(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column of those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Augusta Press.)
Qualifying is complete, and we will spend the next few weeks covering the races. We will continue to address items of question or concerns from my inbox.
Thanks again to all the readers and especially to those that comment. Believe me, every writer, and it’s pretty safe to say – the editors and publisher – checks out what you say, so make sure to keep them coming.
Question from the inbox — Where is the mayor?
That question has come to me for a few weeks, with comments about my take on the situation unfolding in the Mayor’s Office.
Regardless of my personal feelings, we can all agree that as time passes, we seem to be getting more disappointed with what we are hearing.
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Several readers have asked why the mayor’s alleged wrongdoings are never addressed in this column. The answer is simple – I wanted ALL of the facts first, and I was truly hoping for a better outcome and the possibility that everything would be settled on a good note. I’ve directly questioned the truth of the allegations and the likelihood of Davis seeking higher office.
Let’s be clear, the mayor has not been convicted of any crimes, nor has he been formally charged with any criminal wrongdoings. Until recently, the ethics violations that he will have to answer to were just that — ethics violations, possibly resulting in simple fines.
The true disappointment, I am told by many, comes in the fact of hoping for so much more from him. Also, that many of us asked on numerous occasions about him running for office at the state level or higher. The responses have come in the form of him basically saying — standby, we will be making an announcement shortly.
Well, that announcement never came and qualifying is closed — so I guess he will just focus on addressing the calamity that has become the Mayor’s Office. I asked an employee at the Municipal Building recently, is there anyone left in that office — to which the reply was, “I don’t know; every time I pass the door, the lights are off.”
It’s a sad situation — we will dive into this more next week as I try to wrap my head around it all.
Mayoral race candidates
You have to admit you chuckled at Ms. Sylvia’s breakdown of serial runners. However, I believe — I beat her in mentioning the guy who was on the game show who ran for office 26 times already. There were some races we all probably forgot in which some candidates she mentioned also ran. I also believe that there were some races missed.
It’s easy to see who the potential or “frontrunners” are. We discussed the campaign disclosures just a few weeks ago.
Steven Kendrick, Garnett Johnson and Lori Myles – I only included Lori’s name because she stated she received a donation of $100,000 from T-Mobile. Did we ever get an explanation on that? Steven has raised a very significant amount, and Garnett showed where he gave himself $125,000. So, Steven and Garnett are definitely the frontrunners coming out the chute. With Garnett probably not having the needed name recognition at this time — but I was told by a source close to camp, Garnett is definitely willing to pay for name recognition.
However, we can never forget the Marion Williams’ factor. Marion has been elected four times. He spent 16 years as a commissioner; time some say that was well spent, while others say is more the reason why he should not be running now.
The voters will have an opportunity to speak on this issue very shortly, as the elections are still currently scheduled for May.
Charlie Hannah, A.K. Hasan and Robert Ingham have also qualified for the mayor’s race. There were about three or four others who qualified, and they left people saying — “Who is that?” A total of nine in all – so this race will surely go into a runoff, or will it? Early polling shows that one person may very well run away with the election. Usually the battle comes in for who will place second, which is dangerous – time has shown us in the past; the second place person usually wins runoffs.
The A.K. Hasan saga will begin to unfold probably next week. I’m waiting on a little more information about who is backing him — but more importantly who is NOT.
WAIT, what happened to the other guy that kept saying he was going to run? The rapper guy Brian Marcus — maybe he is still fighting the most recent charges against him. Remember he was involved recently in an incident outside a gas station where numerous news agencies reported he got into a fight with law enforcement and they had to tase him. Seeing his prior record and listening to his rap songs – I will say that is “shocking” to say the least.
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Others to qualify
Robert Cook qualified for District 10 to join the race with Wayne Guilfoyle and John Clarke —simply as a consolation.
I have known Robert for a long time, and he has run before. The fact that he didn’t make it to the runoff in the District 3 race a couple of years ago would make most people say, “Maybe I should — uhmm — save this qualifying fee.” Hey, but “nothing beats a failure but a try,” right?
District 6 got crowded real quickly. Tony Lewis was the lone candidate until Friday. That’s because when it looked like he would be running by himself some local community people — who will remain nameless, for this moment — started calling and looking for people to run against him. That may play to his favor.
District 2 is almost as crowded as the mayor’s race. Pouncey, Ray Montana, Charles Cummings, Firefighter Ralph Gunter, Rev. Cleveland Garrison and Stacy Pulliam are all running for the seat. This race is going to get interesting really fast. I just wish all of them would be around once the community forums begin.
I have to make that comment about them all being around because just this week residency was brought up to me about two of the candidates. It was also said that the issue would be questioned beginning this week. Based on information presented to me, one candidate was not even registered to vote until June of last year. The other candidate was not in the district in time to qualify – they even renewed their license in August of last year with the old address.
Now I am not fully sure of time requirements of people attempting to qualify. However, those issues were brought to me, and I am sure they will be looked into.
Still so much to cover and we are just getting to the judicial races. Speaking of judges, seems as if the Judicial split held up in court and Columbia County will be able to keep their own court system. I’m sure they won’t have any further problems in pursuing that issue — especially since the Augusta Juvenile Court Judge position was given as — OK, Doug – I’m getting ahead of myself again.
Michael Meyers is a columnist for The Augusta Press. Reach him at Michael.meyers@theaugustapress.com
