Hey, don't forget that Billy called a bunch of us FReepers "racist Nazis" when we went down to protest his daughter at her "Veterans's Town Hall Meeting". If Cynthia's like the people with whom she surrounds herself, and I have no reason to think otherwise, she's a nasty, evil, hateful racist. Majette at least seems like someone who can reasonably talk with a white person.
AJC endorsements:
In the 4th, incumbent Cynthia McKinney's irresponsible -- indeed, wildly irrational -- rhetoric has alienated many of her constituents. So it is no surprise that she has drawn a strong challenger, former DeKalb State Court Judge Denise Majette.
Majette is more than just "not McKinney." With a Yale law degree, she is bright and thoughtful, a moderate candidate who can well represent the needs of a diverse district.
[ The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 8/10/02 ]
Democrats fire away in debates
Majette, McKinney agree on little
By RHONDA COOK
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
Cynthia McKinney showed. And the sparks flew.
In their first head-to-head confrontation Friday night, the combative 4th District congresswoman and her challenger squared off over campaign contributors with terrorist connections, Republicans, affirmative action and reparations for slavery.
McKinney and Denise Majette, a former DeKalb County state court judge, stood at separate lecterns about 5 feet apart in Georgia Public Television's studios and fielded questions from reporters. They rarely looked at each other during the 30-minute verbal sparring match.
"Quite frankly, my outspokenness is loved by my constituents," McKinney said at one point. "You will see that on Election Day."
Organizers of the debate were unsure whether McKinney would participate until she and her entourage arrived at the GPTV studio about 20 minutes before the debate was to begin.
McKinney caused a storm earlier this year by suggesting President Bush might have known about the Sept. 11 attacks but did nothing so his associates could make money in the ensuing war.
The congresswoman implied during the debate that she has been vindicated because a House committee was created to look into the Sept. 11 attacks.
Majette accused McKinney of being an ineffective lawmaker, bringing only $356 million to her district during her 10 years in congress, while U.S. Rep. John Lewis brought five times that amount to the neighboring 5th Congressional District.
She also said McKinney had taken campaign contributions from Arab terrorists on Sept. 11. McKinney touted herself as the "defender of the weak and the poor."
"We don't racially profile our contributors," McKinney shot back. "My opponent has a lot of Republican money flowing into her coffers."
Majette was asked if she would be beholden to Israel since some of her contributions came from Jewish donors.
"I'm not beholden to anyone except the people of the 4th District," Majette said.
McKinney accused Majette of "flip-flopping" on affirmative action because she does not favor reparations for slavery. Majette said better schools and adequate salaries for teachers are the best way to "level the playing field" and make up for past wrongs.
Majette complained McKinney had distributed campaign ads filled with "misrepresentations and lies." McKinney countered by resurrecting a 1990s court case in which a woman appeared before Majette for a speeding ticket.
McKinney waved a hand-written note that she said proved Majette had tried to withhold court documents from the woman, who was appealing her conviction.
"What she requested were informal notes," Majette said. "She got what she asked for, like she got what she asked for when she asked for a jury trial."
-- Staff writer Jim Tharpe contributed to this article.
'Crossover' voting push on to oust McKinney Rhonda Cook - Staff Friday, August 9, 2002
Some Republican voters have a strategy for defeating U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney that may feel like political treason: voting in the Democratic primary.
Georgia politics, from talk radio to cyberspace, is buzzing with talk of GOP-leaning 4th District voters "crossing over" in the Aug. 20 primary to vote for McKinney's Democratic challenger, Denise Majette. With polls showing a close race, an e-mail being circulated by a group called New Leadership for DeKalb estimates Republican voters can swing the vote to Majette if 3,000 to 5,000 vote a Democratic ballot.
It's going to feel odd for a staunch Republican like Phil Kent to vote for a Democrat, but Kent is planning to cast a ballot for Majette. Kent, president of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, a conservative advocacy group, said it will be the first time he has voted in the Democratic primary. Though there are three candidates running in the GOP's 4th District primary, Kent realizes a Republican is unlikely to win the heavily Democratic district. He says McKinney must go, no matter what.
"I was horrified when I landed in Cynthia McKinney's district," said Kent, who lives in north DeKalb. "I just made the decision [that] if I feel strongly about it, I'm going to make a change. She's probably one of the worst, out-of-control, left-wing people in Congress."
Kent can cross over because of Georgia's open-primary system. Voters do not register with a political party here, as they do in 29 states. So Georgians can choose to vote in either the Republican or Democratic primary on Aug. 20 --- though not both. When a voter who typically votes in one primary strategically chooses to vote in the other, they are said to have "crossed over." Crossover voting is mostly seen in presidential primaries, experts say, and rarely is widely practiced or well-organized.
New Leadership for DeKalb is trying to make the 4th District an exception to that rule.
Mark Davis, a Gwinnett County Republican voter and one of the effort's leaders, said the organization has raised about $15,000 through www.goodbyecynthia.com.
It plans to set up a phone bank that will put out calls to about 15,000 Republican primary and other voters encouraging them to vote for Majette in the Democratic primary. The group also plans to send out 30,000 to 40,000 flyers in the district next week.
The numbers may make their task difficult. In the 2000 primary, just 8,689 votes were cast for the two Republicans running in the 4th District, though the DeKalb-centered district has been reconfigured slightly. McKinney, running unopposed, drew 40,629 votes in the Democratic primary.
McKinney, at a campaign stop Thursday, dismissed the crossover campaign, saying that Majette appeals to Republican voters because she is, in essence, a Republican. "She votes Republican. She gives her money to Republicans. Republicans are giving her money," McKinney said.
McKinney and Majette have been invited to debate, but McKinney has not decided if she will participate in a 4th District debate scheduled for 7:30 p.m. today on Georgia Public Television.
Voting a Democratic ballot has a downside for dedicated Republican voters --- they won't be able to choose among GOP candidates for governor, U.S. Senate or in other races. That's why some --- including McKinney's campaign manager --- dispute the notion of a large crossover vote.
"I don't believe that primary voters in either the Republican or Democratic Party will cross over," Bill Banks said. "The reason is you have two major [statewide] races in terms of the primary . . . The primary voter . . . is mainly concerned with winning that part of the primary."
But Norman Ornstein, congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said opposition to McKinney has created an ideal climate for crossover voting. "It's a reflection of the degree that Cynthia McKinney has become a lightning rod," he said. Still, he suggested McKinney could overcome a strong crossover vote if she is able to energize her Democratic base --- as she has done in the past.
Crossover proponents explain their actions by noting, among other things, McKinney's statements suggesting the Bush administration might have known the Sept. 11 attacks were coming yet did nothing to stop them.
Also, last October, McKinney penned an apology to Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal after then-New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani turned down the prince's offer of $10 million to help the families of Sept. 11 victims. Giuliani was offended by the prince's suggestion that the United States' pro-Israel policy helped cause the attacks.
Davis, a businessman whose father once ran for governor as a Republican, does not live in the 4th District but says he has clients there. He doesn't know if the crossover campaign will work but says it's worth the effort.
"I view [McKinney] as a traitor, and I'm ashamed to have her representing our state in Congress, whether it's my district or not," he said.
