Voters made some surprising decisions
Once upon a time in the city of Shreveport, interested citizens waited anxiously to see who would decide to run for mayor since Mayor Cedric Glover is term-limited after serving two terms. Several names were bouncing around in political circles. In the end, seven hopefuls qualified.
But that’s when things started to get quirky. State Rep. Patrick Williams, considered the early front-runner and the best-funded, was exposed for double-dipping on his legislative expenses. His campaign took a hit, and he was never able to shake that image. City Councilman Sam Jenkins, the only candidate with experience in dealing with city finances and problems, seemed a creditable candidate until the revelation surfaced about unpaid taxes. His campaign took a big hit, he dropped out of the race, then dropped back in, but never could gain any political traction.
That left two of the women in the race, former Caddo Schools Superintendent Ollie Tyler and teacherbusinesswoman Victoria Provenza, with an opening. And they seized the opportunity to energize their campaigns, even as some politicos were espousing that Tyler was “too old” and Provenza was a novice who couldn’t handle the challenges of running a city.
That’s when the Williams campaign took the risky gamble of going negative on Tyler and Provenza in an effort to ensure he would make the runoff. After all, Williams was spending big bucks, accepting huge loans, and made some substantial personal loans to keep his campaign afloat. Before officially going negative, however, operatives for Williams had been on Facebook and other websites trashing his opponents and everyone who was not part of the Williams campaign, which damaged the Williams brand early-on.
An investigator from the District Attorney’s Office was dispatched to Colorado to dig up dirt on a contentious divorce Provenza had endured in an effort to unseal files which were sealed. The Williams campaign was able to get information which it thought would damage Provenza’s campaign and fed it to news outlets. KTBS and The Inquisitor newspaper were the only outlets, to my knowledge, to do a detailed report on Provenza, which was embarrassing to her and her campaign.
Tyler was next. A whisper campaign was started about her shooting and killing her husband in a domestic violence episode 46 years ago. But Tyler went on the offensive, going public and relating what happened on that fateful night. Questions remained unanswered, but her boldness in coming forward seemed to diffuse the issue. So the Williams campaign hastily formed the Future of Shreveport PAC, which began sending mailouts to voters saying that Tyler ran our schools into the ground and revealing uncomplimentary details of Provenza’s divorce proceedings.
Fast-forward to election day. All of the negative attacks failed to provide momentum for Williams and failed to stop the momentum of Tyler and Provenza. When the votes were counted, Tyler had a whopping 44 percent of the primary vote. Provenza came in second, surprising many political pundits, with 25 percent and earned a spot in the runoff. Williams had to settle for a third-place finish with 22 percent – and apparently a lot of debt. Let’s also give credit to the other candidates who boldly stepped forward to run for mayor, in addition to Tyler, Provenza, Williams and Jenkins, namely Anna Marie Arpino, Jim Crowley and Melvin Slack.
That brings us to the brink of history. The winner between Tyler and Provenza will be the first female mayor since Hazel Beard (1991-94) and only the second to hold the office since the city went to the mayor-council form of government in the 1970s. If Tyler wins, she will become the first black female mayor. If Provenza wins, she will become the first mayor to win as a no party candidate.
One has to ask the question whether Provenza will stay in the race through the runoff since she trails Tyler by 19 percentage points. In 1998, Keith Hightower had 42 percent to 28 percent for Bo Williams, who decided not to pursue a runoff and dropped out of the race. But the always-optimistic Provenza says there is no way she is dropping out. While she has a political mountain to climb, every election is a new election, and stranger things have happened in the past.
Her task, obviously, is to energize white voters while hoping the turnout in the black communities will be lackluster.
Lou Gehrig Burnett, an award-winning journalist, has been involved with politics for 44 years and was a congressional aide in Washington, D.C., for 27 years. He also served as executive assistant to former Shreveport Mayor Bo Williams. Burnett is the publisher of the weekly “FaxNet Update” and can be reached at 861-0552 or [email protected].
