NEW ORLEANS – Mayor Ray Nagin, whose shoot-from-the-hip style was both praised and scorned after Hurricane Katrina, narrowly won re-election over Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu on Saturday in the race to oversee one of the biggest rebuilding projects in U.S. history.
“We are ready to take off. We have citizens around the country who want to come back to the city of New Orleans, and we’re going to get them all back,” Nagin said in a joyful victory speech that took on the tone of a Sunday sermon.
With all 442 precincts reporting, Nagin won with 52.3 percent, or 59,460 votes, to Landrieu’s 47.7 percent, or 54,131 votes. Results showed he got black votes he needed from scattered residents across the country who voted by fax and absentee ballots, and got a sizable crossover vote from white districts.
Nagin, a former cable television executive first elected to public office in 2002, argued the city could ill-afford to change course just as rebuilding gathered steam.
With little disagreement on the major issues – the right of residents to rebuild in all areas and the urgent need for federal aid for recovery – the race came down to a referendum on leadership styles: the brash newcomer incumbent versus the political establishment challenger.
Nagin, a janitor’s son from a black, working-class neighborhood, is known for his improvisational, some say impulsive, rhetoric.
Landrieu, who served 16 years in the state House before being elected to his current post of lieutenant governor two years ago, said his strength was his ability to bring people together and get things done.
Landrieu echoed the theme of his campaign – a call for unity – as he conceded to Nagin.
“One thing is for sure – that we as a people have got to come together so we can speak with one voice and one purpose,” he said. “Join with me in supporting Mayor Nagin.”
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