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Demographics, apathy blamed in McKinney defeat

For the entire decade Rep. Cynthia McKinney has served in Congress, a coalition of conservative whites made it their mission to get her out of office. But in the end, it was her most loyal constituents–middle-class African-Americans–who did her in.

Many black voters–who in the past had always come through to lift the outspoken liberal Democrat to victory in spite of strong opposition adversity–stayed home Tuesday, giving the race to a more moderate black candidate who had spent her campaign building a base that is mostly white.

The Southern Democratic primary was watched across the country for its racial dimension as well as the conflict it represented between American Jews and Arab-Americans. It ended in a way few would have predicted a year ago: McKinney, whose campaign was financed largely by Arab-Americans, lost to Denise Majette, a political unknown who raised $1.1 million from Jewish groups and conservative whites, including Republicans.

According to some longtime civil rights activists, the McKinney race points to a growing problem within the African-American community: voter apathy among an increasingly younger black middle class that was born decades after the civil rights movement. But political experts also said it reflects the inability or unwillingness of activist politicians such as McKinney to adapt to changing demographics and offer a platform that is more mainstream.

Apathy’ in the community

“There is apathy in the African-American community across the country. It’s like an infectious disease spreading throughout America,” said Georgia state Rep. Tyrone Brooks, a longtime civil rights activist who was McKinney’s re-election chairman.

“In many ways, civil rights activists are victims of our own success,” Brooks said. “We have made so much progress in this country that African-Americans have been lured into believing they have arrived and that there is no reason to be politically active anymore.”

In many ways, the demographics of Georgia’s 4th District reflect what is happening in inner suburbs around the country. As whites fled to suburbs farther away, high-income blacks from the city moved into their sprawling homes. Young African-American professionals who relocate to Atlanta often land in the southern part of adjacent DeKalb County, creating a strong black middle-class community segregated from whites in the north.

A loose-knit coalition encompassing Atlanta-area business people and conservative organizations has campaigned against her for as long as McKinney has been in office. And many African-Americans view her as a martyr who lost because she was outspoken on black issues.

However, some political analysts said McKinney lost touch with many of her core constituents, including moderate blacks and liberal whites.

“Cynthia went too far to the left in giving the impression that she was embracing Arab causes,” said Harry Ross, an Atlanta political consultant. “It may not have been true, but she was never able to overcome that perception, particularly with the Jewish population.”

McKinney was criticized for accepting campaign money from some Arab-Americans under federal investigation for allegedly supporting terrorist activities.

A visit to Atlanta on her behalf by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan the weekend before the election alienated some voters, analysts said. And her father, longtime state lawmaker Billy McKinney, further angered Jews when he went on television on Monday and said what he thought was the reason for his daughter’s tough fight: “J-E-W-S,” he spelled out in the interview.

In recent months, Jewish groups from out of state poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into Majette’s $1.1 million war chest. In the final weeks, television and radio ads inundated the airwaves, lifting the name recognition of the former DeKalb County judge who said she entered the race without a dime.

Her growing popularity fueled an e-mail and flier campaign by Republicans to encourage others in the GOP to abandon their primary and cross over to vote–not so much for Majette but against McKinney. They did so in great numbers, helping Majette garner 58 percent of the vote to McKinney’s 42 percent.

“What is clear is that there was a significant amount of crossover, but that was never a part of our strategy,” said Majette campaign manager Rowland Washington. “There was an uncalculated amount of indifference in the southern part of the district, and that made a difference.

“Early on, there was 20 percent undecided. So theoretically, there might have been a shifting in [McKinney’s] base before folks learned who Denise Majette was.”

Black voters made the choice

Regardless of what the Republicans did, the ultimate decision was left with African-Americans, according to Rev. Joseph Lowery, who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

“We had almost 150,000 African-Americans in DeKalb County, and had we gotten a significant turnout–if we had thought there was enough at stake–we could have overcome those who were part of the assault,” said Lowery, head of the Georgia Coalition for the Peoples’ Agenda.

“The old assault [during the civil rights era] was brazen and open and ideological with some economic ramifications. The new assault is almost totally economic and racial and anti-black.

“This race gave us a wake-up call, and we are going to have to rise to the occasion.”