Changes

* Joint Legislative Committee on Capitol Outlay

* Joint Legislative Committee on Capitol Outlay

With 50.6 percent of the vote, Morrell just barely avoided a runoff against his top challenger, Democrat District C City Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer, who was first elected to her District C seat in 2010. She declined to run for reelection in 2014 but returned in 2017 by defeating another Democrat incumbent, Nadine Ramsey. As councilwoman, Palmer helped to lead the effort to reform the city’s short-term rental rules to make them much more restrictive than they were under the second term of [[Mayor]] [[Mitch Landrieu]], who now serves in the [[Joe Biden]] presidential administration as the director of funding for the 2021 "infrastructure bill.<ref name=councilelection>{{cite web|url=https://thelensnola.org/2021/11/14/morrell-wins-hotly-contested-at-large-council-seat/|title=Morrell wins hotly contested at-large council seat|publisher=thelensnola.org|date=November 14, 2021|author=Michael Isaac Stein|accessdate=November 17, 2021}}</ref>  

In the 2021 council election, Morrell polled 50.6 percent of the vote. He just barely avoided a runoff against his top challenger, Democrat City Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer, who was first elected to her District C seat in 2010. She declined to run for reelection in 2014 but returned in 2017 by defeating another Democrat incumbent, Nadine Ramsey. As councilwoman, Palmer helped to lead the effort to reform the city’s short-term rental rules to make them much more restrictive than they were under the second term of [[Mayor]] [[Mitch Landrieu]], who now serves in the [[Joe Biden]] presidential administration as the director of funding for the 2021 "infrastructure bill.<ref name=councilelection>{{cite web|url=https://thelensnola.org/2021/11/14/morrell-wins-hotly-contested-at-large-council-seat/|title=Morrell wins hotly contested at-large council seat|publisher=thelensnola.org|date=November 14, 2021|author=Michael Isaac Stein|accessdate=November 17, 2021}}</ref>  

The race between Morrell and Palmer was heated. Campaign materials cast Morrell as a political opportunist who helped shield his corrupt police officer brothers from justice, an accusation that the Morrells flatly repudiate. Morrell, meanwhile, questioned Palmer's stressed Palmer’s role in 2011 zoning change that allowed the Hard Rock hotel to be constructed on the site of the former Woolworth’s building on the corner of Canal and North Rampart streets. The building had been the site of lunch counter protests and the proposed building was far taller than French Quarter zoning permitted. The amendment passed against the wishes of [[civil rights]] leaders and historical preservationists.<ref name=councilelection/> Palmer charged that is “abhorrent” that Morrell would use the 2019 collapse of the ill-fated Hard Rock hotel for political purposes.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nola.com/news/politics/article_adfe0c0a-a866-11eb-ae26-73c3244d06e0.html for political gain|title=1½ years after Hard Rock Hotel collapse, these New Orleans streets set to reopen|publisher=''New Orleans Times-Picayune''|date=April 28, 2021|author=Jeff Adelson|accessdate=November 17, 2921}}</ref>  

The race between Morrell and Palmer was heated. Campaign materials cast Morrell as a political opportunist who helped shield his corrupt police officer brothers from justice, an accusation that the Morrells flatly repudiate. Morrell, meanwhile, questioned Palmer's stressed Palmer’s role in 2011 zoning change that allowed the Hard Rock hotel to be constructed on the site of the former Woolworth’s building on the corner of Canal and North Rampart streets. The building had been the site of lunch counter protests and the proposed building was far taller than French Quarter zoning permitted. The amendment passed against the wishes of [[civil rights]] leaders and historical preservationists.<ref name=councilelection/> Palmer charged that is “abhorrent” that Morrell would use the 2019 collapse of the ill-fated Hard Rock hotel for political purposes.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nola.com/news/politics/article_adfe0c0a-a866-11eb-ae26-73c3244d06e0.html for political gain|title=1½ years after Hard Rock Hotel collapse, these New Orleans streets set to reopen|publisher=''New Orleans Times-Picayune''|date=April 28, 2021|author=Jeff Adelson|accessdate=November 17, 2921}}</ref>