An Independent Take on Atlanta City Politics – 2009
(An excerpt from an interview with Al Bartell on Independent Politics in Georgia)
By the way – Make sure you check out the Open Letter to Barack Obama from Independent Voters.
Al Bartell, an independent candidate in the 2009 race for president of the Atlanta City Council in Atlanta, is also active as a part of the growing nationwide independent movement. Al sat with members of Georgia Independent Voters in December of 2008 to discuss his perspective on politics, from an independent viewpoint, in Georgia, the South and the US. The below is the first in a series of excerpts from this interview that GIV will be presenting over the coming weeks.
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Interviewer: “We have a mayoral campaign coming up in 2009, so, let’s get into the guts of Atlanta politics for a minute. It would be helpful to understand the heritage and history of our current situation as you see it. Shirley Franklin and Kasim Reed seem to be major players right now. Where do they come from, what are their connections with one another? What is the history here?”
Al: “Historically speaking, deep southern urban politics in particular – and to an extent suburban and rural but definitely urban – has been driven by what’s called charismatic leadership, which in the South means you were involved in the civil rights movement in some way. In the City of Atlanta in particular, you have two major figures who have been mayor in the recent past, Mayor Andrew Young and Mayor Maynard Holbrook Jackson. The administrator for the entire city under both those administrations was our current mayor, Shirley Franklin. So, when Bill Campbell ran for Mayor, at the end of Jackson’s tenure, there was also a chairperson of the Fulton County Commission, whose name was Michael Lomax. Former mayor and the mayor at that time, Mayor Maynard Jackson, endorsed the city council member who managed his legislative agenda named Bill Campbell. Former Ambassador, former Congressperson, former civil rights leader at large, Andrew Young picked and endorsed Michael Lomax and the two of them went at it ferociously, and Bill Campbell won.
“So Bill Campbell is mayor – and into the second term ran into major problems – major problems with the city budget and everything. The question was, “who’s going to be mayor?” The business community said, “the guy who’s been carrying our water” – a guy named Robb Pitts. The activist community said “the person who’s been carrying our water”, council member Gloria Tinubu. Maynard Jackson and Andrew Young went to Shirley Franklin and said, “It’s time for you to run for mayor.” At that time, she was working for Tom Cousins, a major developer for commercial and private property in the metropolitan area. So you have the business community, the mayor-for-life Maynard Jackson and at that time key person on the Democratic Committee, and a candidate for the Chairman of the Democratic Party nationally, as well as Andrew Young all saying, “Shirley Franklin, we want you to run for mayor.” Who did they pick as her local campaign manager? A young state representative named Kasim Reed.
“So Shirley Franklin wins as mayor, Kasim Reed announces that he’s not going to run for state rep anymore, he’s going to run for state senator and he runs for state senator. Two years pass, Shirley Franklin runs for reelection, who’s the campaign manager? Newly-elected State Senator Kasim Reed. So Shirley Franklin gets to be treasurer of the Democratic Party, and Kasim Reed gets to be Vice Chairperson of the Black Democratic Caucus. Shirley Franklin gets to be co-chairperson of the Democratic Convention, and Kasim Reed gets to be Legislative Liaison for the Obama campaign in Georgia. Then he announces that he’s going to run for mayor.
“A year before that of course, you remember Former Mayor Jackson died of a heart attack as he was going to Washington DC to take on being the Chairperson of the Democratic Party nationally. So that’s what’s now playing out in the mayoral election in the City of Atlanta, Georgia. A similar phenomenon is happening in Washington DC, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Baltimore. Now that the Democratic Party is in control of the US House, the US Senate and the Presidency, these same people at the local level who were mayors and members of the city council and county commissioners – the people who were thinking about running campaigns against them are now being with labeled “you’re running against President Obama, how can you do such a thing.” So ironically, Obama’s success has resulted in less dialogue within the Democratic Party rather than more. The only other place that can provide another opportunity for dialogue I think is the independent movement, and we are clear that one of the things that the Democratic Party is not interested in is expanding and growing the independent movement.”
To Be Continued…