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The Chronicle welcomes you online! Please feel free to respond to these editorials or letters to the editor by sending your
letters to the editor.
We condense letters; most, as published, won't exceed 300 words. A letter must include the writer's name and city, which will be published, and an address and telephone number for verification, which will not be published. Writers may be limited to one letter every 30 days. Open letters, letters to third parties and poetry are not considered. Letters from people living outside the Chronicle's circulation area usually are not considered.
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Web posted November 7, 1999
Seven-year Augusta Commissioner Freddie Handy received a big surprise last Tuesday night. Three District 2 challengers held him to under 45 percent of the vote, forcing him into a Nov. 23 runoff with second-place winner Rev. Marion Williams.
If a well-funded incumbent can't turn out a winning vote against lesser-known, woefully underfunded candidates, it underscores just how politically weak he is.
As the late U.S. House Speaker Tip O'Neill once said, ``All politics is local.'' In this context, Handy was stung by criticism that he neglected low-income, drug-infested neighborhoods in the district. He was also hurt by not publicly and unequivocally denouncing stealing by his son, then an employee of the Trees and Parks Department. And Handy basically ignored the minority white vote in his district.
Williams, on the other hand, is a hard-working railroad employee and pastor who stresses honesty and character in government. Government, he says, should be helping people -- not hurting their businesses or their pocketbooks. Although he probably didn't raise more than $2,000, Williams tirelessly walked neighborhoods, campaigned in restaurants and, within a few weeks, built a biracial coalition. His message: Clean up the district, create new jobs and hold the line on taxes.
Unless Williams rests on his laurels and slacks off campaigning, he'll have a great shot at KOing the dazed Handy.
A Cracker falls
Candidate Andy Cheek deserves high marks for also stressing honest, open government -- and voters in south Augusta District 6 responded by giving him a big win over discredited ex-Commissioner Hobson Chavous. Cheek cam-paigned with prominent black support-ers, which defused last-minute smears from the Chavous camp that Cheek is a ``racist.''
After the election, a reader called to ask what we meant by editorially labeling Chavous ``a new Cracker.'' Well, many newcomers may not realize that the Cracker Party dominated Augusta-Richmond County until its power was broken in the 1940s by a group of independent politicians editorially backed by this paper.
The Memorial History of Augusta, Georgia by Charles Jones Jr. provides an insight into the origin of the term:
``The `Cracker' was known in Georgia as far back as colonial times, and in the interesting work of Anthony Stokes, royal chief justice of the province, there is a curious account of those then known by the term. It is by no means complimentary, and was doubtless deeply colored by the recollections of the royalist judge of the deadly work of the ``crackers' rifle in the war against King George.''
Jones quotes Stokes as saying many of these men ``are descended from convicts that were transported from Great Britain ... and inherit so much profligacy from their ancestors that they are the most abandoned set of men on Earth. ... They also occasioned frequent disputes with the Indians whom they robbed and sometimes murdered; the Indians, in return, according to their custom, murdered the first white man they met by way of retaliation.''
From this ``tradition'' sprang Georgia's 20th century Cracker Party, which held sway here in the 1930s and '40s by shaking down Broad Street businessmen for contributions, dispensing patronage jobs and intimidating political opponents. Examples of latter-day ``new Crackers'' who later mellowed were the late Roy V. Harris and Mike Padgett. Chavous was simply one of the bad boys who was once one of their disciples.
Political fund raising
Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes recently fired off a letter to ``close friends and political supporters'' to ``help me work toward my goal of electing Al Gore president of the United States.'' The main targets: Lobbyists who work the Capitol.
The governor and Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., hosted an Oct. 25 Gore event at Atlanta's World Trade Club. Even though the vice president was absent, some $200,000 was raised. The only top state Democrat not for Gore is state Rep. Terry Coleman, D-Eastman, who backs presidential candidate Bill Bradley.
In Augusta, depleted Richmond County Republican Party coffers will be replenished with a Nov. 15 breakfast/rally at the Radisson Riverfront Hotel. It features the U.S. Senate's No. 2 leader (and avid golfer), Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., invited by state Rep. Robin Williams, R-Augusta.
One reason for the low GOP treasury: The local party utilized its extensive computer data base of south Augusta supporters and mass mailed a last-minute letter supporting Andy Cheek. Cheek, of course, can be loosely described as a ``conservative Republican'' although Commission races are officially non-partisan.
Phil Kent is senior editorial writer for The Augusta Chronicle. He can be reached at (706) 823-3327 or philkent@augustachronicle.com
