A year after scandal, Jared Brossett's entry into at-large City Council race reshuffles field

Almost exactly a year after driving a city-owned SUV across the Elysian Fields Avenue neutral ground and into another vehicle while allegedly drunk, New Orleans City Councilmember Jared Brossett is betting that by October, voters across the city will forgive and forget.

Brossett announced his entry into the race for an at-large City Council seat this week, throwing a wild card into what's expected to be a punishing contest between political heavyweights Sen. JP Morrell and Councilmember Kristin Gisleson Palmer and adding a patina of scandal to the citywide election.

District councilmembers like Brossett are often natural candidates for citywide at-large seats, bringing with them name recognition and fundraising advantages. But political observers said this week that they were surprised the 38-year-old councilmember had entered the race with the shadow of the crash — and the widely-shared video of Brossett stumbling in its aftermath — hanging over his candidacy.

Few were willing to speak publicly about a sitting councilperson that still has strong bonds with the city and many of its leaders. But privately, the city's political class gives him slim odds of prevailing, given both the scandal and the pummeling he took three years ago in his last and only citywide race, for clerk of Civil District Court. 

Still, his entry could force Morrell and Palmer to recalibrate their campaigns and threatens, at minimum, to force the race into a runoff.

Brossett, who has said little about the incident since returning to public life last July, acknowledged on Friday it would continue to present a challenge for him as he faces off against two strong opponents.

“Look, I’m going into this with my eyes open,” Brossett said. “I recognize that there are people and opponents that will be like crabs in a barrel hoping to pull me down because they can’t lift themselves up. But I believe people believe in rehabilitation.”

“I think they want to root for the person who falls and wants to stand proud again,” he added later.

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