New Orleans mayoral race in the ‘Saintsmania’ zone

Reporting from New Orleans — 

It is one of the stranger side effects of the Saints’ march to glory: As this city prepares for a crucial election to replace its Katrina-era mayor, the joy over its football team’s upcoming Super Bowl debut may be quelling the local penchant for smash-mouth politics.

C. Ray Nagin, New Orleans’ mayor, is leaving office because of term limits after a fractious post-hurricane tenure marked by racial discord and frustration over the pace of rebuilding. On Saturday, six major candidates will compete to replace him.

Many expected the contenders to be slinging bayou mud by the catapult-load by now. But this political season is like no other.

New Orleans -- site of all of that hurricane heartbreak -- is humming with an odd Shangri-La, Summer of Love, dogs-loving-cats kind of vibe, all thanks to the city’s beloved Saints, who have finally made the big show after 40-plus years of disappointment.

The team’s Jan. 24 defeat of the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC championship triggered parades and spontaneous street parties. Bishop Shelton Fabre has blessed team and fans from the pulpit of the French Quarter’s iconic St. Louis Cathedral.

Civil District Judge Michael Bagneris recently postponed a civil trial to Monday because “Saintsmania” has sent many prospective jurors to what he called “the promise land -- the Super Bowl in Miami, Florida.”

Multiplying the bliss is the fact that Mardi Gras season is in full swing, with 20-plus parades scheduled this weekend. The distractions -- and the exodus of fans to Miami -- prompted candidates and public officials to encourage residents to vote early, resulting in more than 16,000 absentee ballots cast, according to Orleans Parish officials.

The last mayoral race was notable for black voters’ concern about rising white political power and the fate of inundated black neighborhoods. Both worries helped Nagin, an African American, secure victory.

Since then, some bleak assessments have been offered about the city’s ability to hang together. In October, the city’s former recovery czar, Ed Blakely, predicted race riots in New Orleans “unless the next mayor is very clever.”

But that was before the Saints landed in the Super Bowl.

“There’s an old saying down here: ‘God don’t like ugly,’ ” said Clancy DuBos, political editor of the weekly Gambit newspaper. “Any of these candidates who get ugly is going to have to answer to God and the voters right now.”

The benefactor of this new restraint may be the front-runner, Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, who lost to Nagin in a 2006 runoff. Landrieu, who is white, appears to have significant black support, thanks in part to the strong civil rights legacy of his father, Maurice Edwin “Moon” Landrieu.

His supporters have been happy to associate his campaign with Saintsmania’s cross-racial appeal. Supporter Quint Davis, producer of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, said he considered the team’s success as “an experience you can build on and use” to heal the famously fractious Southern city.

“We need a Gandhi, is what we need,” Davis said in an interview.

“We believe Mitch Landrieu is that guy.”

Davis emceed a news conference Wednesday at the House of Blues that underscored the political culture here -- one in which the endorsement of 1950s-era R&B belter Clarence “Frogman” Henry, which Landrieu won, is considered a coup.

With a smiling Landrieu watching over his shoulder, Davis rattled off other musician endorsements between numbers by an all-star band that included local legend pianist Allen Toussaint.

“Who dat say dey gonna beat Mitch Landrieu?” Davis hollered at one point, borrowing the Saints fans’ famous cheer.

Earlier that day, Landrieu’s opponents gathered at a radio station for a debate that the front-runner declined to attend. They took swipes at one another, but politely: John Georges, a businessman, faulted James Perry, director of a nonprofit, for lacking private sector experience, but also called him “a very smart and talented person.”

Criticism of Landrieu was more barbed. Rob Couhig, the sole Republican, said that Landrieu had stuck to ceremonial tasks as lieutenant governor.

“He’s never done anything but show up and ribbon-cut,” he said.

It was kickball by Louisiana standards.

This is a state, after all, that counts as one of its milestones “Bloody Monday” -- a 1929 melee in the capitol that erupted after opponents of then-Gov. Huey P. Long accused him of plotting to assassinate a rival. In a 1991 gubernatorial race that pitted Klansman David Duke against former Gov. Edwin Edwards (eventually convicted of racketeering charges), voters rallied around Edwards with the slogan, “Vote for the Crook. It’s Important.”

The next New Orleans mayor will face challenges as tough as anything Peyton Manning can throw at a defense. City Hall has gone to a four-day work week because of budget constraints and thousands of homes remain damaged and unoccupied.

Some longtime voters, like Alvin Daniels, 67, a retired electrician, expect that the whole brotherly love thing can’t last much longer.

“All this good feeling,” Daniels said with a resigned chuckle, “is gone Monday morning.”

richard.fausset@latimes.com