NEW ORLEANS -- New Orleans City Council District A covers a diverse section of the city – areas like Lakeview, parts of Mid-City, and Hollygrove.
Two candidates are entering the homestretch in the race to become the district’s next representative, in the runoff March 6.
Jay Batt, a Republican, served as District A councilman from 2002 to 2006.
While Batt lost a re-election bid to Shelley Midura four years ago, he believes his council experience is needed now.
"My ability to navigate City Hall and my ability to bring people together,” Batt said. “If you look at the folks that are helping me, I mean, I cross party lines. You know, with endorsements and relationships, and am able to work with all people, and that's what it's gonna take, because we have such a diverse district."
Batt's opponent, attorney Susan Guidry, is a political newcomer.
But Guidry, a Democrat, says she's ready to lead -- a result of her work with various neighborhood recovery committees and her experience as a neighborhood association president.
"I have worked continuously since the storm to bring our city back,” Guidry said.“I think that is another difference between my opponent and I, and I have no interests in mind, except for the recovery of our city, and to make it better."
Both candidates say fighting crime is a top priority for the district and the entire city.
Guidry said she aims to attack what she feels is the root of most crime challenges.
"A big source of our problem is our youth, and we have to fund youth initiatives that work,” she said. “We have to look in best practices throughout the country. And we have organizations that have come in and have done that, organizations within the city that have looked at that."
Batt, meanwhile, said there are too many shuttered properties scattered across the district.
"Blight breeds crime and hurts people's property values,” he said. “And then streets, the infrastructure, our capital projects need to be moved forward. Our streets need to be taken care of, our drainage system."
In order to effectively tackle their top priorities once in office, both candidates agree -- the new council must move past the bickering and in-fighting we've seen at City Hall over the last few years.
Heading into the final week of the race, both candidates aim to prove that they have the qualities to make it happen.
"Calm, concise, reason, you know, working together, across party lines -- I mean parties are ridiculous,” Batt said. “The only party I'm in -- I'm in the New Orleans party, and that's what comes first."
"I'm a native New Orleanian who just came back after the storm, realized that our city government was more broken than our city was, and that we would have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. And I began to do it," Guidry said.
Guidry was the top vote-getter in last month's primary -- capturing 44 percent of the vote. Batt garnered 39 percent.
The runoff is set for March 6. The only other race on the ballot is the runoff in council district E, between Austin Badon and Jon Johnson.
