New Orleans Elects First Woman Mayor in City’s 300-Year History
LaToya Cantrell elected first female mayor of New Orleans
City Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell and former Municipal Court Judge Desiree Charbonnet are headed to a run-off in the New Orleans mayor’s race. No matter who wins a woman will be elected mayor for the first time in the city’s 300-year history LaToya Cantrell celebrates her victory in the New Orleans mayoral election during her election party at the New Orleans Jazz Market in Central City on Saturday, Nov. 18, 2017, in New Orleans. Cantrell, a City Council member who gained a political following as she worked to help her hard-hit neighborhood recover from Hurricane Katrina, was the victor Saturday night in an election that will make her the first woman mayor in New Orleans’ history.
New Orleans Elects First Woman Mayor in City’s 300-Year History by Elliot Cannon
Voters in the city of New Orleans elected City Council member LaToya Cantrell as mayor Saturday, the city’s first woman to be elected mayor in its 300-year history. A woman was already assured to be in the mayor’s office, as Cantrell, a Democrat, took on another female Democrat in Judge Desiree Charbonnet in the run-off to replace departing mayor Mitch Landrieu. Cantrell won with 60 percent of the vote.
Katrina was a theme in the backstory of both candidates. Cantrell moved to the city from California. Her work as a neighborhood activist in the aftermath of Katrina in the hard-hit Broadmoor neighborhood helped her win a seat on council in 2012.
Charbonnet, from a well-known political family in New Orleans, was the city’s elected recorder of mortgages before she was a judge. In the campaign she made a point of saying hers was the first city office to re-open after Katrina, providing critical property records to the displaced.
Cantrell will take office with a few questions surrounding her political career that still need to be answered. During the race, the 45-year-old faced criticism from the Charbonnet campaign over her City Council credit card usage. “Some of Cantrell’s spending remains unexplained, particularly the usefulness of her international travel,” the Times-Picayune reports. “The Louisiana Legislative Auditor is investigating all City Council credit card spending, which has totaled more than $400,000 since 2013.” To learn more go to the link below:
