(September 10)  The full column as published is at this link.   What follows is an earlier, unedited draft, in full.

When state Sen. Royce Duplessis belatedly entered the mayoral campaign in New Orleans, it seemed like a propitious development, promising a more thorough discussion of issues and ideas to raise New Orleans from the doldrums.

Duplessis’ new ad, though, is exactly the kind of divisive message, quite arguably race-infused, that is the exact opposite of the tone and content New Orleanians deserve.

The ad is a full-fledged attack against the front runner, city council member Helena Moreno. Granted, politics is a rough game, and there’s nothing wrong with drawing substantive differences with one’s opponent. This ad seems to go farther than that, though, with fairly obvious cues for racial animus.

The problem is mostly one of tone. The substance is rather unremarkable: Flashing bad statistics and unflattering, light-altered photos of Moreno across the screen, the ad essentially blames Moreno for failing while on the City Council to stem the city’s loss of 39,000 residents, large utility rate hikes and “chaos in City Hall.”

But the narrator’s voice is – well, I tread lightly here, but it’s true – quite obviously and rather exaggeratedly that of a Black woman. And the key line, offered both aloud and in bold print while only Black people are shown on screen, is that “Royce is one of us.”

Again, “One of us.” After nearly 50 years in and around politics, I know a racial message when I see one. With New Orleans still being a substantially Black majority city, the clear intent is to rally Black voters behind Duplessis against the White/Hispanic Moreno. And yes, Moreno in a recent poll shows a rather consolidated support rate from 70% of Whites, so Duplessis is trying to attract votes where he can find them: elsewhere.

Still, the ad rankles. One reason this seems so stark to me is that the ad spurs a major feeling of déjà vu, or maybe it’s reverse déjà vu.

Back in 2005, in my last year as chief editorial writer for the Mobile (Alabama) Register, a mayoral runoff featured a widely respected Black, longtime county commissioner, Sam Jones, against a White former city councilman, John Peavy, also of good repute. Mobile at the time still had a White-majority electorate, but polls showed that voting that year might not be as racially polarized as in the past, and Peavy seemed to be trailing. (Note: Just as Duplessis seems to be trailing Moreno now in New Orleans, with polls showing a less racially polarized electorate than in some prior years.)

 

Peavy’s team ran an ad – I wish I still had access to it – that was remarkably similar in tone and style to Duplessis’ ad now, except with the races in reverse. The narrator’s voice was clearly, indeed exaggeratedly, that of a White woman. The context involved issues that many people associate with race. Most people immediately thought that the subtextual message (just barely sub-) was to rally White voters to Peavy’s side. As in: “He’s one of us.”

The ad actually caused a backlash. And even as an outspoken conservative, I wrote a special column for the center-Left (at the time) New Republic magazine, explaining why Mobile was likely to elect its first Black mayor and why Jones’ race was less important than his extensive experience and his reputation as a bridge-builder. Jones eventually won with a strong 56.5% of the vote. Still, Peavy’s ad-maker had inserted some poison into the political atmosphere of what previously had been a largely positive campaign.

It is too soon to tell if Duplessis’ ad will work as he intends, or if it might cause a backlash against him or, perhaps, have little effect either way. The shame of it is, though, that Duplessis has been a serious and effective legislator, one who could run on his own record without running an ad so heavy-handed, nasty and, yes, racially tinged.

As if anticipating just such tactics, former judge Desiree Charbonnet, who finished second in the race for mayor eight years ago, put out a statement on Aug. 25 (two weeks before Duplessis’ ad) endorsing Moreno while warning that “there are some people who are choosing a mayoral candidate only for reasons that seek to divide us.”

Campaigns do not need to be run in the manner of Duplessis’ commercial. It should be noted that another major candidate for mayor, City Councilman Oliver Thomas, is out with a notably positive, upbeat ad highlighting his own accomplishments. Thomas’ ad is a comparative breath of fresh air.

Nobody is suggesting that politics be played like patty cake. Race-infused sledgehammers, though, should be anathema.

— 30 —

 

Tags: , , , , , ,