Beyond The Election

originally published December 13, 2006

What shall we say of the recent elections, now that they’re over? By far the most significant aspect was the alliance of the African-American community with the conservative Republican community in the attempt to elect a mayor (and to a lesser extent, a commissioner).

When Charlie Maddox, himself an African American, decided to make his run for mayor, he had to line up support—political and financial. Mayor Heidi Davison had made some enemies, and she had even alienated some of her supporters. On top of those drawbacks, the current mayor is not the typical glad-handing politician we all say we despise but actually love. She shows up everywhere, and she is always ready to debate. Most politicians just agree with whatever you say, and you come away feeling like you have a friend. Heidi will correct your facts and will point out fallacies in your arguments, and you come away feeling like she’s smarter than you. And who wants a friend like that?

Still, although Heidi’s political coalition may have frayed at the edges during four years’ wear, it was still holding together pretty well and wasn’t going to wrap itself around Charlie. But Charlie’s a hometown guy with wide connections, and Athens was his home long before it produced R.E.M. So, as Charlie explored avenues, he no doubt came to realize that the real anti-Heidi feeling was harbored by those who weren’t liberal Democrats, i.e. conservative Republicans. And conservative Republicans, at least some of them, have money. A new coalition was born, abetted by the return of non-partisan local elections, a gift to the community from, you got it: conservative Republicans.

On paper it was devilishly clever and simple. If a candidate here could pull the black community away from the Democrats, he could build his own base and weaken the Democrats. The non-partisan election provided the framework to bypass the traditional African-American Democratic vote. With well-heeled Heidi haters looking for a candidate, a new coalition formed.

It didn’t work out, though it pulled in 45 percent of the vote, and we’re shortsighted to think one election decides everything. Charlie may prove to be a pioneer who paved the way for the election of Athens’ first African-American mayor next time, perhaps with a black-white coalition that includes the Democrats and some Republicans who got used to the idea this time around.

Charlie was not just a black candidate: he personified black Athens. He grew up here—in the projects. He truly does represent in his person and in his life what we are talking about when we talk about low incomes and the need for jobs here. It’s not a theoretical problem to Charlie: it’s his life.

Mayor Davison, Judge Jones, the University leaders and the other Partners for a Prosperous Athens had already started trying to get the community focused on problems of poverty and employment before Charlie got into the race, but Charlie put a face on the issue. Even with the election behind us, we must not let that image fade. We’ve got to proceed with the understanding that a lot of our African-American citizens make up the “working poor” and need better jobs. We need to take a hard look at our whole apparatus for attracting new businesses and strengthening the ones we already have. We have great advantages here, along with the big disadvantage of being too far away from Interstate 85. Charlie’s right: there’s something wrong with the way we go after jobs. We need to fix it. And we also need to fix the way we prepare people to work those jobs. We’ve got a lot of to do, as Mayor Davison already knew. Now, thanks to Charlie, many more people know it. Let’s build on the momentum generated by the campaign. And maybe, too, now that we’re addressing root causes, we can also dare to ask why the black community hasn’t been able to do more to pick itself up.

Athens-Clarke County is at a real crossroads: we can easily slide into being a poor urban core surrounded by affluent suburbs. We cannot put off getting our act together. We can no longer afford a Chamber of Commerce dominated by slash-and-burn developers; we cannot afford industrial development and economic development entities that don’t produce; we cannot afford a school system overwhelmed by neglect; we cannot afford for the University of Georgia and local government not to act in concert; we cannot afford to leave a third of our citizens behind.

We still have the potential to deliver on the dream of Athens as a great place for everybody, a dream shared by Heidi Davison and Charlie Maddox. The elections are behind us. The new government has a clear mandate to do its part for economic development that benefits all our citizens. We all have a mandate to work together to keep our community from going over the precipice of poverty and neglect. We all need to get going and get results.

editor@flagpole.com