50 Facts About Mitch Landrieu

1.

Mitchell Joseph Landrieu is an American lawyer and politician who served as Mayor of New Orleans from 2010 to 2018.

2.

Mitch Landrieu was elected Mayor of New Orleans on February 6,2010, garnering 66 percent of the citywide vote and claiming victory in 365 of the city's 366 voting precincts.

3.

Mitch Landrieu was reelected mayor on February 1,2014, with nearly 64 percent of the vote in a three-candidate field and became the first Mayor to win both elections without a runoff and to be elected by majorities of both white and black voters.

4.

On November 14,2021, President Joe Biden announced that Mitch Landrieu would serve as Senior Advisor responsible for coordinating the implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

5.

Mitch Landrieu assumed office with the signing of the bill into law on November 15,2021.

6.

Mitch Landrieu was born and raised in the Broadmoor neighborhood of New Orleans, the fifth of nine children of Maurice "Moon" and Verna Mitch Landrieu.

7.

Mitch Landrieu's mother was partly descended from the large wave of Sicilian immigrants that came to Louisiana during the nineteenth century.

8.

Mitch Landrieu stated in a March 2018 journalism podcast that he is of Italian, French, German, British, and African-American heritage.

9.

Mitch Landrieu owned International Mediation and Arbitration, where he mediated over 700 cases involving complex issues.

10.

Mitch Landrieu was appointed special master for a major train derailment involving up to 9,000 plaintiffs.

11.

Mitch Landrieu clerked for Federal Court Judge Adrian Duplantier and Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court Pascal Calogero.

12.

Mitch Landrieu is a member of the Supreme Court Task Force on Alternative Dispute Resolution which was responsible for developing the pilot mediation program in Orleans Parish.

13.

Mitch Landrieu is trained in mediation and negotiation by the Harvard Law School Negotiation Project, the American Arbitration Association, and the Attorney Mediator's Institute.

14.

Mitch Landrieu has taught alternative dispute resolution as an adjunct professor at Loyola University Law School.

15.

Mitch Landrieu was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1987, where he served for sixteen years in the seat previously held by his sister and before her, his father.

16.

Mitch Landrieu led this coalition, often against Democratic Governor Edwin Edwards, to restructure government instead of cutting healthcare programs and raising fees.

17.

Mitch Landrieu shepherded through the House a constitutional amendment designed to limit Louisiana's debt.

18.

Later, in partnership with Republican Governor Mike Foster in 1999, Mitch Landrieu led an effort to have the state's $4.4 billion tobacco settlement placed into a trust, allowing the Legislature to only allocate the interest earned every year.

19.

Mitch Landrieu led the legislative effort to reform Louisiana's juvenile justice system with a focus on rehabilitation and reform as opposed to punishment and incarceration.

20.

Mitch Landrieu continued the fight by bringing the issue to the New Orleans City Council, who voted to repeal the tax.

21.

Mitch Landrieu chaired a commission that worked to consolidate New Orleans elected offices, which became a reality after Hurricane Katrina.

22.

Mitch Landrieu vocally opposed former Ku Klux Klan wizard and then Representative David Duke, fighting Duke's divisive and often-racist legislation.

23.

Mitch Landrieu crafted legislation to fund the Louisiana Cancer Research Consortium of New Orleans, a partnership between the Louisiana State University and Tulane University Health Sciences Centers.

24.

In 1994, Mitch Landrieu made an unsuccessful bid for the office of Mayor of New Orleans; the office went to Marc Morial, the son of another former mayor.

25.

Immediately after the storm, Mitch Landrieu brought together industry leaders and national experts to develop a strategic plan, Louisiana Rebirth, to rebuild the state's tourism industry.

26.

Mitch Landrieu believed you needed to bring people together to get things done.

27.

Mitch Landrieu created the first in the nation Office of Social Entrepreneurship to advance social innovation by supporting the creation and growth of the most innovative, measurable and sustainable solutions to the social problems affecting Louisiana's citizens.

28.

In February 2006, Mitch Landrieu officially announced he would run for mayor of New Orleans in the April 22 election.

29.

Mitch Landrieu announced in December 2009 that he would be running in the 2010 New Orleans mayoral election, in a bid to succeed Ray Nagin, who was term-limited.

30.

Mitch Landrieu is the first white person to hold the post since his father left office in 1978.

31.

Mitch Landrieu was sworn in on May 3,2010, after winning 66 percent of the vote in the primary, winning a majority across African American and white votes.

32.

When Mitch Landrieu was sworn in, the recovery from Hurricane Katrina had stalled, the city teetered on bankruptcy and the New Orleans Police Department was under federal investigation.

33.

Mitch Landrieu created a diverse and citizen-led transition committee, made up of six different task forces that engaged thousands in public meetings.

34.

Mitch Landrieu promoted recovery by fast-tracking over 100 projects and securing billions in federal funding from FEMA and HUD for schools, hospitals, parks, playgrounds and critical infrastructure particularly roads and drainage.

35.

Mitch Landrieu brought sound fiscal management, balanced budgets, and ethical contracting to City Hall, leading to the City's highest-ever credit rating and over $8 billion in private development.

36.

Mitch Landrieu created the Office of Performance and Accountability to publicly track how well City government is keeping its promises and launched an expansive open data system making more information available to the public and press.

37.

Mitch Landrieu's administration developed NOLA 311 for constituents to report quality-of-life concerns and requests.

38.

Mitch Landrieu recruited GE Capital's Technology Center to the city, adding 400 high-paying jobs.

39.

Mitch Landrieu shepherded major new investments in recreation and public health.

40.

Shortly after taking office during his second mayoral term, Landrieu announced the appointment of Ronal W Serpas as the new Superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department until the latter's resignation in August 2014.

41.

Mitch Landrieu launched a multi-year initiative on racial reconciliation called The Welcome Table, and the City unveiled a racial equity plan tying the various initiatives together and institutionalizing the strategies in City Hall's day-to-day operations.

42.

In 2015, Mitch Landrieu called for the removal from prominent public display of four monuments, three honoring Confederate leaders and one honoring a short-lived, violent coup of the state government by the Crescent City White League.

43.

Mitch Landrieu was criticized by opponents of its removal for his lack of transparency.

44.

Mitch Landrieu was one of the participants in filmmaker Spike Lee's documentaries When The Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts and If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise.

45.

In 2009, Mitch Landrieu became a supporter of The Jazz Foundation of America.

46.

Mitch Landrieu flew to NYC to present Agnes Varis with the coveted "Saint of the Century" Award at the Jazz Foundation of America's annual benefit concert "A Great Night in Harlem" at the Apollo Theater in support of Varis' and the Jazz Foundation's work to help save jazz musicians, especially those affected by Hurricane Katrina.

47.

In 2015, Mitch Landrieu was named Public Official of the Year by Governing.

48.

At his inauguration, Mitch Landrieu joined with colleagues in unveiling a bipartisan policy agenda that, at a time of partisan gridlock in Washington, DC, emphasized local leadership on issues such as repair of infrastructure, ensuring affordable healthcare, and fostering economic growth and opportunity.

49.

Mitch Landrieu is the author of the New York Times bestseller In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History.

50.

Mr Mitch Landrieu held a press conference on the debt limit crisis the next week.