Recommendations for the March 25 Orleans Parish election

Early voting commenced on Saturday, March 11, in New Orleans for three critical elective offices. In the midst of the Saint Patrick’s weekend parades and the Saint Joseph altars which have sprung up all over town, one could easily forget the need to cast a ballot in the upcoming election.

Please don’t. Giving downtown New Orleans a voice in the next legislative session, as well as filling essential positions in our courts system, should not be a responsibility ducked by the average voter. Early voting runs through March 18 with the main election date the following Saturday. Please take the time to vote, and to that end, the Editorial Board of The Louisiana Weekly offers the following suggestions for your consideration.

State Representative 93rd Representative District: Alonzo Knox
A Marine Infantryman who saw combat duty in Operation Desert Storm, Alonzo Knox began his training in public service working with two U.S. Senators from Louisiana. For the last six years, he has served as an Historic District Landmark Commissioner, on the front lines of neighborhood preservation. His efforts have not only helped maintain the historic character of the Garden District, Irish Channel, Lower Garden District as well as Faubourgs St. Marie, Treme, St. Roch, and Marigny, but have also provided a wellspring of support for the longtime residents to keep their homes.

Knox, who owns a 180-year-old home in the Treme, has been one of the loudest voices in the lonely fight to maintain the African-American population of the oldest Black neighborhoods in the country. He has also labored to create a sense of community for both the old and new residents of downtown. His Backatown Coffee Parlour has proven a critical landmark in the revitalization of Iberville and the Basin Street Corridor. Knox’s efforts to hire unemployed youth and train them as baristas has changed dozens of lives in his neighborhood – and ultimately provided the launching pad for many young Black entrepreneurs.

As one of the loudest voices to remove the I-10 Elevated Expressway over Claiborne Avenue, he seeks to reconnect the bivocated historic neighborhoods running from the Mississippi River to Central City. His concentration on rising crime – and what the state could do to reclaim a sense of security along the Claiborne Corridor – has won Knox the support of the Police Association of New Orleans (PANO), just as his focus on people has earned him the backing of the AFL-CIO. His commitment to neighborhood empowerment spawned too many successes to name, yet Knox deserves particular praise for founding and operating the Marketplace at Armstrong Park to address food deserts after Hurricane Katrina.

Knox, who seeks to replace Royce Duplessis in the state House, possesses a myriad of reform ideas which he can transform into viable legislation from day one. Rarely has a candidate been more prepared – or more capable – of representing a legislative district from the moment of his inauguration than he. Please vote for Alonzo Knox.

Judge Civil District Court, Division B: Marissa A. Hutabarat
The current First City Court section “B” Judge seeks promotion to the main Civil District Court bench. In her twelve years as a member of the bar, Marissa Hutabarat has served as a law clerk on the Louisiana Court of Appeal, as well as on the Civil District Court, where her expertise on the domestic filings would serve her well if elected to the CDC. Junior judges in Orleans Civil Court represent a domestic ballot, and she is an expert in this area.

Judge Criminal District Court, Section A: Leon Roche
A thirteen year veteran of the public defender’s office, Leon Roche has stood at the forefront of navigating Orleans Parish’s troubled criminal justice system. He possesses encyclopedic knowledge of criminal procedure, and expresses a sensitivity to the needs of victims – those both of violent crime and of excessive prosecution for minor offenses. He wishes to bring this expertise and judicial discretion to the CDC, and our editors formally endorse his effort to do so.

This article originally published in the March 13, 2023 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.