|
|
|||
|
|||
|
|
Rep. Cynthia McKinney: 'I'm Not Perfect'
Rep. Cynthia McKinney, whose run-in with a U.S. Capitol Police officer this year grabbed headlines, is in an even bigger fight back home: A challenger threatens to end her career in next week's Democratic Party runoff.
Advance voting has started in Georgia as the outspoken McKinney faces former DeKalb County commissioner Hank Johnson in Tuesday's contest. Georgia's first black woman in Congress, McKinney drew less than 50 percent of the vote in last month's primary, dimming her prospects for winning a seventh term in the majority black district.
On Thursday, McKinney began ads on seven cable television stations in the Atlanta area, including CNN, BET and Lifetime. The ads, continuing for the five days leading up to the runoff, cost about $10,000.
"I'm not perfect," McKinney said in a separate radio ad. "But I've worked hard, told you the truth and I'm not afraid to speak truth to power."
Story Continues Below
McKinney once claimed the Bush administration had advance knowledge of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. She struck a Capitol Police officer in March when he tried to stop her from entering a House office building unrecognized. A grand jury in Washington declined to indict her in the incident, but she was forced to apologize in the full House.
"She's been the candidate of polarization and divisiveness," Johnson, who also is black, said in a debate with McKinney this week.
McKinney blames Republicans for her political woes. Whether the GOP is responsible is a matter of dispute, but there is no doubt that the Republicans have orchestrated a remarkable takeover in Georgia.
In just four years, Republicans have grabbed Georgia's two Senate seats and the governor's mansion while seizing majority control of both chambers of the state Legislature. The only Democratic gains have come in the state's U.S. House seats, although the GOP still has the edge: an 8-3 Republican advantage in 2002 is now 7-6 GOP. Georgia gained two seats in 2003.
In a sign of the power the GOP wields in Georgia, Republican lawmakers have redrawn congressional maps as they eye more gains. Two former Republican congressmen are challenging two Democratic incumbents in districts more friendly to the GOP.
Nationwide, Democrats are upbeat about their Election Day prospects due to President Bush's low approval ratings, increasing opposition to the Iraq war and discontent with the GOP-controlled Congress.
In Georgia, however, Republicans could tighten their grip on the state. Bush is more popular in the state than in other parts of the country, although his support has dropped even in Georgia.
The GOP targets are conservative Democrats representing largely rural districts that boast Georgia staples - peanut farms, peach orchards and military bases. Separate from voting, four rural Democrats in Georgia's state Legislature switched parties this year.
In eastern Georgia, in a district stretching from Augusta to Savannah, former one-term Republican Rep. Max Burns is challenging Rep. John Barrow, who defeated him in 2004. Republicans redrew the district to lop off Barrow's hometown of Athens-Clarke County, a Democratic stronghold. Barrow has since moved to Savannah.
In central Georgia, Democratic Rep. Jim Marshall is facing former Rep. Mac Collins, a six-term House member who left and ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 2004. Both Barrow and Marshall are conservative Democrats who have voted for tough immigration measures, oppose gay marriage and have supported tax cuts. Nonetheless, their challengers are trying to paint them as too liberal for their districts, linking them to House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.
Meanwhile, Collins and Burns are doing a delicate dance of embracing Bush, but not too tightly. Both have distanced themselves from Bush's immigration policy, which has been criticized by conservatives as akin to amnesty.
The issue appears to be a popular one in Georgia where state lawmakers this year passed a measure that cracks down on state benefits for adults illegally in the United States. The law is to take effect next year.
In McKinney's suburban Atlanta district, a steady stream of voters has turned out in DeKalb County in the advance voting. Some Republicans have contributed to Johnson's campaign and say they voted for him in the July 18 primary. In Georgia, a registered voter can choose either a Democratic or Republican ballot in the primary. They must select that same ballot in a runoff.
Tim Marcinak, a 56-year-old Republican engineer, took a Democratic ballot in July to make a statement against McKinney, whom he called "a disgrace."
"She doesn't represent the district and her last little antic at the Capitol was something I don't want representing me," Marcinak said.
But the GOP is also happy to have McKinney to kick around. In Georgia, the state Republican Party has tried to embarrass Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, the Democratic nominee for governor, by questioning his ties to McKinney.
University of Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock said that if history is a guide, McKinney will lose as most incumbents forced into a runoff in Georgia do.
"There is blood in the water and the sharks are circling," Bullock said.
© 2006 Associated Press.
Editor's note:
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Inside Cover Stories
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Print Page 
Forward Page 
|
| All Rights Reserved © 2009 NewsMax.Com |