Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current, July 12, 2000, Image 7
PUBLISHER'S NOTES
ENCUMBERED WITH INCUMBENTS
Weather Hot: Politics Not On the surface,
the political scene seems quiet, though it’s
no doubt hectic to those who are cam
paigning with less than a week until the pri
maries. Several pundits have pointed out yet
again what a scandalously self-serving setup
we have with a primary in the dead of
summer, when many are away and few are
thinking about politics. Who’s favored by
such a travesty? Incumbents, of course. Who
makes the laws? What are the chances of
changing the primaries to the fa'l? The next
time your state senator or representatives
ask you for your vote, tell them you’d be
much more likely to vote at all if they would
move the election to a time when you’re in
town and taking care of business. Also, tell
them to quit shedding those crocodile tears
over low voter turnouts.
Correction It has come to the attention
of the Flagpole campaign bureau that
the hapless Vince Littman is running
as a Republican this time around.
This means that all those
Republicans who resent our
absentee Congressman, the
dentist from Tucker, GA, who
disdair.j to reside in the district
he represents, can both get on a
motorcycle and ride together to the
polls to waste their votes on Littman.
Vince will surely get fewer votes in the
Republic Party than he got in what the
Republic guys call the Democrat Party.
Thanks to our virtually unregulated cam
paign finance practices, our Neanderthal
Congressman can amass a campaign chest of
lobbyist and special-interest money in the
amount of $700 000 and growing. Tins means
that nobody will ever run against this bas
tion of “let the rich have their way and the
poor have family values," except somebody
like Littman, who so far has not been able to
afford even the first campaign sign. What a
democracy! What a republic!
The High Sheriff I guess Sheriff Jerry
Massey and his opponent, Ira Ldwards, are
out working. They’ve both done a good job
of getting their signs out. Sheriff Massey has
the edge on sheer numbers. It’s interesting
how many places you see the Sheriff’s and
the District Attorney’s signs in the same
place. Have you seen any yard with a Gordon
sign and an Edwards sign? A Massey sign
and a Mauldin sign? Frequently Senator Paul
Broun is in there with Gordon and Massey.
It’s almost like they’re running as a ticket:
the Incumbent ticket.
Sheriff Massey, who basically politics all
the time, has built a great, bloated bureau
cracy of a department, with constantly esca
lating budgets and frequent jailbreaks. The
Sheriff is an anachronism required by the
state constitution. The Athens-Clarke
County Police Department handles law
enforcement here, and the Sheriff’s depart
ment exists primarily to provide security at
the courthouse and to run the jail. The
Sheriff has held on to some law enforcement
powers, enough to keep him involved in
inter-departmental drug squads and also to
field an extremely natty, black-clad SWAT
team, which he showed off to good effect
the night of the “Panic In The Streets"
Widespread Panic concert a couple of years
ago.
I’m not qualified to say that Jerry is a
poor sheriff, and I haven’t done the research
necessary to document where all that
money goes: much of it is mandated by var
ious state and federal requirements. But
I still wonder just how many new Ford
Crown Victorias it takes to serve war
rants, and I’d also like to know the
average weight of the deputies who
drive them.
I don’t know whether Ira
Edwards has ihe administra
tive ability to run a large
Sheriff’s department, and I
haven’t heard that he’s talking
about downsizing it. Still, if all the
Sheriff really has to do is politic, then
maybe it’s time for some new politics. Ira
could at least do something about the hos
tile atmosphere you encounter when you go
to get somebody out of jail.
• If you think I’m being too hard on the
Sheriff, don’t worry. Jerry ano 1 have known
each other for a long time, and he’d expect
as much. Besides, he stopped inviting me to
his Christmas parties a long time ago.
The Commission Harry Sims probably
doesn’t have too much to worry about from
Sergio Sandoval in District 2. Sandoval
seems like a nice guy but he’s without polit
ical experience. Sims could use some compe
tition. From where I
sit, it looks like he
pretty much relies on
the Mayor to tell him
which way the wind
is blowing. Being a
friend of this Mayor
means you can get an
audience with the
inner circle when you
need something for
your constituents—
didn’t the Mayor
pretty much wrejk
the government over
the failure to appoint
an African-American
to head the Human
and Economic
Development
Department? Still,
Sims ought, ! t seems,
to be telling the
Mayor and his crowd what District 2 needs,
rather than carrying their water in hopes of
getting the occasional sidewalk.
The Rest The suspense builds. Anybody
willing to bet on a non-incumbent? By the
nature of their under-financed campaigns,
they become stealth candidates: working
through town meetings and neighborhood
receptions, largely ignored by the press and
out-signed and billboarded into oblivion.
Still, D.A. candidate Ken Mauldin didn’t quit
a secure job without a plan for giving Harry
hell, and Doug Haines just might find the
right key through email and neighborhood
activism to slip into the Senate ahead of
3roun’s big bucks.
Pete McCommons
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JULY 12, 2000 FLAGPOLE H