| Election Name: | 1998 New Orleans Mayoral Election |
| Country: | New Orleans |
| Type: | presidential |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 1994 New Orleans mayoral election |
| Previous Year: | 1994 |
| Next Election: | 2002 New Orleans mayoral election |
| Next Year: | 2002 |
| Candidate1: | Marc Morial |
| Party1: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| Popular Vote1: | 92,378 |
| Percentage1: | 79.27% |
| Candidate2: | Kathleen Cresson |
| Party2: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| Popular Vote2: | 22,767 |
| Percentage2: | 19.54% |
The New Orleans mayoral election of 1998 was held on February 7, 1998, and resulted in the reelection of incumbent Marc Morial to a second term as Mayor of New Orleans.[1]
Elections in Louisiana—with the exception of U.S. presidential elections—follow a variation of the open primary system. Candidates of any and all parties are listed on one ballot; voters need not limit themselves to the candidates of one party. Unless one candidate takes more than 50% of the vote in the first round, a run-off election is then held between the top two candidates, who may in fact be members of the same party. In this election, no run-off was needed as Morial won over 50% of the vote in the first round.
Marc Morial won an easy re-election, with the widest margin of victory in a New Orleans election in several decades. Neither of his opponents - lawyer Kathleen Cresson and arts store manager Paul Borrello - were particularly well-known. With the re-election of the popular Morial widely seen as a foregone conclusion months before election day, the race met with unusual apathy among the city's media and electorate. Debates were not televised, no polls were commissioned, and only 41% of New Orleans electors bothered to vote.