Whisper Campaigns

The Doraville city election is over. The candidates I voted for actually won (or at least made it into a run-off election)–that almost never happens! Brian Bates is probably going to be the “first” openly gay elected official in Doraville. It’s easy to be a “first” here, since old, straight, white guys ran things for the past century.
So I voted for Brian and think he’s an OK guy–considering he’s a Log Cabin Republican and all. I believe he was my best choice, and will probably be good for the city. I did get annoyed when I read this story in the Southern Voice, though:

Doraville City Council candidate Brian Bates said he is the target of a whisper campaign by opponents who are bringing up the fact he is gay in conversations with voters.
“I know individuals are talking with voters and bringing up my sexual orientation — saying, ‘You know Brian’s gay, not that that matters,’” Bates said.

Give me a fucking break.

Maybe some of this was going on and I was left out of those conversations, since it would be pretty dumb for Brian’s opponents to play the “he’s gay” card on me. Even so, I think I have a pretty good read on what’s going on in this town. The only “whisper campaign” I heard was one against Jason Anavitarte who’s already on the council. Supposedly, he was telling people he didn’t support Brian, and this was reason enough for someone to send out an angry e-mail about it.

As of 11:10pm, Brian had received 48% of the vote, with the next highest candidate only receiving 27% of the electorate’s vote. I think that playing up the “whisper campaign” angle was probably mostly a way to get campaign donations. More reason to not believe everything you read–a lot of the time it’s just a reporter quoting some press release.

Something else that you Metro Atlanta politico people might be interested in: Brian’s campain flyers were extremely similar to the ones that Jill Chambers sent out during her last campaign. At first glance, I was wondering why Jill Chambers was sending us crap in an off-election year. The Chambers connection may be why the anti-Anavitarte stuff was flying around from Brian’s supporters: Jason Anavitarte is running against Jill next year for state house.

*this post was updated to reflect the fact that there is going to be a runoff election between Brian Bates and “local nut,” Tim Hart. Brian received 48% of the vote, Hart received 27%.

November 8, 2005 | Joseph Geierman | Comments Closed

About the Candidates

I got a comment on my last post about Doraville city politics that is prompting me to write a little more about what I think of the people running for office here.
Even though Doraville is only 10 miles from Midtown Atlanta, until very recently its politics have been pretty close to what you’d expect to find in a small, Southern town. For almost twenty years, the city was governed by mayor Gene Lively, who called all the shots. A few years ago, he left office under the cloud of scandal. Since then, the remaining old-time city council members have attempted to carry on his legacy or poor planning and rampant cronyism.
Our current Mayor is one of those old-timers. He’s a nice guy–and doesn’t live that far from me–but he also lacks any understanding of what a 21st century city needs to be successful. Mayor Jenkins still thinks of Doraville as a semi-rural suburb, he doesn’t understand the importance of e-mail or the Internet (when I visited his office one day, I was struck that there was no computer–and that no network connected those computers that did exist in city hall), and I get the impression if he could get away with it, he’d be running things pretty much the way the previous mayor had.
So anyway, this new city council race is pretty important for Doraville. The candidates up for election fall into 3 categories: Good ol’ Boys, Reformers, and Kooks. Here’s my take on each candidate:

Good ol’ Boys:

Matt Harner — This guy’s whole platform is that he has lived in Doraville for 20+ years, and that he will vote however the constituents tell him to vote. He’s a total good ol’ boy recruited by the Mayor

Red Johnson – Another guy who has nothing to run on other than the fact that he’s lived in Doraville for Umpteen years, Red was also recruited by the mayor and his cronies. I actually feel bad for this guy. He is really, really old, and said something in the debate like “I had to stop working because I didn’t have the energy to do it anymore.” Sorry Red, but I need someone who can do some heavy lifting for the city. I also need someone who’s not in the Mayor’s back pocket.

Kooks:

Tom Hart – This guy ran for mayor a few years ago on the platform of bringing a major league baseball team to Doraville. He actually mentioned in the debate that if he had won, we would have gotten the Washington Nationals in our little town instead. He also went off on a long tangent about how there are no local businesses–this is completely ridiculous (and racist) since the entire city is filled with small business. They just aren’t businesses that cater to white people & their tastes.

Clint Howard – Clint’s another one who ran for Mayor a few years ago. I’ve seen him at some city council meetings, ranting and raving about issues of little concern to anyone but himself (he was upset that a city council member was observing a drug bust a while back). Anyway, his platform is mediocre, and I think he’s kind of kooky.

Reformers:

Brian Bates — Brian is probably the city’s most serious candidate for office. He has been involved in citizen-level politics for the past several years (at least), and he has an understanding of the importance of city planning and (I believe) an understanding that Doraville is just one small part of a much greater Metro Atlanta. He is gay, and I believe he’s a Republican. I’m not going to hold that against him–he’s got my vote.

Bob Spangler — I don’t really know anything about Spangler. He didn’t say a whole lot in the debate. Mostly he kept his cards close to his chest, and tried not to piss anyone off. I wish some other people I know in his neighborhood were running, but am going to vote for him as the best of the three in his district.

November 1, 2005 | Joseph Geierman | 2 Comments »