We may be deciding to have an election after all

Last week I answered a telephone poll about the upcoming municipal elections.  Candidates are in the process of qualifying this week.

The poll started off pretty blandly. They wanted to know how likely I was to vote and then ran through a list of political names asking for favorability ratings.  I'm always very likely to vote and I think everybody is terrible. There's probably a high correlation between those responses but I've never bothered to look that up.

Anyway, the interesting part of the poll came toward the end where there were a series of questions that came in the typical "push-poll" format.  "If you learned (UNFLATTERING INFORMATION) about (CANDIDATE) would you be more or less likely to support him/her?"  There were, I think, four of these about Mayor Landrieu.

I can't for the life of me remember specifically what issues they touched on. If I had written about it last week it would still be fresh in my mind. Sorry. I'm kind of a crappy blogger lately.  I can say they were all factual.. meaning the poll wasn't lying about the Mayor.  But they were definitely phrased in a negative way.

The final question was about Judge Michael Bagneris.  It asked, "If you learned that Judge Bagneris..." and here the questioner just read off Bagneris's bio, educational background, and supposedly glowing qualifications... "would you be more or less likely to support him as a candidate for Mayor?"

And that's why I always answer these surveys.  You pick up on the most interesting things that way.

Even though it was clear Bagneris was considering a run, I thought it unlikely he'd actually get in.  He's definitely a first-tier type of candidate if maybe not a citywide household name.  Plus Mitch looks pretty near unbeatable right now... at least if you're counting money.  

If finances alone were to determine the outcome of this race, Landrieu is ahead by a landslide. His campaign has raised over $2 million. His closest challenger has raised just a little over $1,000.

So far, the only opposition Landrieu is facing is lawyer and local NAACP president, Danatus King.

 Except now Bagneris is apparently in.

N.O. Civil Ct Judge Michael Bagneris just resigned. His political camp says he probably will jump into mayor's race. Check WWL-TV for more.
— Mike Perlstein (@MikePerlstein) December 11, 2013

And he's facing a steep uphill run.  He must have some strong reasons for jumping in anyway. Or maybe he's just deluded about something. I'll be curious to know what he has to say about it.