So Brian Bates–the gay Republican candidate in Doraville’s city council race–lost his bid for public office. Tom Hart–the crackpot who thinks there are “no businesses in Doraville” (he really meant no “white” businesses) and who refused to speak to Atlanta’s gay & lesbian newspaper–will be my city councilman for the next 4 years. I’m disappointed, but not surprised. While there may have been some anti-gay sentiment that led to Brian’s defeat, I don’t think that was the main reason he lost. I’d say that Brian’s bigger problems were the people he surrounded himself with and the tactics he tried to persuade voters with.
First of all, I think Brian made a bad move by sending out a postcard saying Councilman Jason Anivitarte no longer backed Tom Hart. The mailing didn’t actually mention Hart’s statements to Southern Voice, nor did it even mention what he had done. Instead, it just claimed that Anavitarte no longer supported him. When I read it, the first thing that struck me was how similar this mailing was to the ones that (Republican state representative) Jill Chambers sent out about her opponent last year (saying that he’d been “arrested” but making no mention that the arrest had stemmed from a trumped up parking ticket). Anyway, I think that most people probably looked at this postcard and thought it was dirty politics. They may have decided as soon as they received it in the mail that they were going to vote for “the other guy.”
Another problem for Bate’s campaign was the fact that certain supporters of his on our city e-mail lists were being very loud (and sometimes nasty) about their support of Brian. Debate became a mere shouting match, and a lot of people were turned off by those tactics. Brian was never one of the people being loud or obnoxious, but it seemed to those of us on the outside that he was “tight” with the shouters. When I mentioned to him that I thought some of these tactics might end up hurting him, he just kind of shrugged and said that he couldn’t stop people from expressing their personal views. I guess that’s true, but I still don’t think his friends did him any favors.
The final problem for Bates were his political alliances. Within the city, he was closely alligned to councilwoman Marlene Hadden–who I personally like, but who a lot of Doraville’s old guard (many of whom live along my street) think of as a troublemaker. The other problem was that by closely associating himself with our Republican state representative, Jill Chambers, he alienated Jason Anivitarte–our city’s other “progressive” city councilman, and Jill Chambers’ opponent in the 2006 election for the state house seat. The old guard was going to vote against Marlene’s boy no matter what. Jason did his best to get progressives (or undecideds) to vote against him. In the end, they were apparently successful. It didn’t hurt that there were only 471 votes cast.
I think the real loser here is Doraville. All I’ve ever seen Tom Hart do in this town is run for office–I’ve certainly never seen him get involved in important issues on a grass roots or community level. It’s sad that he won his vanity campaign at such an important time in the city’s history–our (HUGE) GM plant will be closing in 2007, and what is done with the land it sits on will make or break Doraville.
The winners? Well, Tom Hart is an obvious winner. Another possible winner may be Jason Anivitarte, who worked hard against the Bates campaign. This defeat is certainly not just a defeat for Brian Bates, but also for the whole Jill Chambers machine, which has previously proven very effective at covering its opponents in stinking mud. I say that with some reservation, though, because I think the postcard thing did hurt Jason–especially since something very similar happened to him in the 2004 elections with Jill Chambers’ last opponent.
Anyway, 99.9% of you can breathe easy now that the election is over. I probably won’t have much more to write about this local politics stuff for a while.
I’ve said it before, when I went to that debate and Tom tried to imply that he could have gotten the Expos to move here instead of DC… Well, the man is either a crackpot or has very little respect for the voter. His undertone of ‘keeping the city white’ doesn’t play with me, either.
I voted for Brian, and not necessarily with enthusiasm, but that seems to be staus quo these days. Something to add to the list you gave of questionable practices you point out (which I agree with)… I honestly believe that one of his biggest mistakes was whoever he hired to do his phone campaign. I received at least one call a day in the two weeks leading up to the election, sometimes twice a day. And all of this after saying in the first call that, yes, I would be out to vote in the runoff and that I’d be supporting him. It’s not hard to see people deciding to not bother to vote just based on being sick of these calls. I was tempted. You really have to sweat the smallest details in this process to avoid losing votes, I suppose.
I would like to see good evidence, or hear first hand accounts, to support accusations that Mr. Hart’s attitude reflects racial undertones, or any other information that his character is of concern, given the fact that he’s responsible for representing a group of citizens now.
Comments made against someone’s character must be true. We should have no respect for malicious accusations (not to imply Paul’s comment was malicious, it was not). American’s have a freedom of speech, and like all of our freedoms, carry a great responsibility.
I can say that my vote was not completely for Hart. I told him when he ran for Mayor two years ago, he was crazy to want to put a major league stadium in Doraville, and God help us, if he won. I did vote for Bates in the primary, but given the last minute campaign tactics by Mr. Bates, my vote was against his (Bates) mutual support of Denise Majette, who has a public voting record that’s very weak on immigration reform, and family values, two of my greatest concerns for this Country.
I did speak to Mr. Hart before the run-off to ask why he wanted the position, and the one thing that stands out in my mind is, him saying that he wanted to have a traffic light installed somewhere to help him to get into and out of his neighborhood. I now also remember him saying that he wanted to revitalize the downtown area. This was his redeeming factor.
As stated earlier, Doraville was the loser here.
Tom Hart kept loudly proclaiming at the debate that there were “No businesses in Doraville.” If he really thinks this is true, he must be living in a different city from me, because every day I drive by hundreds of Doraville businesses.
What Hart meant was that there are no “white businesses” in Doraville. When he talks about revitalizing the city, he is speaking about bringing “white” businesses to the city. Whether you agree with him or not, these statements betray a strong racial bias–at least in the way he thinks about our city.
Other than that, Troy, I tend to agree with you about the way Brian’s campaign was run. When I saw the endorsement from Denise Majette, I scratched my head & wondered what he was thinking.
[...] I have mostly been silent about Tom Hart since he won the city council race back in December. I figured that he won fair and square and was entitled to some time to prove that he has a real vision for Doraville. So far, though, I have been unimpressed. Hart and his supporters are vehemently opposed to mixed-use development in the downtown portion of the city. They seem to want to make everything office or retail space, believing that mixed-use is just code for jam-packed condos and apartments which would floodour city with undesireables. [...]