'Congress needs controversy,' former mayor says By MAE GENTRY , ERNIE SUGGS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/28/06
The day a poll showed her trailing in a 4th Congressional District runoff race, U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney rallied Atlanta ministers, including former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, to her cause.
Young's endorsement Thursday could help in McKinney's uphill battle to keep her office. A close aide to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and an ordained minister, Young also endorsed Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor earlier this year, helping him win the Democratic nomination for governor by appealing to black voters.
Campaign manager John Evans (in white T-shirt) escorts U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney after her news conference Thursday at Elegance restaurant in Decatur.
U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney, flanked by members of the local clergy, speaks at a news conference she held Thursday to announce former Atlanta Mayor Andrew YoungÕs endorsement of her. Her opponent, former DeKalb Commissioner Hank Johnson, dismissed the endorsement.
"Congress needs controversy," Young said in his endorsement, a recording of which was played at the news conference. "The last thing we need in a democracy is people who don't think for themselves. ... I don't always agree with Cynthia McKinney, but I always agree with her right to express her opinions because that creates a dialogue that makes democracy work."
On Thursday, McKinney was surrounded by pastors from DeKalb County churches at a news conference, her first since the July 18 primary election, in which she garnered 47 percent of the vote, compared with former DeKalb County Commissioner Hank Johnson's 44 percent. Because neither got a majority, the two will face each other in an Aug. 8 runoff.
Johnson dismissed Young's endorsement, saying, "Nothing that Andy Young does surprises me anymore. The ultimate endorsement will come from the voters on Aug. 8."
A little more than an hour after McKinney's news conference, Johnson held one of his own and responded to the assertion that low voter turnout was the reason McKinney found herself in a runoff. "That is always an excuse from someone who took the voters for granted," Johnson said.
Johnson's hastily called press conference was starkly different from McKinney's. Only his wife, Mereda, stood beside him; campaign workers and his fund-raising team hovered in the background. Johnson said he was working to get some endorsements of his own.
At her news conference, McKinney talked about what she had done for the district, which covers DeKalb and parts of Rockdale and Gwinnett counties, and her positions on voter disenfranchisement, unemployment among African-Americans and the war in Iraq.
"Our tax dollars are being spent to prosecute a war abroad," she said. "Our tax dollars are being spent to deceive the American people at home. "
She cast herself as the "true Democrat" in the race and said Republicans are trying to influence the outcome by crossing over and voting for Johnson.
"That is ludicrous and preposterous. It is only meant to polarize and divide," Johnson said. "But it is in keeping with Cynthia McKinney's conduct as a congresswoman. That is why she needs to come home and be replaced."
A new poll by InsiderAdvantage shows Johnson leading McKinney 46 percent to 21 percent, with one-third of voters undecided. The survey recorded the responses of 480 likely voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
An analysis of primary election results showed McKinney's support eroding slightly in predominantly black south DeKalb County, her traditional base. Johnson won more votes than McKinney in predominantly white north DeKalb, Rockdale and Gwinnett, according to the analysis.
InsiderAdvantage CEO Matt Towery said his poll detected some interest among Republicans in the race, which would also work against McKinney. In last week's primary, many Republicans stuck to their own races, headlined by the confrontation between Christian Coalition leader-turned-lobbyist Ralph Reed and state Sen. Casey Cagle in the GOP race for lieutenant governor. A poll released by InsiderAdvantage four days before that race showed Reed and Cagle in a dead heat, but Cagle got 56 percent of the vote.
McKinney's campaign spokesman, John Evans, dismissed Thursday's poll results.
"I'm sure that one is skewed," Evans said, adding that Towery is a Republican. "You don't know who they polled, and so what can you do?"
Johnson also discounted the poll results. "I can't put too much credence on that poll," he said. "I am hearing on the streets that we are neck and neck. She is spending a lot of money with radio ads, and she picked up a key endorsement today [Young], so this is certainly a whole lot closer than that poll would indicate."
At Thursday's news conference, McKinney told reporters her altercation with a Capitol police officer in March had no effect on the primary election results and said the fallout was created by people who had a political agenda. "One of the things that the press was a party to was the ... spiraling of an incident," she said.
McKinney likened her response — she allegedly struck an officer after he grabbed her from behind — to that of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who threw up her fists when President Bush unexpectedly massaged her neck at the recent G8 Summit.
"This woman, who was touched from behind, had a reaction," McKinney said.
A grand jury declined to indict McKinney in the incident. Still, the national Fraternal Order of Police's political action committee wrote her opponent a check for $1,000 last week.
Young, who does not live in the 4th District and was not at the news conference, later said in a telephone interview that that was another reason he endorsed McKinney. "I thought it was scandalous that the police would send a check down here against her," the former mayor said. "Their job is to protect her."
Staff writers Jim Galloway and Sonji Jacobs contributed to this article.