised eyebrows by saying that embattled Parish President Mike Yenni was right remain in office, despite calls for him to resign following reports that he'd been involved in a sexting relationship with a teenager. During a televised WDSU debate against interim sheriff Joe Lopinto, Fortunato also went on record supporting Yenni's reelection next year.

Maybe he is putting a lot of stock in this UNO poll that showed him with a 16 point lead.  Most people aren't, though. 

The pollsters noted that Lopinto has closed the gap since that time, picking up a significant percentage of voters who had been undecided last fall. But Fortunato holds an overwhelming advantage among west bank voters, the survey found, leading Lopinto by some 30 percentage points there.

The Lopinto campaign said that the automated UNO poll, known as an interactive voice response survey, "did not follow best practices for accuracy" and did not call cellphones or screen for likely voters.

In any case, he doesn't seem too worried about touching any live wires.  Same goes for this, I guess. 

Fortunato told the students he would not tolerate racial profiling under his administration when asked about policing difference in black and white neighborhoods.

"It's important that you know that I'm going to do my absolute best, that when you get out of your cars and are walking through the neighborhood, some police officer is not going to come around and decide to mess with you. That's not going to happen when I become sheriff."

Fortunato is gonna try real real hard not to do any racism.  That's probably the best you can expect from a JP Sheriff anyway. 

Not that Lopinto sounds much different. These two candidates seem to agree on a lot of stuff. At the very least, the both have more sense than Steve Scalise. Their differences are more about the bizarre follies and inside baseball of parish politics. This Advocate article parses that as a philosophical difference in approach to the office but I think that is mostly campaign code-speak.

Fortunato and Lopinto have made such disparate pitches to voters that it sometimes seems like they are running for different offices.

Fortunato has portrayed himself as a no-nonsense, old-fashioned lawman who will put public safety above everything.

Lopinto likens the job to being chief executive officer of a major company, pointing to the agency's $125 million budget and 1,500 employees. He cites historic lows in crime in the parish and says there's only so much a sheriff can do to prevent certain crimes.

Campaign finance reports suggest that Lopinto has emerged as the establishment favorite, receiving contributions from several local officeholders, law firms and contractors that do business with the largest law enforcement organization in the state. He also is supported by a number of political action committees as well as businessman Shane Guidry, the biggest Republican contributor in Louisiana politics, who has given Lopinto $75,000 through his various companies and raised another $50,000 for him.

Basically Lopinto is the "insider" at the moment insofar as he is Newell Normand's anointed and therefore receiving favor from most of Normand's network of allies.. which is pretty substantial. Fortunato is the "outsider" at the moment which just means that he would like to be the person benefiting from the favor of the people Lopinto currently is. If he becomes Sheriff, this will undoubtedly happen for him.

Anyway, right now he's kind of acting like he's got it in the bag.  At least, that's how I read that Yenni endorsement. Maybe he's just careless. Or dumb. Which is to say, maybe he's Sheriff material after all.

Update: See what I mean about not believing that UNO poll?

But a third-party poll from JMC Analytics and Polling conducted March 10 reveals a much-tighter race, with Lopinto ahead of Fortunato by just 2 percentage points.

What happens in Jefferson Parish coffeehouses

It's weird that we can't go more than two or three years without a JP Sheriff either spying on or getting spied on by a political opponent in a coffee shop. Last month, Joe Lopinto tried (unsuccessfully) to convince everyone he had no idea any of this was going on.  The IA report says differently.

A few days after the coffee klatch, on Oct. 18, Lopinto had a "casual conversation" with one of his deputies, Sgt. Rodney Naumann, at a crash scene, according to the internal affairs report.

Naumann told the sheriff he witnessed the coffeehouse gathering three days earlier, having walked into the P.J.'s while he was off duty.

"Sheriff Lopinto requested a picture of the meeting," Maj. William Boudreaux wrote in the report.

Naumann then told the sheriff he knew the owner of the cafe, Mike Pierce, and that he "could inquire if getting a photo was possible."

Hours later, Lopinto told Scanlan, his chief deputy, that "he would like to have a copy of" the coffeehouse surveillance footage, the report says. "Based on this conversation, Chief Scanlan called Sgt. Naumann and asked if he could get it on one of his breaks."  

Because as long as a deputy is on his break when he commandeers private security footage in order to do recon on the guy running against his boss, there's no harm in that, probably.

Anyway, you know, over in Orleans Parish the plan is just to put cameras everywhere and feed the footage directly to NOPD so nobody has to worry how to fill out their time sheet when they do this stuff.  Much more efficient that way.

Seems like a good time to put a camera in every store, bar, etc.

It's silly to think that the police would ever use the video for anything inappropriate like, say, keeping tabs on political opponents.  That's just paranoid.

Jefferson Sheriff Joe Lopinto said Tuesday that three of his deputies are under investigation for improperly obtaining surveillance footage from an Elmwood cafe that showed John Fortunato — Lopinto's chief opponent in the March 24 primary — meeting with two other longtime lawmen who recently retired from the Sheriff's Office

Bullies

One thing that doesn't get mentioned a whole lot just yet about the Trump idiom is how it filters down to embolden some of the local brutes. It's going to cause a serious problem.

Joseph Lopinto, an attorney from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s office who spoke on behalf of the National Sheriffs’ Association, seemed to relish enraging project opponents. “The federal government failed to provide local law enforcement [in Standing Rock, North Dakota] with support to control hostile, often violent protesters that caused millions of dollars in property damage and shot at law enforcement officers,” he said, while the pipeline opponents yelled so loud his testimony was almost inaudible.

“We don’t want the same thing occurring here in Louisiana,” he said.

Oh but it's so rude and uncivil to protest and shout and stuff. But Lopinto's people have all the guns and tear gas and are spoiling for a fight so....