August
21, 2002, 10:10 a.m. Georgia
Twofer
Barr and McKinney
lose big.
By Ed Kilgore
ith
Jimmy Carter, Newt Gingrich, and Sam Nunn all in political retirement,
Georgia's most visible public figures are two U.S. House members that
opponents love to hate: Republican Bob Barr and Democrat Cynthia McKinney.
Improbably enough, both were defeated handily in yesterday's Georgia primaries.
Barr was gerrymandered
into a fight with colleague John Linder in a new overwhelmingly Republican
north-metro Atlanta's seventh district. Right up until the polls closed,
political insiders were split on how the race would turn out. No one predicted
the huge, two-to-one Linder win. Linder was expected to benefit from crossover
voting from the tiny group of Democrats in the district (Georgia has no
party registration), but they were ultimately irrelevant to the result.
The quiet conservative and former Gingrich protégé rolled
up a huge margin in his Gwinnett County base and ran even in the exurban
precincts that were part of Barr's old district. It's unclear how much
the result was influenced by the most recent Barr antics that have amused
political activists around the country — his accidental discharge
of a firearm in a meeting with gun activists, and his hilarious efforts
in a direct-mail piece to suggest that Bill Clinton was the demonic force
behind Linder. It is clear Atlanta voters had grown tired of Barr's act.
The same is true
of Barr's mirror image on the left, Cynthia McKinney, who lost 58-42 to
state judge Denise Majette in an even more stunning upset. Like Earl Hilliard
of Alabama (who lost to Artur Davis in a primary in July), McKinney learned
that holding a majority-black district does not mean you can blithely
say anything you want about world events without paying a political price.
During the last year,
the aggressively abrasive McKinney capped a decade of outrageous statements
by issuing an open letter apologizing for U.S. policies to a Saudi prince
whose offer of funds for 9/11 relief had been rebuffed by Rudy Giuliani,
and by suggesting on a radio talk show that George W. Bush had welcomed
the terrorist attacks as a boon to defense-industry friends. Like Davis
of Alabama, the little-known Majette (also an African-American woman)
took advantage of McKinney's unsavory reputation to build a big funding
advantage, much of the money coming from Jewish donors in the district
and around the nation. McKinney managed to compound her problems by accepting
contributions from a variety of Islamic sources with ties to Hamas, Hezbollah,
and even al Qaeda. She also attracted bad last-minute press with a phone-bank
campaign that featured recycled old endorsements from Andrew Young (who
repudiated them immediately), Bill Clinton, and Robert Redford. Meanwhile,
her father, state representative Bill McKinney (who may have lost his
own legislative seat yesterday, depending on how absentee ballots turn
out) went on a local television stations on election eve and blamed Cynthia's
problems on "Jews — that's J-E-W-S." Nice.
McKinney's margin
of defeat was arguably attributable to heavy Republican crossover voting,
but she clearly failed to generate the big turnout among middle-class
African Americans that her long history of successful race baiting had
led most observers to expect.
While the Barr and
McKinney losses will rightly dominate news coverage of the Georgia primary,
they will not affect the partisan balance in Congress. Thanks to a brilliant
job of gerrymandering by Governor Roy Barnes, Democrats expect to change
Georgia's House delegation from the current 8-3 Republican margin to a
7-6 Democratic advantage (Georgia picked up two new House seats). But
primary results in two Democratic-leaning open districts give new hope
to Republicans that they can dodge the intended bullet. In northwest Georgia's
eleventh district, retired liquor distributor Roger Kahn appears to have
defeated former Congressman Buddy Darden after an exceptionally nasty
campaign. Kahn, who lost badly to Bob Barr in 2000, ran well to Darden's
left, and may struggle to hold the district against one of two Republicans
(including State Sen. Phil Gingrey) who will meet in a September 10 runoff.
Kahn does, however, have money to burn. Meanwhile, in the Macon-based
third district, another labor-backed candidate, former Macon Mayor Jim
Marshall, beat self-styled conservative Democrat Chuck Byrd, and will
face highly regarded Republican Calder Clay in November. Marshall ran
an under performing "populist" campaign against then-incumbent
Saxby Chambliss in 2000.
But depending on
absentee ballots, Republican primary voters in the open twelfth district
(running from Athens to Augusta to Savannah) may have denied themselves
another upset opportunity. County commissioner Max Burns seems to have
narrowly defeated Barbara Dooley (talk-show host and wife of legendary
Georgia football coach Vince Dooley) for the Republican nomination. Dooley
would have had an even chance to win the twelfth against the winner of
a Democratic runoff; it's between African Americans Champ Walker and Ben
Allen.
Georgia's statewide
races produced little drama. Congressman Saxby Chambliss, anointed by
national GOP officials and the White House as the challenger to Sen. Max
Cleland, won nomination over state Rep. Bob Irvin, exceeding the 60-percent
vote threshold that many D.C. insiders had set for him. And in a nice
surprise for Georgia Republicans, state representative Sonny Perdue won
the gubernatorial nomination without a runoff, which means he has more
than two months to rattle his cup in an effort to overcome Roy Barnes's
huge financial advantage.
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ith
Jimmy Carter, Newt Gingrich, and Sam Nunn all in political retirement,
Georgia's most visible public figures are two U.S. House members that
opponents love to hate: Republican Bob Barr and Democrat Cynthia McKinney.
Improbably enough, both were defeated handily in yesterday's Georgia primaries.
