And now it is getting a bit chippy

You're probably going to get one of these mailers.

A political action committee opposing the New Orleans mayoral candidacy of former judge Desiree Charbonnet has launched, raising the stakes of the election with the potential for increased negative campaigning and so-called dark money.

It is unclear who is funding the group, which has filed papers with the state ethics board as "NotforsaleNOLA.com PAC I.E. Only PAC." But the website that launched Wednesday (Sept. 13) makes it clear that the group is supporting a single cause: Defeating Charbonnet, the best-funded candidate in the race.

The PAC's ads go after Desiree for, well, for being Desiree. Which is to say she is a scion of an established New Orleans political family and organization. There are good and bad connotations to that. I elaborated on those a bit last month.  Desiree's allies come out of an older New Orleans political tradition of organization and patronage. It's both good and bad. That side is typically opposed, though, by a whiter deep pocketed, and generally worse side that pretends its own system of privilege constitutes "good government." That's the divide that defines most citywide elections. It's starting to shake out that way again. 

It's not exactly that, of course. Every election is different. And the individual candidates have their own strengths and weaknesses (mostly weaknesses in this field) but we'll get into that stuff later on.