Did Republicans crossover to elect Ray Nagin to weaken the state Democrats?

This is interesting. First Draft offers what they call the Oyster-Adrastos theory on why Ray Nagin won the mayoral election in New Orleans.

Essentially the theory is that if Ray Nagin is mayor of New Orleans during the state election next year, he provides a face for the Republicans to attack. This weakens Governor Blanco state-wide. The fact that Landreau lost to Nagin also weakens the Blanco-Landreau team of Governor-Lt. Governor.

Since there were no Republicans in the mayoral run-off, this could be a reasonable theory, and the white-vote crossover for Nagin suggests that this was in fact planned.

So go read the First Draft article.