In New Orleans Ray Nagin has been re-elected as the city’s mayor in a closely watched election that came about nine months after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city.

Ray Nagin: “Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for one New Orleans, it’s time for one New Orleans today, it’s time for one New Orleans tomorrow, it’s time for one New Orleans forever and as Gandhi once said, and I close, Gandhi said it best, he said “first they ignore you, then the laugh at you and then they fight you and then you win.” God bless you.”

Ray Nagin, a former telecom executive, won 52 percent of the vote. Louisiana’s Lt. Gov Mitch Landrieu won 48 percent. It was the city’s closest mayoral election ever. Landrieu would have become the city’s first white mayor since his father held the post in the late 1970s. The vote came at a time that half of New Orleans’ resident still haven’t been able to return home including as many as 200,000 registered voters — mostly African-Americans.