NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Politics competed with Carnival parades and Super Bowl party preparations Saturday as New Orleans voters made their choice to succeed term-limited Mayor Ray Nagin.
Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, who lost to Nagin in a runoff four years ago, was widely seen as the front-runner in an 11-candidate field. Were he to win an outright majority, he would become the majority black city's first white mayor since his father, Moon Landrieu, left the post in 1979. Other candidates were hoping to force a March 6 runoff.
Among them was businessman John Georges, also white, who pumped $3.4 million of his own money into his campaign. Polls have also shown business consultant Troy Henry, an African-American making his first political run, as a contender.
Some voters were ready for a change from Nagin. Little known outside New Orleans before Katrina, he became a central, and sometimes controversial figure, in the city's struggle to recover. Polls showed his popularity fell sharply in the years after the storm as the rebuilding process dragged on.
"I certainly don't want another Ray Nagin — a businessman," said Charlotte Ford, a 76-year-old semi-retiree and registered Republican who voted for Landrieu. "They balk instead of finding out what works, how the system works."
Continued violent crime, city budget problems and an uneven recovery from Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the city in 2005, were among the issues on voters' minds.
Ursula Murphy and her husband, Bill, voted early so they could avoid traffic caused by the parades. Both cast votes for Landrieu. "After eight years of negative, we're going to see some positive," Bill Murphy said.
Other candidates include attorney Rob Couhig, housing consultant James Perry and former Judge Nadine Ramsey, who rounded out the field of better-known contenders.
Secretary of State Jay Dardenne projected turnout as high as 45 percent in a city where registered voters number more than 273,000.
More than 16,000 people cast early votes earlier this month.
