Saturday’s election results were historical with the first female sheriff elected in Orleans parish and the first black female ever elected to the position in Louisiana. UNO Political analyst Ed Chervenak says Susan Hutson’s victory over incumbent Marlin Gusman was quite a feat. “That’s a major upset. I don’t think a lot of people expected her to upset a 17-year incumbent,” said Chervenak.
Hutson won with 53-percent of the vote in the parish, and Chervenak says the new sheriff in town was able to better define Gusman and charge him with mismanagement of the jail that resulted in deaths and suicides. “He tried to cast her as this out-of-state, radical individual who was going to be soft on crime but she was better able to define him than he was her,” according to Chervenak.
Chervenak says while the sheriff’s office is a component of the criminal justice system which includes the district attorney, the main function of the office is to oversee functions of the jail. He says “for the sheriff, it’s about running the jail and trying to manage the jail and make sure people weren’t killing themselves or harming others and so they are a major component of the criminal justice system.”
In 2020 Jason Williams, who also ran on a criminal justice reform platform was elected District Attorney of Orleans Parish.
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