Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs/City Council District A Recap

You gotta just love Quentin Brown's City Council District B homemade campaign signs (using the backsides of carpetbagger advertising signs). Honest. Truthful. To the point. I took this picture across the street from the Uptown Langenstein's yesterday. Similar to that house on Jefferson Avenue near St. Charles Avenue that Schroeder had a picture of a couple of weeks ago, this house has a broad collection of campaign signs displayed in it's yard and along it's fence. Mr. Brown finished fifth in a six candidate field--and as Oyster points out, got almost as many votes in District C as Peggy Wilson got citywide. That makes me laugh. Hell, Kimberly Williamson Butler outgained Wilson. That makes me laugh too.

At the Circle Bar on Ci­rculo de Lee (formerly known as Lee Circle) a sign hangs from the second floor for the mayoral campaign of Manny "Chevrolet" Bruno. The slogan under his name: "A Troubled Man for Troubled Times." Sad, but funny in a sick way. The city's electorate gave Bruno 100 votes.

Another sign that made me laugh that seemed to appear overnight before the election throughout District A were the Democrats for Sal Palmisano signs featuring a really stupid-looking cartoon donkey. Ya, a group of Democrats got together and orchestrated a grassroots effort for My Pal Sal of all people. Nice try, Bootman. How blatantly orchestrated. Once again (as in 2002) Palmisano finished third in the race.

Incumbent Jay Batt received 40% of the vote in the Council District A race with Shelley Stephenson Midura finishing second with 28% of the vote. As expected the Lakeview sections of District A were carried by Batt and the Carrollton/Mid City precincts were not. 60% of the electorate voted against Batt, but 21% of that went to Palmisano and Wagner of which the majority will likely go to Batt in the runoff--but then again you never know. The 2002 District A primary had Scott Shea barely missing the 50%+1 win forcing a runoff with a 9% down Jay Batt which Batt was able to barely overcome to win the 2002 runoff. Look for this campaign to get even uglier than it has already been. I am sure the anybodybutbatt.com crusade will continue. Despite a vocal, unmatched animosity towards one single candidate, Batt will likely get re-elected with something like a 60/40 or 55/45 ratio over Midura.

Back to the campaign signs . . . another post-KTMB thing, the thousands of campaign signs remained on the neutral grounds today. Usually, they are all removed from the public right-of-ways in the wee-hours after the elections are called. I can recall seeing trucks and scores of sanitation or parkways workers after past elections pulling them from the ground in an operation reminiscent of the precision sweep that follows the end of a Mardi Gras parade. The next morning nearly all signs (at least in the neutral grounds) are usually landfill-bound. That's not quite how it works in post-KTMB New Orleans.