With the passing of Memorial Day came the start of another election season. This year, it’s a big one. In addition to sending state and federal lawmakers to office, voters also will choose a new governor to succeed Gov. Sonny Perdue.
It’s not a job for the politically timid. The next governor will take office in a state where the unemployment rate exceeds the national average; where school districts have axed thousands of teachers; and where immigration remains a thorny issue.
With that in mind, reporters from the Rome News-Tribune and 10 other Georgia newspapers interviewed more than 150 residents from LaFayette to Valdosta about their hopes, concerns and priorities for the campaigns.
The reporters’ findings? We’re fretful about the economy, fearful for our schools, frustrated with illegal immigration and fuming at lawmakers.
“There ain’t but one difference between the government and the Boy Scouts,” said McDonough grower Harold Woods. “The Boy Scouts have adult leadership.”
The issues may be clear to voters, but the candidates aren’t. Less than two months before the primaries, few could name all of the 14 people running for governor. Most voters appeared only vaguely aware that another political season is imminent.
Sean Richey, a political science professor at Georgia State University, wasn’t surprised. Memorial Day is the traditional start of the political season, he agreed — but voters may not know that.
Candidates will do their best to get their attention in the coming weeks. Voters will be asked to choose Democratic and Republican nominees for governor and other races July 20.
This will be a tough season for incumbent and newcomer, Richey predicted. Voters are distrustful, worn down by a recession that won’t go away and a recovery that won’t come. They need to be convinced.
“This will be the challenge the campaigns face,” Richey said. “They’ll have to keep the people engaged.”
‘People are losing jobs’
The economic numbers are daunting. Georgia last year lost 94,000 jobs. Its unemployment rate last week stood at 10.4 percent. The state leads the nation in bank failures.
The solution? “Jobs, jobs, jobs, which will spur our economy,” said Jeff Gorelick, 65, general manager of Ruben’s Department Store, a mainstay in downtown Augusta since 1879. “It’s the only thing candidates should be talking about.”
Fort Valley florist Larry Smith was just as emphatic. “Get people to work,” the 58-year-old said. “This jobless rate is too much.”
In Rome, drop by the Chick-fil-A Dwarf House on Shorter Avenue on any given morning and you’re just as likely to see a large Bible study group as you are a gathering of politically savvy seniors trying to solve the problems of the state over chicken biscuits and coffee.
The economy and education were the critical issues posed by the seniors, stretched out across three tables in the restaurant.
Jobs are crucial to getting the economy moving again and education is seen as critical to attracting good jobs to the state.
“We need to focus on small business and get some capital available again. We need banking decisions made back in this state, not in Alabama or North Carolina,” said Roland Jordan, 69, of Cedartown. His buddy, John Moore, 78 also from Cedartown, said the state needs to do more to foster homegrown entrepreneurs. “We need to give tax breaks to Georgia businesses along the line that we give them to foreign corporations,” Moore said.
The northeast mountain community Dahlonega enjoyed a revival of small businesses and tourism in the last decade. No longer. Some of the businesses that bustled are dark, their doors bolted.
“They (lawmakers) need to get their priorities in order,” said Bobbi Sutton, 62, who manages a pet boutique on the square.
Legislators also need to take a hard look at government programs, said Lance Linton, 43, of Gwinnett County.
“People are losing jobs and don’t even get enough unemployment to live, and when it runs out, then what?” asked Linton. “What is the stimulus stimulating, and how many people are benefiting?”
Retired educator Sherman Gibbs, 59 of LaFayette is a Democrat and plans to vote.
Gibbs said he has “somewhat” paid attention to the governor’s race and said he is lukewarm on voting for Democratic candidate David Poythress, but is not yet 100 percent for him. Gibbs said he would like to see a focus on the economy and education. “The economy is in the ditch,” he said.
Cedartown’s Charles Chandler, 62, sees job creation as the most important thing that should be on candidates’ to-do list.
He wants a governor who will work to bring employment to Georgia while also being forward thinking.
"I think overall, Georgia is holding its own compared to most other states," Chandler said.
Athens barber Patrick Watkins, 29, wondered what careers await this year’s University of Georgia graduates.
“Are you going to be an (economics) major and get a job at McDonald’s?” he asked.
‘Gutting education’
Last week, the state Board of Education voted to lift all limits on class sizes. It was an attempt to bridge a nearly $1 billion gap in school funding. Across the state, local boards of education sliced left and right: teachers were laid off, programs consolidated.
The cuts are enough to make Columbus mom Laura Saliba worry about her son Stone’s education.
A recent afternoon found mother and her toddler at a downtown Columbus sweet shop. Education, said the 36-year-old, is the biggest issue in Georgia this political season.
“I want to know my son will receive as much of a quality education as people in other states,” she said.
Tim Lewis, 48, of Rockmart has been around politics for years. After all, his father is the mayor of this small town where he manages his father’s business, Lewis Automotive on Piedmont Avenue.
It was in the small, dark office of the used-car dealership where Lewis said he really hasn’t paid too much attention to the Georgia political races yet. He said no one has really said much yet that interests him.
But Lewis says funding schools is probably the biggest issue facing the state. “The main thing is the school situation, the budget situation, teacher pay,” he said.
He said the method used for calculating teacher’s raises and pay should probably be updated to reflect more on their workload, school location and student improvement rather than solely on their education.
Allison Spears says she got a quality education in Connecticut’s public schools, and thinks Georgia’s children deserve no less. She’s got three children, two enrolled in private Atlanta schools. The third, 3-year-old Graham, will follow his siblings.
“Something needs to be done to (improve) in-town schools,” said Spears, who lives in Atlanta’s Buckhead community. “Maybe school vouchers are the answer.”
LaFayette retiree Nella Bell is a Democrat who
votes regularly. After doing some grocery shopping at Shop Rite, Bell said she’s not too familiar with the candidates yet but knows she’ll stick to her party.
She wants to see a stronger focus on schools and education and wants the government to watch other spending and spend more on the educational system.
According to Bell, numerous teachers are being laid off and there are too many children packed into classrooms, making it difficult to reach out to each child independently.
Teacher furloughs are not the answer, said the Rev. Marvin Smith of Valdosta.
“They belong in the classroom teaching our children,” he said. “I also think it’s a bad idea to overcrowd the classrooms just to cut back on teachers.”
Make sure students learn the right things, added Augusta resident Dan Cook, 77, a retired advertising executive. “Teach young people not to just line up behind cash registers,” said Cook, in downtown Augusta. “We need to teach them ... to go after a better kind of job.”
Dublin resident Johnny Stover wondered about legislative priorities, too. He took a few moments from a pastors’ meeting at a coffee shop to toss a barb at Perdue’s $30 million Go Fish Georgia marketing initiative.
“They need to cut projects, like the governor’s fishing lake,” said Stover, 32. “How many teachers lost their jobs so we could have a lake?”
Children may be learning the wrong lesson, said Charles Graves, who is 71 and lives in Rome. The lesson: school is not important to lawmakers.
“We’re gutting education,” he said.
‘No durn business being here’
They may not know her name, but Georgia’s voters know who she is. Jessica Colotl, a Kennesaw State University student facing deportation after officials discovered she has lived in this country illegally for 11 years, is the new face of illegal immigration in Georgia.
“I feel for this girl at Kennesaw State,” said Dan Sosebee, 51, who operates Sosebee Auto Supply in Lawrenceville. “But she doesn’t have the same rights as my daughter.”
Ray Charles Ellis, 55, of Brunswick, threaded a fresh shrimp on a hook and cast it into the East River. Laid off eight months ago, Ellis worries about illegal immigration and its effect on people looking for work.
“There’d be more jobs if we’d get the (illegal immigrants) out of here. If a company hires me, they have to pay me $12 an hour, but they can get two of them for $6 an hour,” he said. “They … send all their money out back home to Mexico or Indochina where it helps their country, not us.”
McDonough resident Debbie Woods took a similarly hard line. She sells produce at the State Farmers Market, and believes a lot of the workers she sees at the Forest Park facility are in America under questionable circumstances.
“If they’re legal, that’s fine,” said Woods, 52. “If they’re not, they’ve got no durn business being here.”
They should be allowed here, countered 18-year-old Shermany Williams. A Marietta resident, she just graduated from high school. She knows other young people, said Williams, whose circumstances are identical to Colotl’s.
“It doesn’t matter to me,” said Williams, who’ll be attending Michigan State University this fall. “They might as well be a citizen.”
‘Something different’
What about our state’s politics? You may as well ask a bull about a red flag.
“They run and say all these things, then when they get in office they forget what they promised,” said Robbie Jones of Kingsland in southeast Georgia. “I would love to hear different ideas from candidates.”
New politicians would be nice, said Dalton State College student Casey Hope.
“I just want something different,” said Hope, 20. “They’re obviously not doing what they should be doing.”
Alvin Jackson, 60, of Rome said that Thurbert Baker would mount a challenge to Roy Barnes and that if the African-American community turns out in large numbers, he could make it into a run-off.
Political gridlock is an issue that drew the ire of Rome’s Martha Pinson, 73. “I want to see these elected officials work together for the better of this state and not their party,” she said.
Jane Hyde of Resaca is a long-term registered voter and a life-long Democrat, who says that despite her grueling schedule as a carpet mill supervisor she still tries to be active in the democratic process.
“I haven’t really paid real close attention to the recent races. I will be honest it’s been hard for me to follow at times,” said Hyde, 54, as she spent a recent morning at the Calhoun-Gordon County Public Library.
She says she wants to remain an active voter, but she has become disheartened by big government spending.
“How much do you hear about the state cutting jobs, taking away funding, not giving people raises? But how often do you hear people in high government positions say they are willing to take a pay cut? We have all had to cut back in our own lives and I don’t think they are willing to cut back in theirs,” she said.
Teddy D’s Barber Shop in LaFayette is a place where citizens can bat about their views and opinions on politics, sports and everyday life and one fellow there getting a trim talked about views on the coming elections.
Walker County Clerk of Court Carter Brown, 47, usually votes Republican, but would prefer to be labeled a Georgian-American-Baptist-Marine-Republican.
Brown said he is paying attention somewhat to the race for governor and plans to cast his vote for Nathan Deal.
He feels that there are many important factors for Georgia voters and candidates to focus on and believes that education is surely a fundamental concern, as well as keeping government spending under control, emphasizing that spending should be focused on long-term benefits.
“The role of government needs to be defined,” Brown said. “I believe in a limited government role where government doesn’t expand into our everyday lives.”
Frank Griffin doubts current office-holders can do the job anymore. He owns a pawnshop at a crossroads community on the flat high ground that dips toward the Satilla River in Brantley County, west of Brunswick.
“Our government worked for a long time, but now it’s broken,” he said. “I hate to say it, but I don’t know of anything that will fix it.”
Rome resident Brian Hampton, 63, wasn’t as pessimistic. The machine, he said, is OK. Perhaps the operators need to be fired.
“We have to get the machinery of government working again,” he said. “It’s just been run badly.”
About this story:
This story was reported by staffers from 11 member news organizations of the Georgia Newspaper Partnership. Reporters spoke to more than 150 Georgians across the state. Below is a list of the contributing newspapers and reporters:
Calhoun Times -Lydia Senn
Rome News-Tribune — Doug Walker, Melodie Dareing, Josh O’Bryant, Mark Andrews and Lowell Vickers and
Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Mark Davis, who was the primary writer who compiled the contributions of partner papers
Athens Banner-Herald —Blake Aued
Augusta Chronicle —Susan McCord
Chattanooga Times Free-Press — Andy Johns
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer — Tim Chitwood
Gainesville Times — Carolyn Crist and Melissa Weinman
Georgia Times-Union — Teresa Stepzinski, Gordon Jackson and Terry Dickson
Macon Telegraph — Rodney Manley, Phillip Ramati and Marlon A. Walker
Savannah Morning News — Dashiell Coleman
Valdosta Daily Times — Dawn Castro and Kay Harris
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