Posted on 08/26/2002 7:00:30 PM PDT by Shermy
High-profile supporters of U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney's unsuccessful re-election bid said Monday they want to end crossover voting in Georgia.
McKinney, who is out of the country, was absent from the news conference where they announced their effort. But she broke her postelection silence with a posting on her campaign Web site -- www.cynthia2002.com -- saying she will soon make an announcement about her political plans, including a possible run for the U.S. Senate.
At the news conference, state Rep. Tyrone Brooks (D-Atlanta), joined by the Rev. Joseph Lowery and several other prominent black ministers, said he will introduce legislation in next year's General Assembly to prohibit Republicans from voting in the Democratic primary and vice versa.
Some McKinney backers have blamed her defeat on large numbers of Republicans crossing party lines to vote for Denise Majette, her opponent, in the Democratic primary.
"It's about . . . maintaining the integrity of the party process," said Brooks, whose planned legislation would require voters to register with a particular party to vote in that party's primary.
"The Republicans made a difference" in McKinney's defeat, said Lowery, who heads the Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda, which focuses on civil rights matters. "They provided the margin, which is unethical."
Georgia is one of 21 states that does not require voters to register by party. In primary elections, voters decide at the polls which party's ballot to request. While they are then limited to voting in the same party's runoff, they may vote either party's ballot in subsequent primaries.
Georgia Democratic Party Chairman Calvin Smyre said it is unlikely the Legislature will change the system, which has been in place since Reconstruction.
"I don't know if that would be the wishes of the citizens of the state of Georgia," said Smyre, a state representative from Columbus. "Any time you take choice out of the hands of the public . . . you meet quite a bit of resistance."
State Republican Party Chairman Ralph Reed could not be reached for comment. U.S. Rep. Bob Barr has suggested that his defeat in the Republican primary in the 7th Congressional District was the result of Democratic crossover voting.
In both the 7th and 4th district elections, however, it is unlikely that crossover voters alone could have accounted for the landslide defeats. McKinney, for instance, lost by a 16-point margin -- 42 percent to Majette's 58 percent -- in a district that, historically, has been about two-thirds Democratic.
"If McKinney hadn't been vulnerable among Democrats, it wouldn't have mattered what the Republicans did," said University of Georgia political scientist Charles Bullock.
McKinney has been missing from the public eye since her defeat a week ago and did not respond to a request for an interview Monday. Her Web site posting said she "is going through all the letters and e-mails asking her to continue the struggle, to run again, to run for the U.S. Senate. Shortly, there will be an announcement."
According to the Georgia secretary of state's office, McKinney could legally run as a general election write-in candidate in any race but the one she lost.
The write-in filing deadline is Sept. 3.
But McKinney spokeswoman Dana Mott said McKinney had made no decisions, and the posting was only "a response to all the e-mails asking her to run for president and on down. She has said that she will continue to be a leader on the issues that she has championed."
rcook@ajc.com
But what about those who register as independents?
Once she becomes a fellow citizen, all bets are off. I am sick and tired of racists, and she should be held accountable for her actions.
Anti-racists laws are one the books and they should be used.
No, it was caused by being a bone-head and unnecessarily running against a Republican incumbent. He could have run in an adjacent district, and faced an opponent in the general election that he had previously beaten. As Ronald Reagan would have put it, he violated the 11th commandment.
Probably some more Islamist places. She still is a member of Congress. Shouldn't her voters demand to know where she is and what she is doing???
-PJ
It's fine for ministers and other clergy to insert themselves in politics. Let's just revoke the nonprofit status of their churches once they decide that they are in the business of politics. And that goes for "both sides". Dems. and Reps.
The liberal socialists scream about the non existant "seperation of church and state" when they can slug others with it but gladly use the pulpit for political activities at the drop of a hat. And you never hear the media as the Reverend Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton anything about their church related activities.
What a farce.
Leni
What goes around, comes around.
She wanted to use the Race Card for her political advantage. I have no problems woith using those same laws that she fully supported, against her once she becomes a citizen like the rest of us.
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