The latest campaign finance reports confirm the strong Republican and developer push behind mayoral candidate Charlie Maddox and the Democratic (and R.E.M.) support for Mayor Heidi Davison, with Tom Chasteen drawing from a conservative base in both parties. Oddly enough, the new non-partisan local elections have empowered the Republicans. It’s okay to be a Republican now, because you don’t have to suffer the embarrassment of that sparse, separate primary. And your candidate isn’t branded with that shameful red R, but can blend in with the rest, undetected except by those in the know. It’s the best of both worlds for the Republicans.

There is, of course, a reason that the Republican and developer persuasion is in the minority here in Athens and that the Democrats and R.E.M. represent the majority. Because Athens is unusual—unique in Georgia, really—it doesn’t fit standard small-town specs. Those who “get it” understand that the strength of Athens draws directly from its difference; those who don’t get it keep trying to make Athens just like every other ville where unchecked development has bulldozed local character: Lawrenceville, Snellville, Loganville, etc.

An oddity of Athens is that a lot of hometown folks have taken its special qualities for granted, or seen them as a resource to be developed, while “outsiders” like a lot of University faculty and R.E.M. and others have understood the spirit of Athens and have sought to preserve and protect it.

And R.E.M. has led the making of Athens into a music town—another aspect that the Republican crowd doesn’t get—and a large part of the music scene is that Athens is this weird, wonderful, funky, laid-back, picturesque small town—everything that the developers want to pave over.

Mayor Davison gets it. She understands our Athens. She is a part of it. She shows up downtown and everywhere when her mayoral presence is needed for some benefit or project, but she’s also there because she knows our town and enjoys it. She appreciates Athens for what it is and for what it can become, and she likes the music and the musicians.

Tom Chasteen has tried to be open to the music scene and to the weirder aspects of Athens, but it’s a stretch for him. Charlie Maddox has probably never been in a club for anything other than a political meeting. Yet he has a lot of support among bar owners. They’re backing a Baptist preacher and expecting him to support their liquor sales and perhaps help turn back the clock on smoking. (Charlie also enjoys support—$2,000 worth—from the Atlanta liquor distributor currently living in sin just across the line in Oconee County. Politics does indeed make strange bedfellows.)

Powerful forces oppose Mayor Davison; they’ve got plenty of money and they’re out to get Heidi. They’ve got a candidate following the George W. Bush first-term campaign model of being “a uniter, not a divider”—a nice guy everybody can vote for, who’s careful not to let slip much of what he really believes in. When Charlie Maddox does get pushed into saying what he’s for, he sounds more and more like the developers who are backing him. Listen carefully, and you can hear the tired old discredited politics that voters here have repeatedly rejected.

Mayor Davison, on the other hand, has her own baggage. She was elected by a coalition united in opposition to the former incumbent but with contradictory expectations for the new mayor. With her approval, the Commission enacted protections for neighborhoods overrun with boorish students, but she angered the landlords—and an awful lot of people here are landlords. The two-person limit on unrelated households also pinched a lot of musicians and first-time homeowners trying to meet a mortgage. She replaced a popular judge and angered the legal community. She is brittle, argumentative and cerebral—not an easygoing politician like Charlie and not as calculating as Tom.

I don’t think Heidi is right on every issue, but at least you know where she stands. I just don’t think we have the luxury of single-issue politics like those bar owners who are still so mad about the smoking ban that they’ve turned against the only candidate who understands and supports their importance in the Athens economy.

As much as I like Tom and Charlie (and Andy Rusk and Rick DeRose, too), I don’t see but one choice in the mayor’s race. The bottom line is whether we want a mayor in tune with our Athens or one who doesn’t get it. Mayor Davison gets it, and come Nov. 7, I hope we elect Heidi again.