Hunter bows out, endorses Duplessis

By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Columnist

Judge Arthur Hunter exited the New Orleans mayor’s race and endorsed state Sen. Royce Duplessis on August 7. If Hunter’s supporters transfer to Duplessis, the state senator is heading for a runoff slot, likely facing City Council Vice President Helena Moreno.

Huey Long had a strategy when he campaigned. He would come to a town and ask one of his local supporters who was the most powerful person in that town. They might reply, for example, Mr. Smith. Huey would then get on his proverbial soapbox, and he would begin to rail against Mr. Smith. He would talk about the damage that Mr. Smith was doing, and how the people had to rise up against Mr. Smith.

His supporters would exclaim, “You can’t attack Mr. Smith like that!”

Huey would reply, “If Mr. Smith is the most powerful person in town, that means there’s a lot of people who don’t like Mr. Smith.”

It’s a strategy that Duplessis has been employing as he attempts to skyrocket in the polls past Councilman Oliver Thomas and into the runoff. The issue which the state senator chose, governmental dysfunction over trash collection in the French Quarter and negotiations over Cantrell’s contract with Henry Consulting, may be problematic. However, it has helped him rise in the polls, and earn a very valuable endorsement from Hunter.

Even before the recent controversy, Duplessis stood very close to a runoff slot, according to a poll by Ron Faucheux, prior to his endorsement by the Judge last week.

Councilman Thomas lost six points when Dupelssis entered the contest for mayor almost five weeks ago. According to a survey conducted by Faucheux July 14-19 of this year, Helena Moreno continued to lead the race at 47 percent, with Thomas at 16 percent, Duplessis at 14 percent and Hunter at six percent. Only 15 percent of the sample was undecided, adding to the certainty in these trends. Voice of the People PAC, underwritten by Moreno sympathizer Sidney Torres IV, sponsored the poll of 600 voters (cell 80/landline 20).

Moreno’s support remained virtually unchanged from an earlier survey the same firm undertook for the New Orleans Crime Coalition before Duplessis got into the race. Contrasting the two polls, Duplessis appeared to be eating away at support that had gone to Thomas and retired judge Hunter rather than Moreno. Thomas’ support among voters had dropped by six percentage points from that earlier poll, to 16 percent, while Hunter’s support dropped by four percentage points, to six percent.

More importantly, the latest survey showed Duplessis leading in the swing wards of the 7th, 9th and 15th, particularly amongst the influential (and chronically voting) Black middle class.

From the two weeks when Faucheux’s newest poll entered the field until last Thursday (August 7), Duplessis spent the intervening fortnight attacking what he called a “crisis in leadership that has fallen over City Hall.” He also openly questioned the council’s leadership in involving themselves in the French Quarter garbage collection controversy, noting that Troy Henry and his partners were highly respected Black business people.

This led to a fiery reply from JP Morrell on his Instagram live blog, noting that he had previously chosen not “to weigh in on the mayor’s race…with a caveat.”

As he explained, “If someone makes their race a referendum on the work this City Council has done, I am required to respond as president of your New Orleans City Council. My job is to represent for the work we have done and not to let candidates throw rocks, hide hands and do sneak disses.”

Morrell then played a clip where Duplessis says, “We have a city council and a mayor who can’t get in a room to do their job. And where does that end up? It ends up in a courtroom. We’re talking about issues around trash pick up for the past year, and we can’t move into the future because of issues of transparency and lack of trust.”

“Oh, that’s interesting,” Morrell replied on Instagram live. “I mean, I know that Sen. Duplessis is in Baton Rouge doing things, but you would think he would’ve paid attention to this trash controversy?”

“But, suffice to say, the mayor and Mr. Henry have wage[d] a war for over a year to get this guy a contract no matter what! And that has culminated with the mayor manufacturing an emergency…”

In a press release, Duplessis subsequently replied, “While at a forum last week, I spoke to the crisis in leadership that has fallen over City Hall. Not surprisingly, the Council president made an instagram video attacking me, misrepresenting my position on issues and accusing me of misunderstanding the challenges plaguing our City’s government. The one thing his video did effectively was to make my point – there is a crisis in leadership in this city, where the only thing coming out of City Hall are attacks and finger pointing that serve political agendas, but don’t deliver for residents. Videos like this are only aimed to divide us, cloaked in the name of ‘accountability.’ I’m running for Mayor because the people of New Orleans want a change from this type of drama and chaos.”

There is little doubt that Sidney Torres and IV Waste stand as the popular option for Vieux Carre cleanup, and last week’s court decision ensuring their continued contract to the end of the year enjoyed broad acclaim. Nevertheless, attacking “Mr. Smith” raised Duplessis’ profile as an outsider seeking to clean up the mess at City Hall.

Interestingly, Thomas attempted to adopt a similar tactic in voting against the override of Cantrell’s veto of the council’s resolution to end the state of emergency. It seemingly backfired because he currently sits on the Council, and he could not pull the outsider status credibly. At least, it did not do enough to convince a retired judge and one-time ally to endorse the councilman.

On Thursday, August 7, Hunter said during a press conference, “Are you ready for our city to have the leadership we all deserve? Then join me in supporting Royce Duplessis.”

Hunter then introduced Duplessis as the next mayor of New Orleans. The two shared a moment of applause together. “We later worked together side by side in the fight for criminal justice reform,” Duplessis said. “He did it from the bench, me, I did it as a young lawyer at the Louisiana Supreme Court under Chief Justice Bernette Johnson.”

He went on to say he and Hunter were fighting the same fight then “and now we are fighting for the same city,” Duplessis added.

Add Hunter’s five percent to Duplessis’ 14, and the possibility of a runoff slot becomes very real. Of course, with 2 ½ months remaining, anything could happen. A major event could take up the race in favor of another candidate like Thomas or Moreno that might be able to get 50 percent and win it in the first primary. Nevertheless, attacking “Mr. Smith” may have led to Hunter endorsing Duplessis and a consequential rise in the polls.

This article originally published in the August 11, 2025 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.