Clancy DuBos

Behind the headlines: The case against New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell

Updated Aug 20, 2025

Last week, LaToya Cantrell became the first sitting New Orleans mayor to face criminal prosecution when a federal grand jury handed up an 18-count indictment against her and her former New Orl…

Clancy DuBos: Da Winnas & Da Loozas from a fiscal legislative session that focused on just about everything else

BY CLANCY DuBOS
Updated Jun 18, 2025

I know. I know. I told everyone I was retiring at the end of 2024. But, as Michael Corleone famously lamented, “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” And what stronger “pull” t…

Clancy DuBos: UNO played quietly crucial role in launching the National WWII Museum

BY CLANCY DuBOS
Jun 5, 2025

Most everyone knows that the National WWII Museum is one of New Orleans’ crown jewels. Its official opening 25 years ago as the National D-Day Museum attracted Hollywood celebrities, prominent…

Clancy DuBos: Wildly irreverent but never mean, Jay Batt got things done his way

BY CLANCY DuBOS
May 27, 2025

New Orleans’ history is filled with outsized political characters who, despite their shenanigans, left their marks on the city. In this age of social media, however, few pols dare to carry on …

Clancy DuBos: Bubba Henry, Louisiana's Lincoln, lived and served with joy and humor

BY CLANCY DuBOS
Apr 28, 2025

Much has been written — deservedly so — about Bubby Henry’s transformative impact on the arc of Louisiana politics and government during his tenure as House speaker, chair of the 1973 constitu…

Clancy DuBos: Not goodbye, just a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to my teachers and mentors

BY CLANCY DuBOS
Updated Dec 30, 2024

This is my last weekly column for The Times-Picayune|The Advocate, but I’m not saying goodbye. I’m just marking the end of my Long Strange Trip in print journalism. I ain’t dead, but I am seri…

Behind the Headlines with Clancy DuBos: 'I hope people will say I was honest with my readers'

BY STEPHANIE GRACE | Staff columnist
Updated Dec 26, 2024

Columnist and Gambit political editor Clancy DuBos ends his remarkable run next week. But before he drifts off into semi-retirement, he sat down with colleague Stephanie Grace to share some of…

Clancy DuBos: Louisiana's Top 10 Political Stories of 2024

BY CLANCY DuBOS
Updated Dec 26, 2024

There were so many big political stories in 2024 that my initial list ran well past the usual dozen or so items. I considered trying to convince my colleagues that a column on the year’s top 1…

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Clancy DuBos: The Top 10 Political Stories of 2024

BY CLANCY DuBOS
Updated Dec 24, 2024

There were so many big political stories in 2024 that my initial list ran well past the usual dozen or so items. I considered trying to convince my colleagues that a column on the year’s top 1…

Clancy DuBos: Failed Jefferson tax for teacher raises proves every vote counts

BY CLANCY DuBOS
Updated Dec 16, 2024

If you want proof that every vote counts, check out the results of the Jefferson Parish School Board’s property tax proposition on Dec. 7. The proposed 10.89-mill tax would have given public s…

Clancy DuBos: John Fleming attacks Bill Cassidy’s right flank — and shows the cost of crossing Trump

BY CLANCY DuBOS
Dec 9, 2024

It didn’t take long for state Treasurer John Fleming to prove his critics right. After less than a year in office, he’s already off and running for the U.S. Senate against two-term incumbent B…

Clancy DuBos: Da Winnas & Da Loozas — and some surprises — from the recent special session

BY CLANCY DuBOS
Updated Dec 26, 2024

The old saw that no one is safe in life, liberty or property as long as the Louisiana Legislature is in session was never truer than in Gov. Jeff Landry’s hastily called — and even more franti…

Clancy DuBos: Ginger Berrigan’s compassion and humor set her apart as a lawyer and judge

BY CLANCY DuBOS
Nov 23, 2024

Only the rarest of people truly leave a mark on their chosen fields. Rarer still are those whose legacies impact, in a markedly positive way, multiple fields. The late U.S. District Judge Ging…

Clancy DuBos: Once again, the Senate is the fulcrum for Jeff Landry’s big ideas

BY CLANCY DuBOS
Nov 19, 2024

Irony can have a balancing, even curative effect on the governing process. Case in point: The Louisiana Senate, which killed some of Gov. Jeff Landry’s worst ideas in previous legislative sess…

Clancy DuBos: Will Jeff Landry tame lawmakers into reforming Louisiana’s tax system?

BY CLANCY DuBOS
Nov 11, 2024

Gov. Jeff Landry’s idea of wheeling a rented live tiger into LSU’s Tiger Stadium during Saturday’s gridiron contest against Alabama’s Crimson Tide didn’t exactly go as planned. Landry had hope…

Clancy DuBos: Jeff Landry confronts Louisiana's 'tyranny of habit' in special tax session

BY CLANCY DuBOS
Nov 4, 2024

In his “Confessions,” St. Augustine laments his past penchant for sin, which he calls “the tyranny of habit.” In one of his most oft-quoted passages, he writes, “Habits, if not resisted, soon …

Clancy DuBos: Jeff Landry’s tax session agenda proves that the devil’s in the details

BY CLANCY DUBOS
Oct 28, 2024

State lawmakers will convene the day after the presidential election to consider Gov. Jeff Landry’s ambitious plan to overhaul Louisiana’s tax system. The 20-day special session begins Nov. 6 …

Clancy DuBos: Affordable housing in NOLA finally getting the attention it deserves

BY CLANCY DuBOS
Oct 21, 2024

While the presidential race is still very much a toss-up, some winners are already certain when the votes are counted in New Orleans on Nov. 5: advocates of affordable housing and persons in n…

Clancy DuBos: UNO poll shows voters give credit — and blame — where they think it's due

BY CLANCY DuBOS
Oct 14, 2024

Results in the latest University of New Orleans Quality of Life survey remind me of something I told a top aide to then-Mayor-elect Mitch Landrieu more than 14 years ago. The aide had called t…

Clancy DuBos: Tax reform is a Sisyphean task; Landry deserves credit for taking it on

BY CLANCY DUBOS
Oct 7, 2024

If for no other reason than politics, Gov. Jeff Landry has the best chance of overhauling Louisiana’s tax code since Buddy Roemer’s failed attempt at fiscal reform in 1989. Unlike most previou…

Clancy DuBos: Feds hint at Cantrell indictment for petty graft amid public endangerment

BY CLANCY DuBOS
Sep 30, 2024

In their Sept. 27 indictment of city contractor Randy Farrell, federal prosecutors portray New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell as a venal politician abusing her office for petty graft — while pl…

Clancy DuBos: Even a weakened Francine reminds us how vulnerable we are

BY CLANCY DuBOS
Sep 17, 2024

As Hurricane Francine bore down on Louisiana’s coastline, it triggered a mixed bag of memories, emotions, fears and prayers among those who lived through the life-altering storms of the past 20 years.

As Francine nears, St. Tammany Parish officials concerned about river, coastal flooding

By ALEX LUBBEN | Staff writer
Sep 11, 2024

As Hurricane Francine closed in on the Louisiana coast on Wednesday afternoon, northshore officials in St. Tammany Parish urged residents to hunker down and ride out the storm.

Clancy DuBos: Hurricanes remind us how much — and why — we need each other

BY CLANCY DUBOS
Sep 11, 2024

In Louisiana, especially New Orleans, disaster reminds us that we are neighbors, not strangers.

Clancy DuBos: Remembering Sybil Morial, a Steel Magnolia whose legacy will endure

BY CLANCY DuBOS
Sep 9, 2024

Though not tall in stature, Sybil Haydel Morial was a tower of grace, kindness, dignity and strength who inspired generations of servant leaders. For the past three decades, she was the matria…

Clancy DuBos: DA Williams ‘invited’ into lions’ den over post-conviction relief policy

BY CLANCY DUBOS
Sep 2, 2024

New Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams has been “invited” to address a state Senate committee Thursday to explain his policy of helping people convicted years ago get reduced sentences b…

Clancy DuBos: High turnout for Trump and Harris will have limited local impact in La.

BY CLANCY DuBOS
Aug 26, 2024

Now that the two presidential nominating conventions are over, leaders and operatives in both parties will begin the real work of ginning up turnout in key states across the country — and even…

Clancy DuBos: John Fleming's cheap political theater maligns Bank of America

BY CLANCY DuBOS
Aug 19, 2024

State Treasurer John Fleming’s recent recommendation against Bank of America serving as one of Louisiana’s 90 or so designated fiscal agents smacks of cheap political theater. Ironically, it a…