Newspaper Page Text
4 • The Red ana Black • Friday, November 2, 1990
OPINIONS
QUOTABLE
. "If I paid attention to the things that are written about ,
would've been out of here after the ,lr * s * . university Rela-1
- Nik Edea, former VP for Development ^University Rela-
The Red & Black
Established 1893—Incorporated 1980
An independent etudent newspaper not affiliated with the University of Georgia
Robert Todd/Editor-in-Chief
Jennifer Rampey/Managing Editor
David Johnston/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Our choices
LOCAL ELECTIONS:
Chief Elected Officer: Gwen O'Looney. For six
years she has served Athens and consistently displayed
open and progressive thinking. Her actions and her
words have coincided and she is a proven leader who
will lead the new government in the proper direction.
Super District 10: Will Jackson. Jackson has
good ideas for the conduct of the new government and
supports moves toward recycling, historic preservation
and an end to the open-container ordinance.
Super District 9: Harry Sims. Even though he’s
only been on the City Council a short time, Sims has
demonstrated an open mind when it comes to the
issues. Sims supports the student liason and would like
to see it expanded and favors a reassessment of the
open-container ordinance.
District 7: Cardee Kilpatrick. Like O’Looney,
Kilpatrick’s record speaks for itself. She has constantly
stood up for students, but she balances that with
concern for the entire community. Her ideas about
zoning and development are progressive for Athens,
but not at the expense of our quality of life.
District 4: Thomas Stubbs. Stubbs is a
progressive candidate who wants the unified
government to better represent students’ concerns. He
would promote historic preservation and believes
Sunday alcohol sales would boost business.
STATE
Governor: Zell Miller. Miller has served Georgia
well in his 16 years as Lt. Governor. He has
consistently fought Tom Murphy and the good ole boys
for progressive legislation. As a former history
professor, Miller is especially sensitive to the needs of
the state’s University System. He is innovative, brash
and the right man to lead Georgia into the 1990s.
Lt. Governor: Pierre Howard. Howard is a man
of vision, specifically in matters concerning the
environment and the elderly. For 18 years, he was a
maverick in the state senate. Republican opponent
Matt Towery doesn’t approach Howard in experience
and leadership.
State Senator: Paul Broun. Broun has served
Athens and the University well. When students went to
lobby the General Assembly, Broun welcomed them
and responded to their opinions about background
checks for financial aid and prohibiting people under
21 from entering bars
Commissioner of Agriculture: Raymond
Young. Young is a South Georgia veterinarian who
refused to raise funds and advertise his campaign.
Instead he hopes issues and records decide the race.
Tommy Irvin is a good ol’ boy who has been Agriculture
Commissioner since 1968.
Commissioner of Insurance: Tim Ryles. Ryles
is against Tort Reform which would protect insurance
companies and limit consumers’ ability to get money
from them. Billy Lovett supports it. We don’t need an
Insurance Commissioner who looks out for insurance
companies.
Public Service Commissioner: Bob Durden. A
Libertarian like Elizabeth Goldin in charge of
regulating public services and utilities is a very scary
concept. Durden will work hard to keep Georgia Power
in line.
FEDERAL
U.S. Senate: Sam Nunn. Sam is the man, he has
been for years and will be for several more. Georgia’s
senior senator is perhaps the nation’s best politician.
Nunn is running unopposed.
U.S. Representative: Doug Barnard. Barnard is
often too conservative for us, but his views are
undeniably in line with most of his 10th District
constituency. A good representative votes the way he
was elected to. Challenger Sam Jones is a joke.
STAFF
NEWS: 543-1809
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Republican competitiveness is victory
This election year is a contradictory one for
the Georgia GOP. While certain races such as
the Governor’s race between Johnny Isakson
and Zell Miller have made political history by
just being competitive, others are still domi
nated by the good ole boy system that has
crippled democracy in our state. Whatever the
outcome of this year’s election, however, the
new competitive atmosphere of Georgia politics
will result in a win for the voters, as the one-
party system of the past is slowly being chal
lenged by people who realize that business as
usual is simply not good enough.
The race for Governor is perhaps the best ex
ample of how this movement has affected poli
tics in Georgia. Whereas past Republican
candidates for governor were mere token oppo
sition, this year’s challenger, Johnny Isakson,
has forced Democrats to deal with the real is
sues facing our state. Under Democratic lead
ership, this state has seen its crime problem
grow out of control, its educational system re
mains one of the worst in the nation, and its
taxes more than double in the past eight years.
Our Lt. Governor of the past sixteen years
would have us believe that he had no part in
the decisions that created these problems. And
David
Crabtree
to add insult to injury, he claims that he bears
no more responsibility as a leader of the domi
nant party than an overwhelmingly outnum
bered representative from the minority party.
Because of the Republican challenge, we now
see Democrats such as Miller claiming to be
fiscal conservatives and “champions of the
people.” Where were Miller and these fiscal
conservatives when the last budget was
passed?
Republicans like Isakson and Matt Towery,
the candidate for Lt. Governor are the reason
the real issues are out on the table. The mess
left by over a hundred years of political domina
tion by the Democrats has grown too large to ig
nore. Now they simply choose to ignore their
part in making the mess.
The real question voters have to face on
Tuesday is this: Will they vote for real change
and new leadership to guide our state, or will
they vote to continue the dark, smoke-filled,
one-party ways of the past? Republicans offer a
change in direction towards fiscal responsibi
lity, and prioritizing how we spend our tax dol
lars. They want to move towards providing
effective education and increased crime control
and away from pork barrel and special interest
projects that have run rampant in the past. The
Democrats offer only the same old song and
dance, the tiresome r T’m just one of you” pleas
while they continue to run things the way that
ia best for them.
Even if November sixth does not bring a Re
publican victory in the statewide races, at least
the slow process of returning the government to
the people has begun. The Soviet Union has
begun to shrug its one-party system. It’s time
we do the same in Georgia.
David Crabtree ia a junior advertising major
Georgia Democratic ticket is a winner
The winds of Dolitical change are blowing.
Here, in our wonaerful home of Georgia, change
is an important factor in the statewide races as
well. A desire among the citizens for progres
sive programs and ideals seems to be growing.
Georgia is going to be a busy place in th 1990’s,
with the Olympics, the Super Bowl and the ong
oing task of improving our educational system.
I find myself looking back to the early days of
the gubernatorial campaign. Republicans were
touting Johnny Isakson as their messiah. He
would be the man for change by becoming the
first elected Republican governor of Georgia in
over 100 years. However, as the campaign
winds down, it becomes all too apparent which
party has come up with the truly progressive
candidates: the Democrats.
Buoyed by a strong field of primary candi
dates, Zell Miller hns run an extremely effec
tive campaign. He has identified himself on
issues of education, environment and law en
forcement. The most his opponent can offer is a
litany of anti-Zell complaints, all of which have
little basis in fact.
Miller was at the forefront in ensuring kin
dergarten for young students of Georgia. Ho
has consistent practiced fair employment, of
fering many jobs to minorities ana women who
Clay
Jones
were qualified. He has stood in favor of a
woman’s right to choose abortion. Time and
again, Miller has taken a stand.
This year’s campaign iB no different. Miller is
the only candidate who has a consistently pro-
choice record. He also Bees the need to toughen
our prison systems. He understands the educa
tion needs of Georgia because he is the only gu
bernatorial candidate in 50 years who has
worked as a classroom teacher; and Miller
stands in strong favor of a statewide lottery to
fund education.
An examination of this much-discussed lot
tery question is merited. It is important to un-
derstand that Miller will use those funds as a
supplement to the already existing budget out
lays for education. The lottery money will fund
summer enrichment programs for gifted stu
dents, expanded computer labs, voluntary pre
kindergarten for four-year-olds, pay raises for
math and science teachers ( who are being lost
to free enterprise in droves), and other items of
this nature.
What about other races? In the lieutenant
governor race, we see the Democrats with an
other very strong hand. Pierre Howard is one of
the most promising leaders to emerge in our
state in many years. His stresses on environ
ment, clean government (with his Ethics Act of
1986), and breaking the welfare cycle make him
the perfect complement to Miller. Who is Matt
Towery, anyway?
The list goes on, from Tim Ryles and Tommy
Irvin to the unopposed Sam Nunn. In a year
when the Republicans made promises of gran
deur, it has been the Democrats who have re
sponded with their strongest slate in many
years. The winds of progressive change are
blowing. The Democrats are doing the real
blowing, while the Republicans just blow hot
air.
Clay Jones is a sophomore political science
major.
Johnny or Zell: Does it really matter
I flipped on the television the other day,
trying to clear my mind to write this column. I
sat viewing a series of political advertisements,
each explaining to me why I should vote for Zell
Miller or Republican Johnny Isakson. Zell and
Johnny seem to want the same thing: a lottery
for education, tougher anti-drug laws, more ed
ucational binding, lower insurance rates and to
be governor. Of course, neither wants new
taxes
What are the differences between the two?
Johnny says Zell is lining his pockets in offi
ce,and that Zell is an old capital “insid
er,"Meanwhile, Zell says Johnny's daddy is a
bigot, and that Isakson is a fourteen-year in
sider, the leader of the loyal opposition in Tom
Murphy’s House. Johnny whipped Zell in a de
bate in Moultrie last month, out no one was
there to notice; later, Zell supposedly made
Johnny cry on t.v., but only Bill Nigut noticed.
Both contend that the other is a nasty old “poli
tician;" imagine two persons in elective office
for nearly two decades being considered poli
ticians.
To say that there “ain’t a dime’s worth of dif
ference’' between the two candidates may be
stretching the issue, but not by much, both ap
pear to have the same stands on the issue* they
are willing to discuss. The voters who have
been paying attention to the race have been
treated to a steady stream of rhetoric con
cerning education, lotteries, anti-crime mea
sures, and, to some extent, taxes, but little to
discern between the candidates. The most con
vincing argument I’ve heard so far for electing
Keith
Gaddie
Zell is that he’s “better that having a Repub
lican governor" while the best argument for
electing Isakson is that "it's about time for a
Republican governor.”
If there is no real difference between the two
mtvjor candidates, does it matter who wins? In
one sense, the outcome of the election doesn’t
matter. If Miller wins, hie ability to implement
policy will depend in part on cooperation form
nis oldfoil, House Speaker Tom Murphy. An
Isakson victory, on the other hand, will have to
contend with a predominantly Democratic leg
islature, and Isakson’s attacks on the "good ole
boys" may hinder hie success in passing legis
lation. In either case, a governor will be elected
who has either a partisan or personal conflict
with some prominent element of the General
Assembly.
However, the election can be crucial. If Zell
wins, the growth of the Republican party in
Georgia will continue at an incremental rate. In
the last twenty-four years Republicans have re
mained a minority in the General Assembly
and had but one statewide victory. An Isakson
victory, however, could be a boon to the state
Republican party. By defeating a prominent
Democratic candidate, the Republicans will
prove that they can field a winner. Combined
with a 1991 redistricting which should create
more black and suburban Republican districts,
and Isakson victory could make Republican
candidacies more palatable to the electorate at
large, resulting in an increased Republican rep
resentation in the General Assembly.
The real loser, regardless of who wins, may
be Tom Murphy. With the election of Miller or
Isakson, the conservative Democratic hold on
the governor’s mansion will be broken. The
Gx neral Assembly may change in composition
to ths point that traditional conservative Dem-
ocratic power structure headed by Murphy will
be diminished, if not swept away. A new coali-
tion, possibly of conservative Democrats and
Republicans, Republicans and progressive
Democrats, or even Republicans ana black
Democrats may emerge to replace the old white
male Democratic majority.
Oh yeah, for you political prognosticators:
l 9a **°n v. Miller: The political pachyderm
from Cobb County started out slow, but ap-
peart to be gaining ground on Zell’s zig-zagging
donkey. While a Republican upset is unlikely,
the big donkey from Young Hams has just
enough horsepower left to pulll this on# out.
Leonard s Loser:” Johnny Isakson by ten.
Keith Gaddie is a graduate student in political
science.