Effort to oust New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell fails as recall falls short

Efforts to recall embattled Democratic New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell have failed, leaving her to navigate the remaining two years of her administration in uncertain waters.

Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, confirmed that recall organizers failed to secure a sufficient number of signatures from qualified voters to trigger a recall election in the state's signature city.

Organizers needed about 49,000 valid signatures, but of the 67,000 secured only about 27,000 were deemed qualified. Orleans Registrar of Voters Sandra Wilson sent the petitions to Edwards to certify, which he did Tuesday.

"The question now is how the mayor will handle this moving forward," said Clancy DuBos, who has been covering New Orleans politics for five decades and provides commentary for Gambit and WWL-TV. "Will she see it as validation and continue to operate as she has or will she be reflective and make changes that could bring the city closer together."

Cantrell is Black and the first woman mayor of the city and her supporters said from the start that the recall effort was driven by Republican funding and tainted by racism.

But since her reelection to a second term in 2021, the city became on pace to be the murder capital of America, garbage collection was cut in half and Cantrell piled up extravagant travel expenses that she eventually paid back under pressure from the City Council and the public.

"This revolves around the basic fact that citizens on many fronts don't feel like they're being heard and see a lack of urgency in the mayor to address the problems," City Council President JP Morrell, a Black Democrat, told USA Today Network in a previous interview.

Recall organizers dramatically delivered 10 boxes of recall petition signatures to New Orleans Registrar of Voters Sandra Wilson last month, insisting they had enough registered voters to force a referendum on Cantrell.

But they refused to make their petitions public, raising skepticism.

More:In New Orleans, residents await result of petition to recall Mayor LaToya Cantrell

"We're asking you to trust us," said Eileen Carter, one of the original petitioners who once worked as Cantrell's social media manager, after delivering the signatures.

New Orleans Civil District Court Judge Jennifer Medley earlier this month approved a lawsuit settlement agreement that significantly lowered the number of signatures needed to force a recall election, but it was far from enough.

"There's been almost no transparency by any of the parties involved," Dubos said. "I think the Legislature really needs to take a look at the recall law and make it more transparent."

Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1 

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell survives recall effort