Monday, August 4, 2008
News U.S. Senate Democratic runoff: Dudes, you're livin' in the past, man..
Posted by Thomas Wheatley @thomaswheatley on Mon, Aug 4, 2008 at 8:40 PM
Tomorrow we'll find out the answer to the most pressing issue of the Jim Martin and Vernon Jones runoff: Who is the least like George W. Bush and who loves Barack Obama more?
Sounds pretty irrelevant, right? Tell that to the reserved former state lawmaker and his opponent, the flamboyant two-term CEO of DeKalb County. Since the two found out on July 15 they'd be facing each other in tomorrow's runoff, there's been little more than talk about each other's past voting records. (Just to refresh your memory: Jones has slammed Martin for casting a vote on Super Tuesday for John Edwards, who had already ended his campaign, and not Barack Obama. Martin has slammed Jones for his back-to-back votes for George W. Bush. I'll go out on a limb here and say that voting for Bush is not something that will endear you to Democrats, CEO Jones. Plus, what's up with all the contributions to the state Republican party?)
Perhaps the reason they're focusing so much on the past is because they share a similar vision for the future. Both want clean energy, both want out of Iraq, and both think No Child Left Behind is an unfair and unsuccessful program. Those are all laudable goals, but the last three weeks have been a rather boring ping pong match of accusations and ambitions rather than ideas.
Jones should be careful about how much of his tenure he chooses to spotlight. Contrary to the glowing success stories he's tried to tell in debates and interviews, DeKalb County has seen its fair shares of troubles. Yes, greenspace has been added. Yes, jobs have arrived. But crime is up and questions have been raised about how the county's handled contracts with outside vendors. So for all the digs Jones has taken at Martin's management skills, he has a lot to answer for himself. There's also the questions about Jones' rather quizzical temper and behavior, as well as past allegations lobbed against him involving women. No charges have ever been filed against him, but even a glimmer of scandalous wrongdoing won't stop an opponent like Saxby Chambliss, the Republican incumbent who's sitting pretty as this all goes down, from at least raising the idea. "Just getting it out there for conversation," he'd probably say. But once those details enter the discussion, good luck shaking the image from voters' minds.
Martin is an Atlanta native with a country boy's demeanor, the kind of guy who keeps his combs in a container of Barbicide but also drives a brand new Volvo. He's served several terms in the General Assembly and is a former commissioner of the state Department of Human Resources. He's received the endorsements of too many notables to name, but they include Rev. Joseph Lowery, former opponents Dale Cardwell and Rand Knight, numerous state legislators, and labor unions. (Check out this list of women supporters, too.) He hasn't been the energized campaigner the Democratic party was hoping for, but he is what he is, he says, and many pundits are placing their bets on him.
Both candidates will undoubtedly be wrestling for votes tomorrow. Political scientists and history tell us that fewer people will make it to the polls then did for the primary, which was an abysmally low 18 percent to begin with. Charles Bullock, a political scientist at the University of Georgia, says that if either candidate garners the same number of votes they did in the primary, they'd win. Jones undoubtedly needs a large number of African-American voters to return to the polls to give him an advantage. And while Jones enjoyed most of his support in urban areas, Martin had greater statewide appeal. Depending on who comes out to the polls, that might eke him out the win.
Bullock also told CL recently that the DeKalb County CEO race may not exactly help Jones on the ballot there. Keep in mind that he only pulled in 42 percent of the county's vote — not the best showing for someone who's essentially been running the county for nearly a decade and is a familiar face by now. If people are coming out to pick between Stan Watson and Burrell Ellis for that race and they see Jones' name also on the ballot, they may have flashbacks to the various imbroglios experienced during his terms.
Until the polls open, however, both candidates are busy. Martin has television ads in play and is out shaking hands. Jones' purchased media has been little in comparison; he's been mostly pounding the pavement and visiting churches and community groups. Tomorrow they'll do more of the same and try to rouse some interest in case ambivalent voters need a reminder that there's an election happening.
Whoever wins tomorrow will face Libertarian Allen Buckley and Chambliss in November. The Republican incumbent will surely be a formidable foe -- the guy's got more money than God. But Chambliss doesn't foresee an easy win and recently said -- most likely between laps in his swimming pool filled with gold -- that he's not taking either challenger lightly. He recently reserved $5 million in television time and has already issued debate invitations to both Martin and Jones. Hopefully all these walks down memory lane haven't taken too much out of the two of them.
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