[Blitzer:] Welcome back. The New Orleans mayoral candidates are counting down to Saturday's election. Last night, seven contenders faced off in a debate, including the incumbent mayor, Ray Nagin, and the leading challenger, Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu. The debate got some national TV airplay, aimed at those New Orleans residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Many are going back home to try to take advantage of the early voting. Our senior political correspondent, Candy Crowley, is joining us here in THE SITUATION ROOM with the the story of this very unusual election.
[Candy Crowley, Cnn Senior Political Correspondent:] It's true, Wolf. Did you ever sort of say to yourself, now, how far would I go to cast a ballot? And for tens of thousands of New Orleanians, this is not an idle question.
[Crowley:] The midnight bus from Georgia is leaving soon.
[Unidentified Female:] Let me have your attention, please. Has everybody Des has everybody signed a clipboard with your Atlanta address on it?
[Crowley:] Lisa Delay will be on board, headed a little south and mostly west, to New Orleans.
[Lisa Delay, New Orleans Voter:] So, we're on this bus, trying to do what we can. And we feel that it's we feel an allegiance to that city. We want to vote. We want our votes to count.
[Crowley:] Fearful that confusion, bureaucracy and the vagaries of mail delivery would keep displaced New Orleanians from getting or returning absentee ballots, the NAACP put together early-voting bus trips from Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, and here in Atlanta, where they expected about 90 voters to take the ride. Less than half that number showed up, powered by gasoline, fueled by fury.
[Delay:] I don't live here right now. And I can't live here right now. We don't have a home to come to. But that means that I have to do something.
[Crowley:] How many will do something? How many will vote? The secretary of state's office in Baton Rouge sent out more than 15,000 absentee ballots. By Monday, only a third had been returned. And, of the nearly 300,000 registered in Orleans Parish, about 11,000 voters cast a ballot early. Forty of them rode the bus eight-and-a-half hours from Georgia. They stopped for gas an hour north of Mobile, Alabama. They slept along the way and ate breakfast in Slidell.
[Unidentified Male:] Our community is going to be a better place. Yes.
[Crowley:] They talked about jobs in Atlanta and homes in New Orleans. Across Lake Pontchartrain, into Orleans Parish, the closer they got, the harder it was to keep going. And, whether by accident or design, as the bus passed home after ruined home, "America the Beautiful" played overhead.
[Ray Charles, Musician:] America, America...
[Crowley:] It is 464 miles from NAACP headquarters in Atlanta to City Hall in New Orleans. They may be displaced and depressed. But, aboard the midnight bus from Georgia, they will not be disenfranchised.
[Delay:] I'm glad that I made the trip. And then you vote, you know? So, you have to you place your faith in God, and you have done what you're supposed to do.
[Crowley:] Mission accomplished. In the 2002 mayoral primary in New Orleans, less than half of registered voters actually voted. While the actions or inactions of local politicians before, during and after Katrina may be powerful incentive to cast a ballot this time, there is considerable concern that difficult logistics will trump the fervor that is clearly there Wolf.
[Blitzer:] I admire those people making that trek. That...
[Crowley:] Eight-and-a-half hours.
[Blitzer:] That is really, really patriotic.
[Crowley:] Amazing.
[Blitzer:] Good work. Thanks, Candy, very much. On our "Political Radar" this Tuesday possible presidential candidates and their cash. New filings with the Federal Election Commission show Senator Hillary Clinton with a bigger war chest than any other 2008 White House hopeful. At the end of the March check this out the New York Democrat had nearly $20 million in her Senate reelection campaign account. She could use any leftover money for a White House campaign, if she makes that decision. The number-two Democrat in the 2008 money race is Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. He has about $14 million in the bank, spread out over four federal campaign committees. Most of his money is left over from his failed 2004 presidential campaign. He could use that cash, though, in 2008, if he makes that decision. Another possible Democratic contender in 2008 showing some fund- raising promise in the first three months of this year, the former Virginia Governor Mark Warner raised an impressive $1.8 million for his political action committee. On the Republican side, Virginia Senator George Allen reportedly raised $1.7 million for his reelection campaign in the first quarter of this year. But his formal filing isn't expected until Thursday. We should get a better handle on his presidential fund-raising power at that point. A number of White House hopefuls are expected to file their financial reports on Thursday as well, including leading Republicans John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Rudy Giuliani. Speaking of Rudy Giuliani, the New York tabloids report that the former New York mayor will headline a fund-raiser for California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger at the end of the month. Senator John McCain recently helped Governor Schwarzenegger raise campaign cash. Stumping for Schwarzenegger is a high-profile task for a possible White House hopeful. We will see more of that coming up. Coming up here in THE SITUATION ROOM, should you be worried about your dental fillings? Does the mercury that some fillings contain pose a threat to you or your children? We're going to take a closer look at the results of a brand-new study out this hour. We're going to have those details. That is coming up next. Also, in the next hour, new developments today in the Duke lacrosse rape investigation we will go live to Durham, North Carolina, where two of the lacrosse players are now out on bail. Stay with us.