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New Orleans Election

Aired April 21, 2006 - 13:35   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A local election getting national attention. Tomorrow, voters in New Orleans choose a mayor, but the first big election post-Katrina is also a race about survival, rebirth and race.
CNN's Sean Callebs' following it for us.

Hi, Sean.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.

Indeed you really hit the nail on the head here. This is the last full day of campaigning here. And get this, close to two dozen candidates seeking to become the next mayor of this city, and think about everything that is going on here. How will the city rebuild? how will they breathe economic life back into New Orleans? And how will they bring back the hundreds of thousands people who left here? But one of the most overriding concerns is not a new concern.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS (voice over): Rebuilding from one of the worst natural disasters in American history. A colossal job that will dominate the mayor's life every day for the next four years.

CLANCY DUBOS, EDITOR, "GAMBIT WEEKLY": The person who wins, I think, is going to be the candidate who really offers us hope.

CALLEBS: Clancy Dubos is closely following the election as editor of the weekly New Orleans newspaper. Despite the scope of the task awaiting the next mayor, there is no shortage of candidates willing to take it on, twenty three in all, enough to field more than two football teams. Three seem to be leading the pack. Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu, businessman Ron Forman and the city's current mayor, Ray Nagin.

MAYOR RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS: I'm expecting a high voter turnout and people will make good decisions.

CALLEBS: Pollster Silas Lee says expect voters to send a message.

SILAS LEE, POLLSTER: There's a strong sense of immediacy. A strong urgency to get things done as quickly as possible. And the next mayor must articulate a vision for recovery.

CALLEBS: Before the storm, the city was about 67 percent black, 33 percent white. Now estimates are the population is more evenly split.

MITCH LANDRIEU, MAYORAL CANDIDATE: Race is always a difficult issue.

CALLEBS: Pollster's say Landrieu's support is divided equally between white and black. His father was the city's last white mayor in the late '70s. Forman and Landrieu are expected to split the vote in the business community.

RON FORMAN, MAYORAL CANDIDATE: Government needs to provide our citizens with the answer.

CALLEBS: This, pollsters say, marks a big change from the last election. Last time around, Mayor Ray Nagin got about 85 percent of the white vote and about 40 percent of the black vote. But that was before Katrina. As Dubos points out, the landscape is different now.

DUBOS: Four years ago he ran as Clarence Thomas. Now he's running as Al Sharpton. That's quite a change. And it's not as if he's fooling anybody.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: And the polls open bright and early at 6:00 local time. That's 7:00 on the East Coast. Kyra, of course, we'll keep you up to date on this. And if everyone is correct, if there is the turnout that people are expecting, could be quite interesting. And we may have to redo this again in just one month. Because if one candidate doesn't get 50 percent of the vote, there will be a runoff on May 20th.

PHILLIPS: Sean, you know what's interesting? Normally we don't cover local mayoral elections, but this has become a worldwide issue, the Gulf Coast, and leaders and the politics involved. So how do you think it's going to affect the dynamics of how this turns out? Because it is on a national level.

CALLEBS: You're exactly right. And you can't use normal and New Orleans in the same sentence these days. You simply can't. Basically this is a national election for mayor. If you go to Houston or if you look out windows in Atlanta, you are going to see billboards for these candidates. Because so many people who evacuated this area are in those cities, and they will be able to vote in this, either through a write-in ballot or vote here the day of the election.

And it is going to be interesting to see, because we have talked to a lot of people, and they say, you know, the Army Corps of Engineers is really going to be protecting this city by strengthening the levees and the floodgate, and the federal government is going to dictate how much money comes into the city to rebuild, the one thing, the one thing the citizens here can control who will run the city for the next four years.

PHILLIPS: Sean Callebs live from New Orleans. Thanks, Sean.

Classes are going on as scheduled today at Riverton High School in Kansas. Police say five students there were plotting to mark yesterday's anniversary of the Columbine attack with the same kind of attack.

David Walters is superintendent of the school district there. He joins us now live from Riverton, Kansas.

And, superintendent, I'm just thinking back to when Columbine happened, these young men were 9, 10, 11 years old. What do you think about the fact they were trying to possibly carry out exactly what we saw happen at Columbine, and do you think what happened at Columbine is indeed influencing our teens still?

DAVID WALTERS, SUPT. RIVERTON SCHOOL DIST.: I think -- I think the fact that there's still a lot of attention to that event, and it's also the birthday of Adolph Hitler. Combined those events gives some students something that they might choose to focus on.

PHILLIPS: Are you concerned just how the Internet and blogging have become so important to students nowadays? I mean, I'm sure, you remember, I remember, this wasn't even an issue when we were in high school. Are you monitoring this more? Are you having teachers pay attention to fact that kids could be planning events like this, via Internet?

WALTERS: Yes, we are. We do monitoring. We are required to filter our Internet. Like any tool, the Internet is a very positive force in education and something with that kind of power can be used negatively. And it's hard to make sure that line from good to bad is not crossed.

PHILLIPS: And let me ask you about these teens. What do we know about their background? Did you know these students well? Did you see them a regular base? Did they appeared to be trouble students? Were they good kids?

WALTERS: I was in -- I try to be in the buildings daily, but I did not. I would not describe myself as one who knew them well. Like I say, I try to be in the buildings and see staff and students. But I'm not an expert on each individual child.

PHILLIPS: What are your teachers telling you, though? Were they good kids or were they troublemakers?

WALTERS: You would need to talk to the legal authorities. They have better knowledge of what these kids were thinking than I do.

PHILLIPS: So I'm assuming that teachers are taking on a different role now, and that is paying more attention to maybe activity or behavior of kids like this and also what they're doing online?

WALTERS: I do not remember any specific discussions regarding these students.

PHILLIPS: All right, Superintendent David Walters from Riverton School District. We appreciate your time, sir. WALTERS: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, China and dissent. It's rarely been a pretty picture. Coming up on LIVE FROM we're going to talk more about Tiananmen Square and those protests. And remember this famous video? Where is that man? Who is he? We're going to talk about it.

We're also going to talk with one of the survivors of that protest. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: So wondering what could be the perfect job for you? Well, here is a little help as we take a look back at what is considered to be some of the best jobs in America.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): "Money" magazine researchers checked out hundreds of jobs. They ranked each career based on categories, including earning, flexibility, creativity, stress, and ease of entry, and this is what they found.

Financial advisers scored a B average and ranked number three on "Money's" list of best jobs in America. "Money's" Cybele Weisser says it is one of the most popular jobs today.

CYBELE WEISSER, WRITER, "MONEY" MAGAZINE: With the diminishment of pensions and more people are trying to figure out what to do with their 401(k)s, baby boomers are retiring, there is so much need for financial advice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Education is often seen as a key to getting a good job, and believe it or not, the job of college professor ranked number two, mainly because the hours are so flexible.

WEISSER: You can arrange a schedule where you're not in an office 9:00 to 5:00 every day. You might teach two courses a week, for example.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And which position topped the list? According to "Money" magazine, if you are a software engineer, you have the best job in America.

WEISSER: There's such a huge need for software engineers right now. It's a job that has a lot of flexibility in that, you know, it's in every location, including of course working from home. It's not too stressful. And it is a job where you can get into it with a Bachelor's degree. Also pays very well.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For a complete list of "Money" magazine's best jobs in America, visit www.MONEY.com.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: Sorry, Charlie. Even as she hits four score, your mum's not giving up her throne for a rocking chair. Queen Elizabeth is out to prove that 80 is the new 39. She starting her morning with stacks of cards from all around the world. And the Royal Navy even decked the deck with a special message, but that was just for starters.

CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney has more on the busy birthday girl -- Fiounnuala.

FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed. She had plenty of cards to open this morning, some 20,000 birthday cards sent to Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain, and some 17,000 e-mails, but whether or not she got time to look at all them is very doubtful, because she was at Windsor Castle today, just outside London, where some 15,000 to 20,000 people gathered to wish her well on this, her 80th birthday.

She does of course have two birthdays. This is her obvious birthday, and then there's an official birthday in June which she celebrates. She shook the hands of as many people as possible, and that's already after shaking the hands of some three million people during her 55 years' reign.

She is celebrating quietly this evening. Her son and heir Prince Charles is hosting a dinner for her at Q Palace, which is also just outside London, and that'll be hosted by Charles and his wife, Camilla Duchess of Cornwall -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Fionnuala, this a queen who has definitely experienced the sign of the times, and I'm particularly talking about marriages and divorces, that have taken place within this family. It's been pretty challenging for her.

SWEENEY: It has indeed. And in fact if anything she perhaps represents continuity as she herself has been very happily married for many years, and one of the thing that is always noted about Queen Elizabeth is that while the opinion polls may vary as to the monarchy and as to whether Prince Charles should one day take over the throne, they do agree, some 57 percent of them, and that holds steady throughout the years, that Queen Elizabeth should remain at the helm. She does provide continuity. She's been around for as many years as most people in this country. And so for many people, they are wishing her well on this, her 80th birthday -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Fionnuala Sweeney, thanks so much.

Straight ahead, China and descent. It's rarely been a pretty picture. Coming up on LIVE FROM, we're going to talk about the Tiananmen Square protest. And you remember them man? He faced off with the tanks. Where is he? What is he doing? We're going to talk to you about it. We're also going to talk with one of the survivor of this protest.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: Some kids in Texas got to sleep in today, thank to the thunderstorms that blew in overnight. Parts of the roof blew off the school building in Rosenberg in southeast Texas. No one was hurt, but almost 77,000 utility customers lost power. Stormy night in flight for some Airtran passengers. Machines after taking off from Atlanta, their many was hit by lightning. Planes are equipped with lightning rods and no one was hurt, but the pilot headed back to Atlanta just to be safe. The passengers were put on another plane headed to Washington.

Rising waters, flooded village and thousands people homeless, it's like this almost every turn along one of Europe's longest rivers right flow.

CNN's Chris Burns takes us down the Danube.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the swollen River Danube expands, so does the evacuation. More family seek higher ground in a town already hard hit. Emil Enchev (ph) takes us a boat tour through the street of Nikopol, Bulgaria, where about 40 percent of the city is underwater.

Many homes and shops are now empty and ghostly. And Chez Dedru (ph) on the ground floor is now waste deep in the Danube. The electricity is off, though the phones still work. He's managed to save his belonging and those of his parent's. He's worked as a sailor and a captain, making only $180 a month. He says it'll be very hard to recover from this ordeal.

"I just don't know how I will renovate. We need help," he says.

With limited foreign aid in an impoverished country recovering from decades of communism, the locals are helping themselves. Women fill sandbags to help emergency workers fight what sometimes has been a losing battle to stay off the river.

(on camera): People in this port town are using their boats to survey the damage to their living rooms from a river that usually is the source of their livelihood, when now it's the source of their hardship.

(voice-over): Enchev and his parents are some of the relatively lucky refugees living in a simple hotel. Others are staying in tent camps. But Enchev says it could be a long time before he and his parents get back home.

"The water could stay one month or two months. It's not like a tsunami, which comes and goes," he says.

Enchev and his parents are alive, though facing harder times ahead in a country and I region that were already struggling.

Chris Burns, CNN, Nikopol, Bulgaria.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Americans are addicted to oil. No surprise there. But now we have to share, compete, outbid like never before. A crude awakening.

The second hour of LIVE FROM starts right now.

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