does the Clerk of Criminal District Court flout court orders and arrest warrants by going into hiding, emerge to announce her candidacy for mayor, and get jailed for contempt of court and not admitting her guilt. The kicker: she’s still on the mayoral ballot.
From nola.com:
“[Kimberly Williamson Butler] landed in jail after nine of the city’s 13 criminal district judges sentenced her to three days in Orleans Parish Prison without bail and ordered her to pay a $500 fine on contempt of court charges. They charged that she failed to comply with their order last month to turn over … management of her office’s stalled FEMA application to 4th Circuit Judge Ed Lombard, who had been appointed to the task by the state Supreme Court.
“The sentence came a little more than a week after Butler began a standoff with the judges, going into hiding to avoid arrest and arguing that their order was an illegal infringement on the authority of her office. When she reappeared Friday, she announced she would not seek re-election as clerk and run for mayor instead.”
You’ve gotta love the drama that is New Orleans. All we need are the nine Muses to appear and sing the chorus. And, no, that is not sarcasm you read.
Chris Rose encapsulates my feelings with his usual tongue-in-cheekiness:
“That our mercurial clerk of court Kimberly Williamson Butler set the tone by going from criminal fugitive to mayoral hopeful in less than 10 minutes — announcing her candidacy on the courthouse steps within minutes of her release from contempt of court charges — showing that we haven’t lost our flair around here for the political show … Oh, Kimberly, what did we do to deserve you? (Well, we voted for you, obviously, but that’s a whole ‘nother kettle of fish.) “
More About The KWB:
- Better Days
- Drapegate – mostly forgettable
- VotingMachineGate – completely inexcusable
- The Pokey
- The KWB Fan Club – a weak point, but still a point
Given the marked lack of time to read through the platforms of all 24 candidates, I did not watch the first mayoral debate last night [video]. A basic ABC26 poll of nola.com readers indicates that most of them think Mitch Landrieu won the debate. Based on this and another poll a month ago, it seems that New Orleanians who read the Times Picayune online exhibit a strong preference for Landrieu. I wonder what the phone polls suggest.
Hi, my name is Wakako. I am a student from Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, CA). Group of students is working on project for New Orleans….and we’re focusing on Lower 9th ward. In a nut shell, using our proposal, we are trying to encourage displaced residents of lower 9th ward to be involved in decision making and rebuilding process. We’re updating daily activities on our blog: http://projectlowerninth.blogspot.com
If you have time, please check out what we’re doing;) We’re trying to spread the word that we’re doing this!!!
I think the KWB fiasco would have amused me, say, a year ago. Now it just embarrasses me. In fact, I’m ashamed that in the past I would have laughed it off. I feel like we’ve put up with this sort of behavior too long. We should be outraged, diappointed and/or disgusted, not amused. This is not a game or a show.
Did you notice at the end of that article in the TP yesterday that there were protestors marching is support of her, but they wouldn’t say why they were there or how they knew her? Very strange stuff.
The reason I bring up the issue of KWB is that this city is not so far gone to ignore its rich and varied heritage of political and electoral fiascos. I was disheartened by the system here (and KWB, in particular) when voting machines in my neighborhood didn’t show up, were locked for hours on end or did not work during the 2004 presidential election.
Suggestions to improve political accountability (or introduce it, in this case) in Louisiana abound, but who is going to implement them? And does change always have to come from the top in the American political system?
As a principled nonvoter, I find this kind of thing hysterical. Maybe I would feel differerently if I were actually being governed by these clowns. However, it’s my belief we’re all being governed by clowns everywhere, so you might as well get a real clown show out of it. I hope this doesn’t offend anyone, but I do find it very funny.
Granted that, to paraphrase de Tocqueville or some such, elections every four years are a way of clanking the shackles that hold us. Still, they are a great symbol of participatory government, however relative it is. As a principled voter, this makes me sick, but it is New Orleans. What really ticks me off is this kind of incompetence and nonchalance at the state and federal levels. Next post brewing.