Posted on 09/14/2005 11:18:36 AM PDT by pkajj
Political Machine Turned Out Votes N.O. Style 10 November 1996 The Baton Rouge Advocate
NEW ORLEANS - Red beans, parades and a thousand people all were part of the push that got nearly 186,000 voters to New Orleans polls on Election Day and gave Democrat Mary Landrieu a U.S. Senate victory.
Republican Louis "Woody" Jenkins has refused to concede defeat to Landrieu, who had an unofficial 5,899-vote lead after voting machines were opened Friday. The statewide tally released by the secretary of state on Friday was Landrieu 853,076, Jenkins 847,177, the closest Senate election in Louisiana history. Campaign manager Tony Perkins said volunteers will be working all weekend, checking out hundreds of complaints - especially in New Orleans, where Landrieu led Jenkins 143,050 to 42,653.
Bob Tucker, a businessman and close advisor to New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial, said it was Morial's get-out-the-vote teams that won the day for Landrieu, President Clinton and Orleans Parish Leader Harry Connick. "All elections begin and end in the streets on election day. That's where the Clinton, Landrieu and Connick team won Tuesday," Tucker said.
For instance, when the management team got word at 3:15 p.m. Tuesday that a GOP tracking poll showed Jenkins ahead, it was time for an instant parade. "Within 45 minutes, we arranged a motorcade," Tucker said. "We found Mary and Marc, got school buses for workers and sound trucks with music and put on a parade to flush out our voters." Landrieu and Morial waved from campaign manager Norma Jane Sabiston's convertible.
"We moved them into the major housing project areas blowing horns and playing New Orleans music," Tucker said. "We were doing what we do best in New Orleans, having a parade." There were more parades in key areas during "surge time" - late afternoon and evening, when people get off work.
Tucker's teams tracked the turnout all day in target precincts. If the vote was slow compared to past elections, some of the 1,000 street workers were sent there to knock on doors and ask people to vote. A phone bank worked all day, asking voters to go to the polls.
The street workers were divided into two groups of 500 -one for the morning, and one for the afternoon. Those were split into four groups: One to work polling places; one to wave signs at intersections; one to go door-to-door; and one to go to shopping centers and employment centers.
The one time all were together was at lunch, when all 1,000 got a lunch of red beans and rice.
Nice find. Landrieu can find buses for campaign parades, but not for evacuation of the poor. Kind of sums up life on the Democrat Plantation...
All satire aside, reality is funnier than any satire imagined and this is hilarious in a twisted way....
This is patently false, since where in the world were they going to find school bus drivers on 45 minutes notice? -sarcasm
Holy cow, this is priceless...paging Rush, paging Bill O, paging Sean H....
This was the election when there was 105 percent turnout at some polling places. Most were in the 90 percent turnout.
I think Mary won Orleans parish by 100,000 votes.
Hello Rush and Sean, this one's for you!
This is too good. You just can't make this stuff up. It's Louisiana, after all.
Unfreakin believable!
That was the last election I voted in Louisiana before I moved to paradise, i.e., Texas.
This is rich.
Fabulous find, thanks for posting.
Outrageous! ping.
>>>Harry Connick
Is this Harry Connick Jr's dad? I know Harry Connick Jr is from NOLA. Just wondering.
I wonder how far I would get if I wanted to rent school buses to get Repubican votes?
On second thought, did they even pay for use?
According to Mary, they weren't working anyway.
Is this Harry Connick Jr's dad? I know Harry Connick Jr is from NOLA. Just wondering.
Yes, it's his dad.
I don't understand how it is legal to use public school buses to celebrate and/or 'get out the voters' to vote for one person or celebrate one candidate over another. Oh yeah, it was for a democrat. Never mind.
Moon's daughter is like a female Noah... when her ass is on the line!
Yes, Harry Connick, Sr. was the longtime district attorney for New Orleans. He retired a few years ao.
It must have been a rainy day,
Where'd they find the drivers and who paid for the gas? I imagine the taxpayers footed the bill. Will MSM pick up on this?
Which proves Mary Landrieu can't win without New Orleans.
Probably true of Blanco, as well.
How would it help to feed a hungry child? /sarcasm
The Democrat machines use school buses everywhere to get the folks from the projects to the polls. The drivers get handsome "tips" for their "volunteer" driving in between school opening and closing hours. The school boards wink and look the other way. I'm just waiting for the day there is a fatal accident on Election Day with one of these buses in Newark, or Philly, or Richmond, or East St. Louis.
The 96 election was 5,000 votes that is why they padded it more in 2002. I guess they thought it wouldn't look so obvious.
"Within 45 minutes, we arranged a motorcade,"
Instead of declaring a state of emergency, they should have declared an election.
Dontchaknow, one has to take along a personal photographer and PR man to get the appropriate coverage during a disaster.
"Holy cow, this is priceless...paging Rush, paging Bill O, paging Sean H...."
Priceless. Good catch.
Nice tagline, btw.:)
LOL. Line of the Day.
Foreshadowing?
How did you find this story?
That was my thought as well. Here I come from the use of Government facilities or equipment for partisan political purposes is ILLEGAL under the Hatch Act.
Partly true for Blanco. She picked up a good many votes in the more ignorant rural parts of Northern LA, because they didn't want a "foreigner" (Jindal) for governor. She also did fairly well in SouthWest LA, where she is from.
Link to source?
It's in the Baton Rouge Advocate's archives...
"Too bad the day the hurricane hit it wasn't election day."
Bump!
Cool
We've been burned before.
So the Dems can organize for important things.
/sarcasm
"Partly true for Blanco. She picked up a good many votes in the more ignorant rural parts of Northern LA, because they didn't want a "foreigner" (Jindal) for governor. She also did fairly well in SouthWest LA, where she is from."
That is true. The morning after the election, my brother in La. overheard some ladies at a store exclaiming how excited they were that Blanco had won over that foreigner. They actually believed that Jindal had recently immigrated. My brother politely explained that he had been born in B.R. and had more intelligence in his pinky than Blanco. Seems kind of prophetic now.
A: 435 Members of the House of Representatives, 100 Members of the Senate, 9 Members of the United States Supreme Court and at least 3 members of the Executive branch starting at the TOP.
>>>It's been reported he's done alot for the area post-Katrina since it is his family home. I don't think it's been covered much because he's interested only in helping - only the finger pointers, race baiters and hypocrites apparently deserve air time.>>>
Well, that is what struck me. I heard he was helping, really helping. No screeching at Bush, etc... Which is even more impressive when you learn his father was a NOLA Democrat for crying out loud. I like his music anyway and he's a hottie.
Yep. I heard someone say he didn't vote for Jindal because he didn't want to have to wear a red dot on his forehead.
If somebody had told Nagin they needed the buses to schlep his myrmidon followers around so they could each cast a dozen votes for him, he would have gotten it arranged within an hour.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.