McKinney Once Again on the Brink
Police Groups Rally to Runoff Foe
Roll Call Staff
Defeated and later politically redeemed in the span of two election cycles, Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s electoral fate once again hangs in the balance after the controversial Georgia Democrat failed to garner a majority of the vote in Tuesday’s primary.
She now faces an Aug. 8 runoff with former DeKalb County Commissioner Hank Johnson (D), who came within roughly 1,650 votes of the incumbent in a contest that received relatively little attention before the votes were counted.
Even after McKinney’s highly publicized scuffle with a Capitol Police officer in late March, her primary victory seemed assured as Johnson was unable to draw significant financial support to his cause. McKinney’s opponents in her two most recent primaries had been flush with cash.
McKinney’s colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus were divided Wednesday on how aggressively they will or should support her in the runoff, with some privately acknowledging a distaste for her confrontational style.
At the same time law enforcement representatives in Washington, D.C., delighted in the news of McKinney’s political predicament, and police organizations in Georgia went to work assessing what they could do to help Johnson’s campaign.
Before Tuesday’s balloting, Johnson could afford to run only one TV ad in a modest cable buy.
That all changed quickly Wednesday, as the campaign had raised $6,000 online in just a few hours — even after Johnson’s Web site was down for most of the morning due to a power surge.
“We nearly whupped her,” said Johnson campaign manager Carole Mumford, who acknowledged the difficulties of running a campaign on a shoestring budget. “We need the resources. We’re working hard to get them.”
As of the end of June, Johnson had raised a total of about $130,000 since announcing his campaign late last year. He spent roughly $75,000 in the past three months but had only $14,000 left in his campaign account on June 28.
With new attention focused on the runoff, state and local law enforcement groups said they stand ready to assist Johnson’s efforts.
After remaining neutral in the primary, the DeKalb County Fraternal Order of Police lodge endorsed Johnson on Wednesday afternoon and said it would request a contribution from the national FOP political action committee.
“I’ve been in touch with Hank Johnson’s campaign and I’ve placed all of the resources of the state lodge at their disposal, whatever they need, whatever we can do, we’ve placed our resources with Hank Johnson,” said Carlton Stallings, president of the Georgia state lodge of the FOP.
McKinney has been a lightning rod in her two tenures in Congress, with the most recent controversy coming after she allegedly struck a Capitol Police officer who did not recognize her and attempted to detain her at a House office building entrance. No charges were filed and McKinney, after initially asserting the incident was racially motivated, later said she regretted what occurred.
Mumford said Johnson’s good relationship with law enforcement goes back to well before the McKinney incident. She noted he worked closely with police as an attorney and magistrate court judge before being elected to the DeKalb commission five years ago.
“Many of them know him and respect him,” Mumford said. “He would have gotten the love from them even without the other side not getting that love.”
On Capitol Hill, reaction to McKinney’s race was mixed.
She had received last-minute donations from several CBC colleagues as well as $5,000 from the CBC’s PAC. She had raised about $260,000 for her campaign as of June 28 and had $43,000 left in the bank.
McKinney has some staunch loyalists in the CBC — Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) chief among them — but there also are pockets of resentment in the 43-member group.
“I think she’s going to get some help. But it’s not going to be across the caucus,” said one CBC source. “She very seldom attends meetings, and the only recent one she did attend was when she got in trouble and she came for help.”
CBC PAC Chairman Albert Wynn (D-Md.) said McKinney likely will get another $5,000 contribution for the runoff.
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