And this time, let's decide NOT to be fooled by Jay Batt again.

Yes, it's true: each and every one of the primary authors of this site voted for Jay Batt in his defeat of Scott Shea in 2002. Why? Because we believed his campaign promises, when he told us to our faces and in forum after forum, that he supported our concerns and issues.

"I've evolved," he says this time around. "I'm changing." Don't believe it.

Batt's promises in 2002— all of which turned out to be empty promises, mind you— are sadly familiar to the ones he made in 2006 and the ones he's making now. Then as now, he promised to make our neighborhoods safer, to eliminate potholes, to hire more police officers, to return independence and accountability to the City Council, to partner with our school system to turn our schools around, to enforce the city's zoning code and the decisions of the City Planning Commission, and to bring a grocery store to the corner of South Carrollton and Claiborne Avenues (which was devoid of commerce and an eyesore at a major intersection in the district during Jay Batt's ENTIRE first term of office). He succeeded with none of these promises in his four years on the Council from 2002-06. Batt may have fulfilled plenty of other promises to the people who paid to get him into office, but for the rest of us, not so much.

The "evolved" Jay Batt has spent the past four years cozying up to the Republican power elite and their Democratic counterparts, and he has a lot of favors to return as a result. His endorsements read like a shopping list of IOU's. We thought Jay Batt was a poor councilman in his first term because of his devotion to orchestrating favors for his friends rather than working for the public interest, so imagine what he could be like if elected again.

After the 2002 primary election, Jay paid Sal Palmisano a $1500 "consulting" fee, right around the same time his Pal Sal endorsed him for the runoff in that race. The campaign finance report showing Jay's "endorsement payments" to Sal and others wasn't filed until months after the election. Some of Batt's other "endorsement payments" included a $15,000 payment to Marc Morial's political organization LIFE, $15,000 to BOLD (the Black Organization for Leadership Development), $6,000 to Bill Jefferson’s Progressive Democrats, $6500 to the Treme Improvement Political Society, and $4000 to the Regular Democratic Organization. 



So the next time you read about Jay Batt's glowing "endorsements", consider their price tags. But don't hold your breath waiting for the details: we probably won't know what they really cost him until maybe... June? December?

During his first term, Jay Batt repeatedly showed a total disregard for the zoning regulations and land-use plans of this city. He repeatedly showed a callous indifference to the concerns of his constituency. He repeatedly represented the interests of businesses and developers, many of whom are his friends and NOT his constituents, over the interests of the residents and neighborhoods that he was elected to serve.

In this election, we have the opportunity to choose a new representative for District A who may actually do the job for which she's elected, which is, first and foremost, to represent the interests of the residents of District A. Someone whose motives and integrity are not in question even before they take office. So don't be fooled into voting for Jay Batt again.