Atlanta Greens Announce
Green Slate for City Council Races
Gloria Bromell-Tinubu was joined by Marvin Arrington and independent political activists at a press conference this morning at her campaign headquarters. At this event, Wini Ashby, chair of the Political Action Committee of the Local Organizing Committee of the Million Man March, Hugh Esco, clerk of the Atlanta Greens and Leonard Tate, chair of the Campaign for a New Tomorrow Georgia Organizing Committee called on their supporters to follow Gloria's lead and vote for Marvin S. Arrington in next Tuesday's run-off.
Hugh Esco assessed the results from the November 5th election and reports a favorable correlation between the party's delivering its message and the votes cast for Dr. Bromell-Tinubu. "Voters who got the word that Gloria had been endorsed by the Greens were more disposed to vote for her. We're excited by the potential this suggests for the future growth of our party." Esco said the group is recruiting candidates right now and intends to contest the Governor's race and get on the ballot in 1998.
Both the LOC-PAC and the Atlanta Greens issued their slates of preferred candidates in other races. The LOC-PAC endosred Sherry Dorsey (5th), Derrick Boazman (12th), "Able" Mable Thomas (Post 1), Shiela Martin Brown (Post 2) and Pam Alexander (Post 3). The Green Party endorsed "Able" Mable Thomas (Post 1), Malcolm Giddeons (1st), Natalyn Mosby Archibong (5th) and Derrick Boazman (12th). The Greens recommended a vote for Cathy Woolard in the 6th while withholding an endorsement in the race.
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Voting powerfully on November 25th
On November 4th, on less than $50,000, Gloria Bromell-Tinubu fooled the pundits who said it couldn't be done. She took 12.9% of the vote and forced the incumbent Mayor (with $1.8 million) into a run-off with challenger, Marvin Arrington (with $1.3 million).
While the media have called her a King Maker, Gloria's campaign is not about politics-as-usual. Gloria stands for building a community-owned government for all the people of Atlanta.
What is the difference between Bill and Marvin?
The answer still is Gloria!
Her endorsement is not extended lightly but is conditioned on Mr. Arrington's willingness to make concrete and substantive commitments to the issues which drew our campaign together. She will continue to work for all of us to bridge the gap between Marvin's platform and our concerns on the real issues critical to all the people of Atlanta.
Someone will be Mayor of Atlanta after next Tuesday's election. We can decide who that will be.
Bill's campaign would have us see him as the lesser-of-two-evils - a democrat, not a republican; less of a crook; more responsible; more progressive; will privatize less of the city. They want us to either hold our noses and vote for Bill or stay away from the polls altogether. But as independent voters, we've been down that dead end road before. What is required for us to cast a powerful vote is:
- (1) That our vote be a part of an identified block which will leave us with leverage to continue the work towards our goals after the election;
- (2) That our support not be carelessly given away but be put on the table for substantive concessions as part of a coordinated strategy to move our goals forward.
- (3) That our vote be used in a way that determines the outcome of the election.
So, what sort of concessions have the candidates been willing to make?
After a Sunday night meeting where 35+ key supporters deliberated on our campaign's run-off strategy, we compiled and faxed to both Marvin and Bill a 23 question survey asking the run-off contestants to articulate their positions on key issues in the campaign. In preliminary scoring of the results, Marvin led Bill, 12.5 to 11.5. Marvin led Bill 6.5 to 6 on citizen participation issues (9 points maximum). He led 4.5 to 2.5 of a possible 6 on service delivery questions, including 1.5 to .5 of a possible score of 3 on environmental questions. Marvin trailed Bill 2.5 to 3 of a possible 8 on issues involving balanced growth, including .5 to 1.5 in key questions dealing with poverty reduction. Bill's answers included commitments to comply with the public participation laws he had knowingly ignored during his first four years. Follow-up questions were sent to Marvin prior to Gloria's extending a conditional endorsement to him last Tuesday morning.
Since that initial press conference, Gloria and Marvin have continued to dialogue on key issues and Marvin was willing to make several key commitments raising his total score to 17 points of a possible 23.
So here is what we got. Marvin Arrington has committed to:
- supporting a system of publicly financed elections;
- getting the Mayor's thumb off the Empowerment Zone so it can be accountable to the communities it is supposed to serve
- completing the separation of the sewage system and shutting down the sludge incinerators
- supporting passage of a livable wage ordinance for employees doing city work
- finding $1 million in public and private funds for the Peachtree-Pine Downtown Homeless Resource Center
- recognizing the Task Force for the Homeless as the coordinator of services for the homeless
- supporting the concept of homesteading boarded up tax-delinquent houses in the Land Bank Authority
Bill's responses tended to hedge his bets more, leave more wriggle room. His appeal to party loyalty in an age where Clinton signs the repeal of Aid to Families with Dependent Children and Zell Miller practices his draconian art implementing Workfare slavery is frightening. His history of criminalizing poverty and homelessness, his commitment to corporate welfare over environmental responsibility, his control trips as chair of the Empowerment Zone Board, his work to undermine the NPU process with the Atlanta Development Authority and his positions on other key issues over the last four years coupled with his inaccessibility were also factors in our decision.
Marvin ain't Gloria. And we won't be able to elect Gloria or a comparably progressive candidate for mayor or for even a majority of the council seats unless we continue to build our capacity as independent voters to field and support such candidates.
For the moment, we have adopted a strategy of extracting concrete and substantive commitments in exchange for support. Marvin has been willing to talk and commit in ways that Bill has not. He also has shown himself to be truer to his word than Bill has this past four years.
This campaign conducted a week long, inclusive and deliberate process for determining the strategy which would best position us to achieve the goals of this campaign - a citizen-owned government, quality service delivery, poverty reduction and balanced development for all of the people of Atlanta.
In the end, Gloria and this campaign chose to back Marvin Arrington in the run-off. We hope we can count on your continued support as we face the run-off with our Marvin strategy.
Yours for a just, democratic and sustainable future,
Leonard Tate
Campaign for a New Tomorrow
Wini Ashby
Local Organizing Cmte PAC
Hugh Esco
Atlanta Greens
P.S. There are run-offs in 7 council seats and 2 school board seats. We were also in full agreements of the importance of an independent city council. Our preference was for change in every seat on Council still contested in this run-off. Please go to the polls on November 25th. Even if you didn't make it on Nov. 4th. Shake up the politics as usual on City Council. Break out of the Dixiecratic / Repugnican duoploy. Help us elect someone we can hold accountable.
August 1997
Dear Green friend,
The next seventeen months provide us an opportunity to bring Green values to bear on both the municipal and the state-wide elections. Please mark your calendars and make plans to bring your friends to join us at the events listed below.
"Dave Long
Atlanta Greens
404/ 880-0360
davelong@gsu.edu"
convenor, Atlanta Greens
