Mayor-elect Mitch Landrieu wants the public to participate in selecting the next chief of the New Orleans Police Department. The NOPD Task force hosts a community meeting next Thursday, March 11 at 6:30 p.m., at the Louisiana Superdome’s South West Club Claiborne Room. Xavier University president Norman Francis and Nolan Rollins, president of the Urban League of Greater New Orleans, chair the task force, which is made up of various community leaders.

“I understand that often times the best ideas come from people in neighborhoods across the city, who deal with the issue of crime everyday. That’s why I’m encouraging citizens to let their voices be heard, as we work to find the next police chief,” says Landrieu via a press release announcing the meeting.

Citizens can also let their opinions known by filling out an online survey. Hard copies of the survey are available at Urban League of Greater New Orleans (2322 Canal Street).

So what are you looking for in the next police chief? What should be the task force’s priorities?

Prediction: Everyone in New Orleans will have seen this video by tomorrow. It’s Drew Brees, after yesterday’s amazing Saints parade, stopping at Lucy’s Retired Surfers Bar in the Warehouse District to lead the team’s fans in a cheer:

…which is why, I think, people are so fond of this year’s Saints, Lombardi Trophy or no: they seem like good guys, real people, the sort of “celebrities” New Orleans likes — accessible and unaffected.

It makes me wonder what would happen if we had a mayor who did the same thing, a mayor who didn’t walk around surrounded by bodyguards or drivers or whatever. A few months back, I was in a restaurant in the CBD when a certain mayor came in to eat, surrounded by a phalanx of entourageurs. He breezed through the dining room, a suit in the middle of men in other suits, and disappeared into a back dining area while the citizenry looked up, registered the moment, gave one another Meaningful Looks, and looked down at their plates again.

What if we had a mayor whom we saw on a Sunday afternoon, walking around Audubon Zoo with his kids, wearing a baseball cap and an old pair of jeans? A mayor who took lunch meetings at Domilise’s or Liuzza’s or the Parkway? A mayor who popped into Snug Harbor late in the evening, maybe with his wife, and squeezed into a table like the rest of us? A mayor who showed up at Le Chat Noir for a play or concert and stood in line at the podium, waiting to pick up his ticket?

Maybe even a mayor who, after toasting Rex on Mardi Gras, walked from Gallier Hall into the Quarter, maybe shaking a few hands along the way, but going to Royal Street where he could watch the Society of St. Ann as it streamed in from the Marigny, walking through Jackson Square to see all the costumes and listen to the bands, stopping at the Bourbon Street Awards to share a laugh with the drag queens, going on to the Blacksmith Shop to grab a beer or the Quarter Master or the Verti Marte to get a bottle of water, a mayor who believes he’s one of us and takes the same small pleasures we all do in just living in New Orleans?

It’s not impossible. If we have a star quarterback, a Super Bowl MVP, and a Sports Illustrated cover guy who finds it not only important, but imperative, to walk into Lucy’s after being cheered by 800,000 people — why couldn’t we have a mayor who has the same priorities?

Or … do we?

Edited to add: Another cameraphone view of Brees at Lucy’s:

…with numbers larger than any pundits predicted. Official numbers soon.

State Sen. Ed Murray’s withdrawal from the mayor’s race was the latest — and biggest — surprise in a contest that already has had more than its share of unexpected twists and turns. Here’s my take on what happened, why, who benefits, what’s next, and what it means in the long run:

What Happened

Murray’s campaign team had a meeting last Wednesday (Dec. 30) to review fresh poll numbers by Silas Lee and to discuss finances and strategy. The poll had Murray in low double digits but with potential to grow among black voters, most of whom (around 55 percent) were voting for frontrunner Mitch Landrieu. The lieutenant governor’s numbers in this poll showed him ahead by a large margin, with nearly 50 percent of the vote. When you account for the fact that “undecided” respondents in a poll tend not to vote, Landrieu already has a majority of the decided vote. Of course, that could change, but that’s where things stood last week.

The feeling among some of Murray’s top advisers was that, while much of Landrieu’s black support was rooted in a genuine sense of “buyers’ remorse” after Ray Nagin’s dismal performance over the past four years, a lot of that support was “soft” and could be peeled off Landrieu. It would require, however, that Murray attack Landrieu. It also would require Murray to raise another $400,000 to $700,000 to position himself to make a March 6 runoff. Murray already had loaned his campaign several hundred thousand dollars, and the message to him was that he might have to put more of his personal funds into the effort.

After Wednesday’s meeting, several of Murray’s top campaign folks began raising money and devising a strategy to go after Landrieu. There was even some hope that Orleans DA Leon Cannizzaro might endorse Murray, and soon, which would give his campaign a boost.

Murray himself, however, was not comfortable turning the race into another contest about race. He spent the next few days doing a gut check and decided on Saturday that he wasn’t going to play a race card just to get elected. Once he made up his mind about that, he moved quickly to get out — surprising even some of his closest friends and supporters. He did not consult with his top campaign strategists before making up his mind to get out.

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There never seems to be a recession in Louisiana political hijinks, as 2009 proved many times over. This was a year of tectonic shifts in the local political paradigm, and the coming year promises to bring more big changes. Herewith, our annual list of the Top 10 Political Stories:

1. Bill Jefferson’s Continued Slide — The former congressman’s misfortunes continued to pile up. He was convicted on 11 of 16 federal felony counts in August after a long-delayed trial in Virginia. Ironically, Jefferson was acquitted of the charge most closely related to the infamous $90,000 in cash that the feds retrieved from his freezer in 2005 — but jurors concluded that his congressional office was an ongoing criminal enterprise under the RICO statute. The trial judge sentenced him to 13 years but let him stay out of jail pending his appeal. In another twist, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering other cases that could overturn some of Jefferson’s convictions. Locally, Dollar Bill’s brother (and political muscle) Mose Jefferson was convicted of bribing a school board member in an unrelated case. Mose and Assessor Betty Jefferson (another Jefferson sibling) face still more federal charges with Mose’s gal pal (and Dollar Bill protégé) Renee Gill-Pratt. Politically, Jefferson’s once-dominant political machine, the Progressive Democrats, is in shambles. The Feb. 6 citywide elections will be the first in three decades in which Dollar Bill is not a factor.

2. The City Hall Scandals — There’s no telling how many separate criminal investigations are underway at City Hall. Former technology chief Greg Meffert was indicted on several dozen criminal counts, along with his wife Linda and former business partner Mark St. Pierre. St. Pierre is the city contractor who paid for the Mefferts and the Nagins to vacation in Hawaii in 2004 and for the Nagins to unwind — first class — in Jamaica shortly after Katrina (while the rest of us were still trying to get back home to New Orleans). On another front, the feds seized various City Hall computers after the mayor’s emails and 2008 calendar mysteriously disappeared (following a WWL-TV request for them under the state Public Records Act). Ironically, tons of City Council emails were produced by the Nagin Administration in response to an unrelated public records request — and some of those emails proved to be cautionary tales against writing things down. More recently, veteran Sewerage and Water Board member Ben Edwards was indicted on 33 counts of corruption, including alleged kickbacks. Edwards spent more than $250,000 “independently” helping Mayor Ray Nagin win re-election in 2006. As the clock winds down on Ray Nagin’s tenure in City Hall, the feds appear to be tightening the circle of suspicion around him.

3. The Mayor’s Race — For a while it seemed that nobody wanted Ray Nagin’s job — then everybody seemed to want it. After a yawner of a preseason, Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu lit up the field with his eleventh-hour decision to run. The fallout came quickly as school reformer Leslie Jacobs dropped out a week later. Landrieu, who is making his third bid for the mayor’s office, is once again the early frontrunner. The race for the City Council’s two at-large seats promises to be filled with intrigue as well. Incumbent Arnie Fielkow waited until the last day to qualify, prompting former at-large Councilman Eddie Sapir to jump in. Assessor Darren Mire was another late entry, which seemed to guarantee a scrambled field. Then both Sapir and Mire dropped out on the same day, right before Christmas. State Rep. Austin Badon, who was the first to announce for mayor, was among the first to drop out of that contest, opting instead to run for the council from District E, where he is the early favorite.

4. Suburban Scandals — The feds have been busy all over southeast Louisiana. They indicted and convicted St. John Parish President Bill Hubbard on extortion and money laundering charges, St. Bernard Judge Wayne Cresap on bribery charges, and Mandeville Mayor Eddie Price on tax evasion and depriving citizens of honest services via mail fraud. Meanwhile, FBI agents are looking into Jefferson Parish Chief Administrative Officer Tim Whitmer’s insurance commission-splitting deals in connection with insurance business at West Jefferson General Hospital and among various parish contractors. Some big names are said to be involved, and this could be the beginning of another round of “Jefferson Scandals.” Look for some fireworks to start in the Jefferson Parish scandal before Mardi Gras, my sources say.

5. Ray Nagin’s Unraveling — Could he possibly be more obtuse, more detached, more disengaged — and less effective as a mayor? While in Cuba (on a junket), he praised Castro’s evacuation plans. That came after he failed to convince the City Council to buy the nondescript Chevron Building and make it the new City Hall. Earlier in the year, he thumbed his nose at the courts and the state Public Records Act when his calendar and emails somehow disappeared. When an outside contractor said that the emails were deleted deliberately by someone who knew what they where doing, he fired the contractor. Meanwhile, a growing list of people who once were close to him are under federal indictment. Here’s the good news: he’ll be gone in 18 weeks.

6. Bobby Jindal’s Minus Touch — The Boy Governor started 2009 as the Wunderkind of the national GOP. Then came his disastrous response to Barack Obama’s first national address and his failure to show any coattails in three separate special elections — including a bid by his former executive counsel for the state Supreme Court in northeast Louisiana (which is supposed to be a Jindal stronghold). As he continues to raise millions nationally for his campaign war chest, the state faces major budget problems.

7. State and City Budget Woes — Bobby Jindal told a state cost-cutting commission to “be bold” in their recommendations. Gee, wasn’t that what we elected him to do as governor? Lawmakers anguished over cutting about $1 billion in operating funds this year, but it only gets worse in the next two years. Locally, Mayor Ray Nagin announced a $68 million deficit, then took a taxpayer-paid trip to Mexico to sign a feel-good sister city agreement. When the City Council revised his proposed budget, Hizzoner retaliated by slashing key services — and then blamed it all on the council. Plus ça change.

8. David Vitter’s Run-up to 2010 — The Biggest Hypocrite in America remains an early favorite to win back his U.S. Senate seat, but not without a fight. He initially drew a potential rival in porn star Stormy Daniels of Baton Rouge, but now he will have a real opponent in Democratic Congressman Charlie Melancon. Vitter continues to poll below 50 percent but remains 10 points or more above his main opponents. His infamous bad temper flared up again during an incident at Reagan National Airport when he tried to board a plane late, and all the national attention he’s gets every time there’s another sex scandal anywhere sure makes Louisiana (if not Vitter himself) look bad. Not that he cares.

9. The Saints Deal — For the first time since the state started subsidizing the city’s NFL franchise in 1985, a deal to keep the beloved Saints in New Orleans did not tear the Legislature apart and cost the city valuable political capital. Maybe it’s because Gov. Bobby Jindal also wanted lawmakers to approve $50 million to bail out a north Louisiana chicken processing plant. South Louisiana leges immediately said, “Deal!” Cluck, cluck! Go Saints!

10. The City’s New Master Plan — Like everything else worthwhile that happens here, the city’s new master plan has endured a rough birthing process, but the end results will hopefully be worth it. Don’t let the fact that I’ve listed this as No. 10 fool you. This will be a very important story for decades if we get it right.

A final note: I left former Recovery Chief Ed Blakely off my list of most important political stories. That’s because, even when he was here, Blakely was largely irrelevant. His ridiculous, self-serving comments after his departure proved that.

Here’s hoping 2010 brings better news.

And here’s the Web site and the Twitter account. (Edited to add: Or maybe this is the official Twitter. We’lll see what they decide.)

Qualifying starts tomorrow. Let the games begin.

Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu’s announcement last week that he will not run for mayor of New Orleans was not a huge surprise, but it still had a bombshell’s impact on the race. Had Landrieu decided to run, he would have been the frontrunner with a virtual lock on a runoff spot, leaving the other candidates to fight over the second runoff berth.

Now it’s a wide-open race with no clear frontrunner. Qualifying is Dec. 9-11 — less than five months away. The primary will be Feb. 6, 2010, with a March 6 runoff.

Time is short, but until last week, all other potential candidates were sitting on their hands waiting for Landrieu to opt in or out. Now the games can begin.

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Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu issued a statement this afternoon making it clear that he will not be running for mayor of New Orleans in 2010:

I am flattered that my name is considered in the long list of those who could serve as the next Mayor of the City of New Orleans. Like so many of us, I have an undying and unconditional love for our city. It is my home. I always have the resurrection of New Orleans in the forefront of my mind and will continue to do so in the coming years. Rebuilding New Orleans is critically important to the state and the nation.

However, I do not intend to run for Mayor of New Orleans. There are many capable people who will make themselves available and who will serve well, if elected. I look forward to working with the next mayor and the people of the city to make New Orleans the great place we all know she can be.

Should Landrieu have thrown his hat in the ring, he would’ve been the clear frontrunner.

Clancy DuBos is on vacation, but I reached him by phone; he’s going to analyze the new horse race later on today on the blog, as well as Landrieu’s possible motivations. For now, he says, “This means the race is wide, wide open.”