Get to know your I.Q. candidates

This one is for New Orleans voters. As many of you know, the assessor is one of our many parish-level elected officials. The assessor's job is to assess immovable property ("real estate" for you non-Louisianians) for property-tax purposes. Every parish in Louisiana except Orleans Parish has one assessor. We in Orleans Parish have seven assessors — seven people doing a job that one person could do. In a recent extraordinary session of the Louisiana Legislature, a bill was filed to consolidate the seven assessors' offices into one. But some politics-as-usual legislators derailed the bill — a nice political favor for the incumbent assessors.

If you're dissatisfied with the current seven-assessor setup, the April 22 election is your chance to make your voice heard. Some good people have formed the I.Q. Ticket. "I.Q." stands for "I quit." Their platform:

"I QUIT " means, 'We am going to work ourselves out of a job.' "I QUIT" means " I quit politics as usual". It does not mean " I quit once elected." We will serve until such time as the legislature consolidates the seven assessors. We will serve without pay, using the $5,277,000 that the current assessors have available to actually appraise Orleans' properties. If not all of the IQ team is elected, we will use that portion of the funds we control in our districts to properly assess the parcels.

Now, Louisiana law allows candidates for public office to list their nicknames on the ballot along with their regular names (e.g. Maurice "Moon" Landrieu). The members of the I.Q. Ticket tried to get themselves listed on the ballot with the nickname "I.Q.," but the district and intermediate appellate courts aren't allowing them to do so. Thus, voters won't be able to tell who the I.Q. candidates are by looking at the ballot.

People can't vote for the I.Q. candidate if they don't know who it is. This is where you can help. Click here to meet your "I.Q." candidates. Or type http://www.iqticket.org/candidates.htm in your browser's address window and hit Enter. Make sure you know who your I.Q. candidate is.Then take the next step: Pass the link around to all your friends who are N.O. voters. If you have a blog, upload the link and help spread the word. Let's do our part to help make New Orleans voters aware of who their I.Q. candidates are. Let's do our part to help reform property-tax assessments in New Orleans. And let's help send a strong message to our legislators in Baton Rouge that we're sick of their political games.

Comments

[ashley]

This list has the list of candidates with the IQ tags still there.

[oyster]

Outstanding. I'd been looking for their site and bios.

Thnak you very much for the info.

[Jay Duke]

What about printing business-cards with a list of all 7 IQ Candidates to distribute (stick it in your wallet and pull it out when needed), also assign 2 volunteers at every polling location on election day with signs (as near as legally possible) reminding people who their IQ candidate is.

[Donald Webre]

You need to get the names of the candidates out to the general public. Last evening, I was speaking to a lady who had three pins on: Ron Forman, Citizens for 1, and Women of the Storm. When asked, this activist lady did not know who the IQ candidate in our ditrict is! You have a great idea but the information of who the candidates are is not being ditributed to the public.

[aries]

how to know my I.Q. just giving me a test?