Campbell’s Conviction, Corruption Quotient, Progress
Former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell has been convicted on three felony counts of tax evasion. A mixed race jury acquitted him on racketeering and bribery charges. Immediately, however, cries came out that Campbell was prosecuted because he was a successful black mayor.
This is, of course, silly. So lets point out a couple things:
1) Al Capone was convicted and sentenced not on murder or racketeering,
but on tax evasion. Capone too said his prosecution was persecution
because he was Italian. Campbell and Capone both have something
in common. They broke the law. That’s why they were convicted.
2) Some noted Atlantans have alleged that there is broad conspiracy to prosecute African Americans who get elected or appointed to high office. Really? Has anyone indicted Douglas Wilder recently? Has Colin Powell been under investigation? Locally, the Attorney General of Georgia,The Labor Commissioner, and the Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court are all Black & have a history voting as Democrats. Where are the feds? Is David Scott under attack? Missed that
one. Again, it’s not your skin color, it’s breaking the law.
3) Andrew Young said that Whites would see Campbell a guilty and Blacks as innocent. I hate to disagree, but jury was a majority African American. They found him guilty of committing tax fraud. I also think many African Americans have seen the difference Mayor Franklin has made and want a cleaner administration.
That being said… there may be more to it than that.
To some degree, being a big city mayor, is to live with the possibility of corruption all the time. One might even venture to say that citizens would prefer a little corruption if it means that the city runs more smoothly.
Maynard Jackson is a great case in point. There have been underground allegations for years that he did not run for a fourth term because corruption charges would have followed his administration. However, there can be no doubt that he was one of Atlanta’s seminal Mayors. He was willing to get a little dirty to get a lot done for Atlanta. He was better than both Andrew Young and Bill Campbell.
Andrew Young was almost certainly personally cleaner. Andrew Young also cared about the city, but governing is a dirty business in which deals are made and less was accomplished on Young’s watch than most citizens desired.
Bill Campbell is the opposite. He cares far more about Bill Campbell and not enough for the people who live in city. In lining his own pockets with speaking fees and other measures, Campbell put his own financial welfare ahead of the city’s and history will frown on that.
Where then, does that leave Sister-Mayor? Shirley Franklin is a better Mayor and is almost certainly a more honest person than Campbell. She also gets more done than Young. It will be interesting to see if her adherence to stricter ethical codes continues to inspire confidence in the business and residential communities so that she can get a stronger cultural and transportation community.
If she does, her legacy may shine even brighter than Jackson’s.
March 12th, 2006 at 6:28 pm
The interesting thing to ponder is who is going to be the next mayor? We now have a two term limitation in this city, which probably is a good thing even with a mayor like Franklin.
With the demographics shifting so rapidly in the city, I wouldn’t be surprised if the next mayor is not African-American. I don’t think Lisa Borders has what it takes to run a successful campaign for mayor and there doesn’t seem to be anyone else with a large profile in the black community that has appeal in the white community. People like Kwanzaa Hall and Shirley Franklin can get white votes but I doubt the same is true for someone like Julian Bond or Rob Pitts. Will we end up being the first major American city with an openly lesbian mayor in the form of Cathy Woolard?
And there is also the question of what will Shirley Franklin do when she is done being mayor. This is still Georgia and I don’t think she can win statewide office, at least not for a high profile position. The only public office I can see her moving on to would be the US House of Representatives. She is definately on the national radar. As long as John Lewis wants his seat, she won’t go after it but maybe Cynthia McKinney and David Scott should start looking over their shoulders.
March 12th, 2006 at 10:36 pm
I’m increasingly of the opinion that there are two types of people — not just politicians, but people. There are the legislators, and there are the executives. Whether this is really true for non-politicians is another topic for another day.
But in any case, I’d venture to say that Shirley is a teriffic executive, which is why I would never vote for her to be my representative in a legislature.