scuttlebutt Quotes of the week
NEW ORLEANS PUNDIT EDITION “A political narcissistic sociopath leveraged fear and ignorance with a campaign marked by mendacity and malice rather than a mandate for resurgence and reform. Instead of using his high office to articulate a vision for our future, Obama used it as a vehicle for character assassination, replete with unrelenting and destructive distortion, derision and division.” — Mary Matalin in the National Review, surveying President Barack Obama’s re-election victory. “Somebody in the Republican party is going to have to break [Republicans] out of the tea party and that talk radio bellicose B.S.” — Matalin’s husband James Carville on CNN — not referring to his wife specifically. Matalin and Carville dissected the election Thursday night at a forum at the University of New Orleans moderated by Gambit political editor Clancy DuBos.
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Gambit > bestofneworleans.com > november 13 > 2012
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PARISH GOES BIG FOR THE PREZ While President Barack Obama was soundly thumped statewide by GOP challenger Mitt Romney in last Tuesday’s election — Romney received 57.8 percent of Louisiana’s presidential vote to Obama’s 40.6 percent — the numbers in Orleans Parish told a story of a bright blue dot in a deep red state. Obama received 80.3 percent of the vote in Orleans, while Romney took only 17.8 percent. The New Orleans returns bested Obama’s showing in some of the country’s most liberal West Coast regions. Multnomah County, Oregon (Portland), went for Obama with 75.6 percent of the vote; King County, Washington (Seattle) managed 68.5 percent; and the County of Los Angeles scored 69.3 percent of the vote for the president. Only San Francisco, where Obama received 83 percent of the vote, scored higher than Orleans for Obama. — KEVIN ALLMAN
trigger laws
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“STRICT SCRUTINY” FOR GUN RESTRICTIONS Louisiana voters overwhelmingly backed a proposed state constitutional amendment to strengthen Second Amendment rights in the state. Nearly 75 percent of voters — more than 1.3 million — voted in favor of Act 784, which makes gun ownership a “fundamental right … under strict scrutiny of the court.” “Strict scrutiny” applies the highest standard of judicial review to any law concerning gun ownership. It typically is applied to human rights and other “fundamental rights” under the constitution. Owning a gun in Louisiana is now a “fundamental right.” Any proposed laws restricting gun ownership (whether on a school campus, government building, in the hands of a convicted felon) could be challenged. In Orleans Parish, more than 70,000 people voted against the measure,
which had fewer than 68,000 supporters — but in neighboring Jefferson Parish, 106,498 people voted for it, with only 51,962 voting against. The bill was the subject of a heated debate in May, when State Sen. Neil Reiser pitched his National Rifle Association-backed measure to Louisiana’s House Committee on Criminal Justice, where it ultimately passed 9-5. In May, it passed in the House by a 77-22 vote. Reiser boasted the bill would “give Louisiana the strongest Second Amendment right in the nation.” Reiser’s bill had near-unanimous Republican support in the state legislature, while Democrats opposed it — as did Louisiana district attorneys Leon Cannizzaro of Orleans Parish, Charles Ballay of Plaquemines Parish and John DeRosier of Calcasieu Parish, as well as the good government watchdog group Council for a Better Louisiana. “I can guarantee you (the amendment) does not stop crime in Orleans Parish,” Cannizzaro said at the May committee hearing. Before it passed the House, state Rep. Terry Landry, former Louisiana State Police commander, and other House Democrats repeatedly asked “why now” and why Louisiana needs fewer restrictions on gun ownership. Reiser and others said it would preserve gun rights in future sessions. — ALEX WOODWARD
bipartisan summit
FINDING COMMON GROUND ON POLICY AT TULANE UNIVERSITY The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) will hold its fourth annual summit at Tulane University from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 15 in the Lavin-Bernick Center. The BPC has held its summits at Tulane every year since 2009 — and always the week after the November elections. Hosted by political power couple James Carville and Mary Matalin, the event brings together Washington’s top leaders and strategists to discuss the current political landscape and examine where the two parties may find common ground going forward to address the nation’s key policy issues. The summit features current and former elected officials, national political strategists from both sides of the aisle, and prominent pollsters and journalists. The summit is free and open to the public. Registration is available online at www.bipartisanpolicy.org. — CLANCY DUBOS
Overseeing decree
COUNCIL WANTS COP MONITOR INVOLVED The New Orleans City Council reviewed Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s proposed $4.5 million budget for the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) last Thursday, but much of the council’s discussion focused on one component of the OIG: Independent Police Monitor (IPM) Susan Hutson. Hutson’s office, created in 2009, has a broad mandate: taking citizen