From the mailbag...

Errol Williams, a photo by Noladishu on Flickr.

Only in New Orleans does the guy who comes up with you tax bill ask you to a $500/plate dinner.

More background here.

It was Mauberret, but Janis fights back

Click to see fullsize

Well, it looks like the dirty fliers were Mauberret after all. New mailer by the Maubarret campaign uses the same graphics as the "Citizens for Fair Assessments."

On the bright side, instead of just sitting around whining about it, Janis Lemle's campaign has hit back with a great mailer of her own that arrived the same day as Mauberret's.

If you want real change, instead of just voting for the lesser of two evils, that's what you have to do. You have to get a ticket, like the I.Q. ticket, organized, raise some money, hit the established politico's across the board. Despite the fact that only one I.Q. candidate won (there were a lot of close losses), that one candidate was able to enact enough real change to lower millage rates citywide. All she had to do was assess a few grossly undervalued properties up to what they should have been and boom, lower taxes for the rest of the city. Nowhere else could one of the I.Q. candidates have done more good than Uptown.

Now, the I.Q. movement is still going strong behind Lemle and pushing the last of the old dogs out. It's not enough to just run a superior candidate and just sit on your hands while they lose. You've got to kick the incumbents in the teeth over and over until they cry for mercy. Then, piss on the ashes of their campaign so they never think about screwing the citizens again.

Clancy DuBos likes to say, "politics is a full contact sport." Real Reform is too.

Dirty Politics and the Campaign for the Next Assessor

You know what, you've got to hand it to them. For the longest time, New Orleans' 7 Assessors had it made. Cushy job with a big paycheck and full benies. They never had to work to raise campaign funds. All they had to do was send out a few suspiciously low property assessments and campaign funds would roll right in.

The assessors sat back and relaxed. The assessor seats would even be passed down from generation to generation, because nobody bothered to challenged a sitting assessor and they would just pull out of the reelection campaign hours before the deadline, so the next generation would have it without any competition. Claude Mauberret's family has controlled the 2nd District for 100 years!!!

And then the voters had to go and fuck the whole thing up for them! How could they do that! Who do these 1 Citizen and I.Q. People think they are, ruining the gravy train?!?!

The race for the next assessor is critical for the future of New Orleans. It's a battle between old nepotistic assessors that flout the law and back the vampires of the city and a new system that will actually treat everyone fairly, regardless of political connections. A shocking revolution, I know. Oyster has been beating on this particular issue for quite a while, actually.

Anyone looking for who to vote for should read these two fantastic articles:

N.O. Property List Prices, City Values Often Far Apart. From Thursday's Picayune.

Janis Lemle for Assessor.

Janis Lemle is the best hope to reform the system. The race is getting nasty. I recently got this libelous flier:

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Looks like someone is getting nervous they'll lose their cushy position. Anyone want to bet that "Citizens for Fair Assessments", with their scare-tactic (OMG! DREADLOCKS! THE JEFFERSON DRAGONS!) "tax woman" ad is really Mauberrey?

The only ones getting their taxes raised are the ones who've bribed assessors into illegally low assessments. Nobody's taxes are getting raised that don't deserve it. Also, thanks in no small part to Nancy Marshall's work in Uptown, property taxes were rolled-back and, with the exclusion of the old-money vampires, taxes went DOWN!

The best thing you can do a week from today is put Claude Mauberret and all the other crooked assessors in the unemployment line.

UPDATE- Eli has more background. "Most Consequential Race Flying Under The Radar"

UPDATE 2- More tantalizing details here: "Mystery of the Shadow Unsolved". Nagin and Riley go hilariously conspiratorial on WBOK. At the end, though, it's noted that the Lemle ad is by an unregistered Political Action Committee and strongly hinted that Mauberret is behind it. Crooked bastard.

UPDATE 3- Janis Lemle's latest ad:

(H/T Chris K)

UPDATE 4- Keep the ad on the air:

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