Kidd to lead Democrats
January 30, 2007 at 9:26 am by Web Editor in News
Jkidd_1
It was old-timey Democratic Party politics.
You had Jane Kidd in the front of a union hall getting a bear hug from Tommy Irvin of all people: agriculture commissioner and icon of the old Democratic Party of Georgia. In the back of the hall and surrounded by a small band of supporters you had insurgent candidate Mike Berlon of Gwinnett County.
Up at the podium was Bobby Kahn announcing that the delegates were going to have to recast their votes for state party chair. Again.
The first vote count had Berlon at 100 to Kidd’s 84. The other three contenders for the office trailed in a pack, with inside-the-Perimeter candidate Hattie Dorsey receiving 23 votes, evangelical Jim Nelson getting 19 votes and hinterlander Carol Jackson receiving 15.
"We have no clear majority," declared the outgoing party chair.
Kahn had told people to throw away Jackson and vote for the remaining four candidates.
Now it was Kidd 100, Berlon 100, with Dorsey and Nelson once more way behind the leaders, dividing the few remaining votes.
There were some gasps from Berlon’s people. He was supposed to win this thing. He’d been campaigning hard from the start, and they were convinced his timing was dead on. For nearly a century and a half, Georgia Democrats held the governorship, and used that throne of power as the organizational centerpiece of all statewide politics. Then disaffected Democrat Sonny Perdue came along as a Republican, won a gubernatorial election and then re-election, and sent a high-voltage blast through a lot of the party faithful. To his supporters, Berlon was there to wake people up to the new era, and challenge them to new party organization, heavy on active satellite offices around Georgia. Kidd, daughter of a former governor of Georgia, who had probably been bounced on half the knees in the room of old codgers such as Irvin, represented a definite tie to the past. Coming off the last disastrous defeat at the hands of Sonny, Dems spoke about a change of direction, and outsider Berlon was the first candidate to show interest in the office of statewide party chair, with Hillary-like "I’m in it and I’m in it to win it" focus.
Kidd was more of a conundrum. First she was in the race. Then she was out. Then she was in. Berlon’s supporters said it was the Party machinery, fearful of Berlon’s rhetoric early about reforming the party, that got to Kidd finally.
"We need to start running the state party like it’s a business," Berlon told the crowd packed into the union hall on Saturday.
"The Republicans," Kidd said, "have had their chance. And all they’ve done is betray our trust."
At a time when all the inside experts were begging the party to summon a leader who could shout words of fire into a bullhorn, Kidd and Berlon were the two least-inspired speakers of those who waged a campaign for state chair. Together Nelson-Jackson-Dorsey projected an admittedly eccentric but nonetheless compelling public voice into the room as they sought the chairmanship.
But it wasn’t to be.
Berlon was the spoiler, and Kidd was there to spoil the spoiler.
Mberlon_1
Now Nelson was gone and voters had to decide among Kidd, Berlon and Dorsey. They handed in their slips of paper again and the slips went back to the union hall kitchen, where frantic party workers could be seen through a window, counting the stacks of votes. They looked like fast-food chefs under threat of downsizing, and Bobby Kahn in their midst resembled an imperious manager, darting in and out of the room, barking orders only they could hear, and everyone outside waited to be served.
They went through another round (Berlon: 106, Kidd: 113, Dorsey: 17), and cut Dorsey, leaving only Berlon and Kidd. When those two went head-to-head and Kahn came out there were some groans, from Berlon’s people predictably, when he announced, "We have a new chair."
It was Berlon 101 and Kidd 138.
"I make a motion," Irvin said, "that we make this vote unanimous."
And Berlon, his rebel run at an end, stood humbled with the loss at the front of the room now, and said, "I second the motion," and Kidd was in.
Send to a friend:
January 30th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
A good post. I wish the voting had gone as fast as your great play by play account reads.