Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu isn’t planning on running for president, Politico reports.
Said Landrieu: “I don’t think so. A lot of people have asked me that. I never say never, but at this point in time I don’t think I’m going to do it.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“I’m what they call a radical centrist.”
— Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, in a CNN interview.
Does Mitch Landrieu Have to Run for President?
Politico: “After eight years in his dream job and as he nears turning 58 in August, he wants to take a moment by himself to think. But ever since his speech last year about taking down four Confederate monuments — when he launched himself into the center of a national conversation about race and racism, and saw the hate that others see, and confronted what’s inside America and Americans — he hears at every turn people urging him to think about running for president, and telling him that he’s made for the moment to go up against [Trump] and what his presidency has unleashed in the country. And maybe he is, he thinks. But with a 2020 field that could include a dozen or more serious Democrats, he wonders: Is running for president the only way to get anyone to pay attention?”
“For now, Landrieu is more concerned about understanding why Trump happened, and figuring out what he is prepared to do about it. … For now, there’s no wink-wink travel or fundraising. He doesn’t have consultants, other than a rickety breakfast-nook cabinet of Donna Brazile, James Carville and Mary Matalin… What he does have is a loose affiliation of people who watched that speech last year about removing the Confederate monuments, or heard about that speech, and fell in love: a scattering of Obama alums, desperate Democrats convinced that the bald white guy from the South could be the only way to answer Trump, thought leaders and prominent African-Americans who keep pushing him.”
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A White Southerner Confronts History
It’s New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s last day in office. He spoke to Chris Riback while he was still packing up his office. They talked about why he removed statues from his city that honored the Confederacy, his new book, and of course the question many have for him: Are you running for president?
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Landrieu Won’t Rule Out Presidential Bid
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu (D) “leaves office next month in a political spotlight unprecedented for New Orleans — one that suggests the city’s chief executive could step out of City Hall and into a run for president of the United States,” the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.
“That’s according to political speculation over the 2020 presidential race, pinning Landrieu as a potential anti-Trump contender after the tearing down of Confederate monuments followed by his book on the experience.”
Said Landrieu: “It would be disingenuous to say that I don’t hear the chatter. I really have not given any strategic thought to moving towards that goal. I’ve been around long enough to know that you never say never. I think it’s highly unlikely that I would try it. And I also can’t actually see the strategic pathway to it, even if I did. Who knows what the heck is going to happen.”
Two Mayors Who Want to Run for President
Mike Allen: “Here’s something unusual and refreshing: There are two highly ambitious Democrats who don’t even bother hiding their strong desire to run in 2020 — and to reshape the party: Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.”
“When I asked top Dem donors and operatives about candidates like these, the consistent answer was that for the first time in our lifetimes, D.C. experience may be a vulnerability rather than an asset when running for president.”
Said one Democratic operative: “Mayors are fantastic. They actually do things, and that really energizes them. They don’t talk like D.C. types or cautious governors who have to wrangle with state legislatures. They tend to love their jobs and people really like them. It’s the one level of government in which Dems have a huge advantage and a deep well of talent.”
Landrieu Faces House Arrest in New Orleans
“A 5 p.m. deadline loomed on Friday for the city of New Orleans to either pay its firefighters $75 million in back wages or see Mayor Mitch Landrieu (D) placed under weekend house arrest until a deal is reached,” Reuters reports.
“The standoff is the result of a decades-old settlement over back wages that have gone unpaid through several mayoral administrations. The local firefighters union recently sought to have the city held in contempt of court for not honoring the commitment.”
Landrieu Won’t Run for Governor
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu (D) officially ruled out a run for governor in the October election, saying Monday his focus remains on his home city, the AP reports.
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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