All politics is local

New Orleans: Race relations, partisanship, and a city’s rate of recovery clash in the Big Easy’s first post-Katrina election | Lynn Vincent

In New Orleans and satellite sites around Louisiana, voting has begun in a mayoral election that may well blow incumbent Ray Nagin out of City Hall. Twenty-two candidates are challenging the reelection bid by Mr. Nagin, a black man whose post-hurricane leadership many critics said consisted more of finger-pointing and race-baiting than practical policy. The mayor drew sharp criticism in January after promising in a speech to make New Orleans, long a black urban power base and Democratic stronghold, a "chocolate city" again.

On April 10, the first day of early voting in advance of general balloting slated for April 22, two buses bearing hurricane-displaced voters rolled from Houston into Lake Charles, La., a satellite polling site. "I would have walked to New Orleans if I had to," Elaine Stovall, 62, told reporters after making the 140-mile trip. "I would be less than a good citizen if I wasn't out here doing this."