Ray Nagin's Bio

[LiberalArkie]

Before his election, Nagin was a member of the Republican Party and had little political experience; he was a vice president and general manager at Cox Communications, a cable communications company and subsidiary of Cox Enterprises. Nagin did give contributions periodically to candidates, namely President George W. Bush and former Republican U.S. Representative Billy Tauzin in 1999 and 2000, as well as to Democratic U.S. Senators John Breaux and J. Bennett Johnston earlier in the decade.

Days before filing for the New Orleans Mayoral race in February 2002, Nagin switched his party registration to the Democratic Party. Shortly before the primary election, an endorsement praising Nagin as a reformer by Gambit Magazine gave him crucial momentum that would carry through for the primary election and runoff. In the first round of the crowded mayoral election in February 2002, Nagin received first place with 29% of the vote, against such opponents as Police Chief Richard Pennington, State Senator Paulette Irons, City Councilman Troy Carter and others. In the runoff with Pennington in May 2002, Nagin won with 59% of the vote. His campaign was largely self-financed.

Shortly after taking office, Nagin launched an anti-corruption campaign within city government, which included crackdowns on the city's Taxicab Bureau and Utilities Department. Nagin also made a controversial endorsement of current Republican U.S. Representative Bobby Jindal in the 2003 Louisiana Gubernatorial Runoff over current Democratic Governor Kathleen Blanco, and only reluctantly endorsed U.S. Senator John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential race.

Nagin received a B.S. degree in accounting from Tuskegee University in 1978 and an M.B.A. degree from Tulane University in 1994. He and his wife, Seletha Smith Nagin, have three children: Jeremy, Jarin, and Tianna.

[leveymg]

1. DINO - recently switched parties. I wondered about why he seems to

blame "bureaucracy" rather than the Bush Administration, and why he now is willing to use force to clear out the remaining population.

It's beginning to make sense with news that Nagin is really a Republican, information I have not seen reported in the MSM.:eyes:

[KnaveRupe]

2. Wonder if this experience will transform him

into a REAL Democrat, rather than a stealth Republican. I don't see how anyone who lived through that, and then had the Rove Slime Machine turned on them full force could be unaffected. He certainly sounded like someone who's had a true conversion on the road to Damascus, and who now appreciates the plight of his fellow man.

But who knows? Look at how the Republican Party has shit on McCain, and he's still kissing their collective neocon asses...

[Sgent]

3. One problem

There are no primaries in LA. Your info is suspect.

[LiberalArkie]

6. I beg your pardon..

[bottomofthehill]

15. There are actually primary elections

But they are open to both parties. If you get over 50% of the vote there is no general election.

[CascadeTide]

4. People should not use this to attack him now

Nagin's history is irrelevant in this case. He still needs to be defened from the inevitable Rove attacks. He certainly made some mistakes but he cannot be the fall guy for the aftermath. The blame for that rest squarely on the White House.

[leveymg]

5. Just noticed - LINK please? What is the source?

[Bridget Burke]

9. It's Wikipedia!

See my message just below!

[LiberalArkie]

10. LINKS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Nagin
http://www.citymayors.com/mayors/new_orleans_mayor.html

There are others.. What I am pointing to is, he is a conservative rich black guy who could only get elected if he was Democrat. That explains why he did not even realize that there were poor people who could not drive or fly out of the city. Just like the rest of the conservatives, the poor people are below their radar. They don't contribute so they don't know they exist.

[Bridget Burke]

7. Shouldn't you credit Wikipedia?

Word for word:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Nagin

Wikipedia does go on to cover more recent events. Nagin was never all that political, it appears.

Judge him by what he's doing now.

[leveymg]

11. The problem is, he's identified as a Democrat, which he wasn't until he

ran for office. He's made mistakes -- haven't they all -- but, his are chalked up to "state and local officials" which is coda for Democrats.

Without attacking him for it, shouldn't we be reminding people that Nagin was a Republican until he had to switch to run and win in a citywide New Orleans election?

I really hate the partisan aspect to this tragedy, and wish this wasn't necessary.

[LiberalArkie]

12. Partisanship

It really isn't the party.. When I grew up in south Arkansas, the Democrats were the conservatives, Lester Mattox, Orval Faubas etc. The Rebublicans were the liberals. In the south that I grew up in, the Liberal Republicans are the ones who brought integration. The Democrats fought it tooth and nail. Nagin is a conservative, like Condi. He did not want to spend any money on infrastructure like Bush does not. He wanted to lower taxes, he wanted to move the poor out of the 9th ward. He has now accomplished his conservative goal in my believe. Democrat / Republican I could care less. Now wheather someone is Liberal or Conservative that is what matters.

[leveymg]

14. I have some very good friends who are conservatives. We agree that

things are totally FUBAR in America today, but disagree about how to solve the problem. That's okay, it's more interesting to disagree on some things than to sing to the choir all the time.

[Bridget Burke]

16. Actually, I was more concerned about the plagiarism....

Nagin got over being a Republican--although he may not have been passionately political before he ran for office.

[LiberalArkie]

18. plagiarism

I am really sorry, I copied it and added the 2 links at the bottom of the page. I guess I screwed it up since it did not save like the rest of it did. I am very sorry.

[Spazito]

8. Well, he was more qualified for his job than bush was for his,

the FEMA director for his and the Homeland Security head for his, so all in all, NO had better leadership than the whole country had, it seems.

[CascadeTide]

13. yeah at least he was a successful businessman

Bush has yet to be successful at anything.

[UTUSN]

17. Wow, He Crosses THREE Categories

CATEGORY 1: Switches from Repuke to Dem in a Blue area just to run and win.

CATEGORY 2: (aka "Tony GARZA") - wins ONE relatively small election in a Blue area and builds a whole career (to come, used-to-be). Tony GARZA sent ripples through the Texas state Repuke party by winning as a Repuke in deep-Blue South Texas (county judge). The Repukes chose to take this anomaly (it was a throw-the-bums-out situation) as a harbinger of the birth of a star----NOT! And Shrub APPOINTED him to JUNK, trading on the Hispanic connection, culminating in the ambassadorship to Mexico, where he has now married (at age in the 40s) the richest woman-heir in Mexico, the Corona beer fortune. All because of the County Judgeship.

CATEGORY 3: This would be the the Zell MILLER, wherein a so-called Dem runs around kissing and endorsing Repuke asses.

CATEGORY 4: (to come) - the Billy TAUZIN, wherein the so-called Dem actually commits the switchover to Repuke.