Posted on 08/23/2002 4:14:14 PM PDT by PAR35
MARIETTA — In the hotly contested District 11 race, a pair of last-minute endorsements from former President Bill Clinton failed to sway residents to vote for Buddy Darden.
To help Darden defeat millionaire Bartow County cattle rancher Roger Kahn in the Democratic primary, Clinton made a recorded phone call sent to 17,000 houses and a radio endorsement, both of which targeted black voters.
“I know he is a good man and I saw him take courageous stands for families and workers by fighting to increase the minimum wage, strengthen Social Security and bring America’s economy back,” Clinton said in the phone call.
The call went out the night before the election to 17,000 residents of Congressional District 11, which stretches from the Tennessee line at Chatooga County to Columbus.
Clinton also gave a lengthy, ringing endorsement of the Cobb candidate the morning of the election on V-103, one of Atlanta’s largest and known for its large black audience.
Former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell, who co-hosts a talk show on V-103’s sister station WAOK, got Clinton to call in.
Station News Director Jean Ross said clips of the endorsement were replayed free of charge throughout the election day.
The presidential call was political payback of sorts because Darden had cast a decisive vote for Clinton’s 1993 tax bill, which passed by a single nod. The bill raised taxes across-the-board, plus a 5-cent per gallon tax on gasoline.
“By 1996, when I ran for re-election and won handily, the American people could see that the budget that Buddy Darden voted for that only passed by one vote had had a decisive effect in turning the American economy around,” Clinton said on the radio show.
Some analysts attribute Darden’s vote on the controversial tax and a photo of him jogging on the Washington Mall with Clinton as key reasons for Darden’s loss to Republican Bob Barr in 1994.
In Tuesday’s primary, Kahn defeated Darden in the 17-county race with 19,148 votes — 1,343 more than Darden’s 17,775 vote total.
The race was considered a comeback for Darden, who had served six terms in Congress from 1983 until 1995.
Darden said one of his friends spoke with Clinton at a party in Martha’s Vineyard on Saturday night and asked him to support the former District 7 congressman.
One of Darden’s colleagues in the large Atlanta law firm McKenna Long and Aldrich also called Clinton and asked for the former president’s support. Gordon Giffin, head of the law firm’s Washington, D.C., office, ran Clinton’s campaigns in Georgia and served as ambassador to Canada in his administration.
Darden said despite the loss, he was pleased with Clinton’s endorsements.
“I did not speak with him directly, but I listened to the call and approved it before it went out,” Darden said.
He said Clinton was not paid for the call.
Darden said there was no target market for the 17,000 voters he sent the Clinton phone call to. However, staffers hinted strongly it was aimed at black voters.
The district features a 25 percent voting-age black population. Clinton has a nearly 90 percent approval rating among blacks.
Clinton elaborated on his endorsement in the radio ad, saying he does not normally endorse candidates in the primary. He said he chose to do so for Darden because of his critical vote for the tax plan he said “turned the entire American economy around.”
Both Darden and Giffin say they had no idea Clinton would be speaking on the radio station, nor that he would make a public endorsement at that time.
“I was not aware he made the call until to V-103 until someone told me at lunch on Tuesday,” Darden said.
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BillyBob stills lies for fun and profit.
Bill, I want my five cents per gallon gas tax back! I didn't appreciate the hike in gas taxes in 1994, and I still don"t.
Never forget, this is the bufoon that said he could give us a tax cut tomorrow, but he was afraid that we wouldn't use the money right.
Even when he's "endorsing" somebody else, he just cannot stop talking about himself, can he?
Been a while since I had thought about that. Thanks for the reminder.
The first time I saw that smug, arrogant p.o.s. say that on tee vee, I came real close to getting charged with shooting (at my tee vee) in an occupied dwelling.
Words can't begin to describe the rage. Well, if they did I'd be getting a visit from the gestapo.
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