ATLANTA -- With enough money, it's possible to start a political career at the top, skipping the usual career path of steppingstone offices. North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, a Democrat, did it. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Republican, did, too.
|
ADVERTISEMENT
|
|
|
Have a thought?
Go to the Forums or Chat.
|
|
|
But Georgia voters haven't been so obliging to businessmen who make a wad in the private sector and then dive into politics. In the primary season that ended last week, two tycoons went bust - politically speaking.
Herman Cain, the former CEO of Omaha, Neb.-based Godfather's Pizza, wowed Republican audiences with a hard-line conservative message delivered with a well-honed motivational speaker's style, however he failed to win the GOP U.S. Senate nomination.
Cliff Oxford, founder of the technology support company, Atlanta-based STI Knowledge, finished second in the primary for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination and made it to a runoff, but couldn't close the deal in the Aug. 10 rematch with Rep. Denise Majette.
"I don't think Oxford lost because he was a millionaire. He lost because he wasn't a very good candidate," said Merle Black, an Emory University political science professor.
Cain, a rare black candidate in a party struggling to reach black voters, was strong enough to finish ahead of white, six-term Congressman Mac Collins in a three-man primary July 20. Instead, the GOP nomination went to a well-organized, well-funded and politically savvy Rep. Johnny Isakson, who twice before ran statewide races.
Cain and Oxford were just the latest casualties among the politically inspired well-to-do in Georgia.
Millionaire businessman Roger Kahn, a Democrat, lost two attempts to go to Washington, the first in 2000 to then-incumbent Rep. Bob Barr and again in 2002 to Republican Phil Gingrey.
Democrat Michael Coles, a founder of the Great American Cookie Co., took on the formidable Newt Gingrich, then U.S. House Speaker, in 1996, and lost. Two years later, he tried to unseat the late Sen. Paul Coverdell and lost again.
The record for the most failed bids by millionaires, however, is still held by Guy Millner, the gaffe-prone candidate who spent an estimated $19 million of his own money on efforts to win the governor's office in 1994 and 1998 and to win a Senate seat in 1996. Millner was founder of the Norrell temporary services agency.
It's not the money, experts say. There's no particular Georgia jinx that falls on wealthy candidates. Isakson, the Republican Senate nominee, is wealthy. Former Gov. Roy Barnes, a Democrat, is wealthy.
But with Isakson and Barnes, both learned their political craft through long apprenticeships in the Legislature, a process which also helped them build contacts statewide.
"Money is not a barrier, but it is difficult when you have no campaign experience or you're lacking in political skills to transfer what may be a very successful personal style in the private realm to the political realm," University of Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock said.
"As CEO of a company, you're used to issuing orders. As a political figure, you're often asking people to help you, you're asking for their votes. The persona you put on as CEO may make it difficult to get into that position of asking for help," he said.
Rick Dent, a Georgia-based political consultant, said Georgia's millionaire losers aren't prepared for how tough the political world can be.
"When you get these high-paid Washington media consultants flying down to see you and telling you how wonderful you are, it's easy to fall for," Dent said. "And it's a very tough game. It really is."
He added, "People who have years of experience running for and holding office will stumble and fall every now and then. So to take an amateur and put him out in public just because he has a lot of money - voters haven't bought it here in Georgia."
Coles, now CEO of Minneapolis-based Caribou Coffee, said he wasn't seeking other worlds to conquer when he ran for elective office. "I was doing this as a continuation of public service, and that's the truth."
He underestimated the challenge, he said, and mistakenly thought his lack of political credentials would be seen by voters as an asset.
"People like me who get into the political arena don't understand how politics works. It's tough. It's a whole other industry," he said.
There's a real allure to politics for some successful businessmen, said Patricia Farrell, a New Jersey psychologist, medical consultant and author. "In America, being a governor or senator is American royalty and forevermore you are going to be called 'senator' or 'governor.' And they want that," she said.
But some, like Edwards in North Carolina and Bloomberg in New York, seem more gifted or perhaps just luckier than Georgia's millionaire runner-ups.
Edwards is a trial lawyer "who made his living persuading juries," said Emory's Black. "It was his skill as an advocate."
Bloomberg, he said, may simply have been lucky. "That's one where the Democrats divided in New York City, and Bloomberg became the default candidate. The only way Republicans can win in New York City is if Democrats split."
Dick Pettys has covered Georgia government and politics since 1970
