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Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Reading other people’s mail: Lisa Borders warns against cheap shots at Shirley Franklin
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lisa Borders, president of the Atlanta City Council, has sent out a letter to her colleagues, urging them to behave themselves when Mayor Shirley Franklin’s people show up to talk about an out-of-whack budget.
Read the entire letter here, but this is the best part:
”We must ask tough questions, but we have the higher obligation to do so with decorum, civility and respect. The City Council sits as the representatives of our constituents, and we do them no service when we replace thoughtful inquiry with hostility or probing analysis with ad hominem attack. We owe our citizens more.
“As the President of the Atlanta City Council, I am responsible for preserving order and maintaining control of the Council chambers and offices. I hold this mandate with honor. Today and in the coming days, I call upon each of us to conduct ourselves with the dignity befitting our posts. We have invited the members of the Executive Branch to come before us and present their budgets. As guests in our chambers, we are honor-bound to show them the due respect owed to colleagues in the public’s service. Any less is unconscionable.”
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Jim Martin: ‘We’re pleased to have the endorsements we’ve got.’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
So far as anyone made apparent, Atlanta attorney Jim Martin, accompanied by his wife Joan, was the only Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate at this weekend’s state committee meeting.
Martin’s campaign, which presents itself as the party’s alternative to DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones, hasn’t been seen much since his announcement in March.
Martin, who served as commissioner of the state Department of Human Resources under both governors Roy Barnes and Sonny Perdue, said he’s been busy raising money and expanding his “traditional family approach” to campaigning to include national strategists as well.
His operation, Martin said, is aimed at tackling Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss in November.
Martin said he’s hired Steve Murphy, a media political consultant used by U.S. Reps. John Barrow of Savannah and Jim Marshall of Macon, with recent experience in both Louisiana and Mississippi.
He’s hired a young campaign manager with experience in the same states.
Recent polls have shown him behind both Jones and former TV journalist Dale Cardwell, but Martin said those surveys simply display the large number of undecided voters still at play.
I asked Martin specifically about the fact that African-American leaders in the Democratic party, cognizant of the way that U.S. Rep. John Lewis was skewered by black voters for supporting Hillary Clinton, have been extremely hesitant about stepping into the U.S. Senate race on Martin’s behalf.
Said Martin:
“I’ve got a lot of support. I’ve got Hattie Dorsey, I’ve got Bob Holmes, I’ve got Governor (Roy) Barnes, I’ve got (House Minority Leader) DuBose Porter. We’ve got a number of people who support this campaign. We can’t worry about that. It’s early in the campaign, we’re reaching out to folks.
“We’re pleased to have the endorsements we’ve got.”
Bob Holmes is an African-American state lawmaker — well respected, but not known throughout Georgia. Hattie Dorsey is an Atlanta party activist sometimes backed by Mayor Shirley Franklin — but Franklin herself was at the Saturday meeting of Democrats, and went nowhere near Martin. Franklin endorsed Martin for lieutenant governor in 2006.
Martin said his campaign will start stirring this week — beginning with the candidate’s web page.
Is Martin ready to go challenge Jones for the all-important black vote in the July primary?
Said Martin:
“The problem is [Jones] is running a candidacy based on the fact that he voted twice for President Bush, and I don’t think that’s a winning message in the Democratic primary.”
Martin quoted Chambliss, the Republican incumbent, at this month’s state GOP convention. “He said, if a Democrat is elected, America will be a different place I think that’s exactly what the people want,” Martin said.
Photo credit: Rich Addicks/AJC
