About a week ago, Sen. John Kennedy did a Fox News segment in which he tore into the city of New Orleans’ leadership for its failure to secure Bourbon Street on New Year’s Eve against the threat of what happened there.

Kennedy said it’s going to be the state of Louisiana, with a lot of federal help, that will take the lead in providing security for the Super Bowl. And he’s not alone in saying that. Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser is saying the same thing.

“The fact that those barriers were not in place… I’m angry about it… This mayor has been nonexistent.” @LouisianaLtGov said he expects to see the state have a heavier hand in New Orleans after yesterday’s attack. #lalege #lagov pic.twitter.com/IY4OuBlA0u

— Fix New Orleans (@FixNOLA) January 2, 2025

That’s two of Louisiana’s top four statewide elected officials essentially trashing LaToya Cantrell and her administration in the last few days.

You can’t really say that they’re wrong. Interestingly, that seems to be why Cantrell is calling press conferences attempting to show how in charge she is. This happened on Friday…

Following the New Year’s Day terror attack that killed 14 people and left dozens injured, Mayor LaToya Cantrell emphasized at Friday’s (Jan. 10) Super Bowl press conference that the city will be safe for the week-long event.

“We are more than ready to host Super Bowl LIX,” Cantrell said. “Come to the city of New Orleans and feel the NOLA love.”

Cantrell said that the Federal Protective Service and Department of Homeland Security agents arrived in New Orleans on Friday.

Cantrell asked the Biden Administration to send in federal experts in the days after the terror attack to help identify security soft spots throughout the city.

The mayor said the federal team spent about two hours Friday briefing with NOPD and the city’s new security advisor, former NYPD commissioner William Bratton.

“We started collaborated efforts and that will be, not butting heads with Commissioner Bratton, but working in collaboration across all lines to ensure that we are hardening targeted areas throughout the city of New Orleans,” Cantrell said.

City officials emphasize that the city, the NFL, and other agencies have implemented the Super Bowl safety plans over the years.

However, in the aftermath of the New Year’s Day attack, more resources could come to the city to ensure the safety of tens of thousands of people throughout Super Bowl week.

NOPD Supt. Anne Kirkpatrick plans to have 400 NOPD officers, 600 state troopers and nearly 1,000 deputies from across the region to help patrol the city and high-trafficked areas.

“That doesn’t even address the National Guard, the military police, the feds,” Kirkpatrick said. “That is all a whole package right there.”

While some of the security plans could change, other aspects are already visible – like new archer barriers along Bourbon Street.

A team with Meridian Rapid Defense spent Friday afternoon replacing the city’s 45 archers with the latest models.

“This will be safety-x certified with all the things we are doing tonight,” CEO Peter Whitford said.

The dynamic seems interesting here.

Cantrell isn’t up for re-election in the fall. She’s termed out. She wouldn’t be able to get re-elected anyway; after the dizzying collection of failures, moral, ethical, strategic and tactical, the voters in New Orleans are exhausted with her.

And at this point, LaToya Cantrell inspires absolutely zero confidence from anyone. She’s shown herself incapable of running a winning organization or carrying out a successful operation of any kind, and after seven-plus years in office she isn’t about to change anybody’s opinion of her.

So why is she calling press conferences touting the security preparations for the Super Bowl?

Shouldn’t it be the state doing that? When even Cantrell and Anne Kirkpatrick, the city’s police chief who has been clobbered since the Bourbon Street massacre (perhaps unfairly, but then again Kirkpatrick admitted she didn’t even know the city had anti-vehicular barriers in its inventory that weren’t deployed for New Year’s Eve), are admitting the resources for the defense of the city in advance of the Sugar Bowl are going to be under the control of the state.

The impression we get is this is about LaToya Cantrell’s ego. That she can’t stomach the thought of being made irrelevant, even though that irrelevance would actually boost confidence in the city’s security.

And maybe Kennedy and Nungesser are noticing this, which is why both have come out very rudely to trash her.

Or maybe we’re seeing something which isn’t there.

But it’s going to be interesting to watch over the next couple of weeks to see how the various players involved in securing the city for the Super Bowl interact, because there definitely does seem to be a power struggle afoot.