By BILL TORPY Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
Georgia Democratic candidates have counted on black voters in south DeKalb County to come out big in recent years.
They helped make the difference in 1996, when U.S. Sen. Max Cleland squeaked by Republican Guy Millner by a margin of just 30,000 votes of the 2.25 million cast statewide. Cleland won DeKalb by 70,000 votes.
But this year, as Cleland seeks re-election, many south DeKalb voters are grumbling. They're upset that U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney lost to Denise Majette in the Democratic primary partly because of Republican crossover votes. And some say they're upset that Democratic leaders failed to support the controversial congresswoman.
It's unknown how much of that anger will last until November -- and whether it will hurt candidates such as Cleland as he runs against Republican U.S. Rep. Saxby Chambliss.
"There's a lot of anger. I hear a lot are going to sit out," said Dwight Thomas, a lawyer who helped the McKinney campaign. "And what I really hate about the situation is the one who may get hurt in this one is Max Cleland."
Imogene Archer of ClarkÂston hears the same talk.
"Some people are saying they're not going to vote," said Archer, a computer programmer who voted for McKinney and is mad at the Democratic leadership. "They didn't help her and they knew she was in trouble."
Denita Hampton, a Lithonia office manager who voted for McKinney, said she thinks Democrats, including Cleland, should have helped McKinney. But she predicted most south DeKalb voters will get over their disappointment.
"I don't want to vote Republican," she said. "I'm mad, but boycotting will hurt us."
Lawyer Gary Horlacher, Gov. Roy Barnes' spokesman in 1999 and an adviser to the Majette campaign, called south DeKalb "an important as hell [voting] bloc" to the Democrats that shouldn't be taken for granted.
"You need time for temperatures to drop. There has to be an outreach," he said, adding that Democratic candidates had often used McKinney, who remains popular in south DeKalb, as a "conduit" to voters there. "Now a candidate has to do a more direct approach."
Alfonso Mallory, a south DeKalb activist who backed McKinney, cited the county's black voting strength. As of August, there were 197,000 registered black voters in DeKalb and 169,000 white.
"Majette cannot mobilize the black support in south DeKalb like Cynthia McKinney," he said. "There's a vacuum, a serious vacuum in the leadership in south DeKalb."
But several political leaders said the vaunted McKinney "machine" was an apparition. There were no precinct captains or an established hierarchy, said DeKalb NAACP leader John Evans -- just McKinney's "machine of personality."
DeKalb Chief Executive Officer Vernon Jones agreed, adding that McKinney's absence won't matter in November.