Friday, July 18, 2003
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Friday, July 18, 2003 |
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Candidates slow to line up for PTC council elections By J. FRANK
LYNCH
With less than two months to go until qualifying begins for the Nov. 4 municipal election, incumbent Dan Tennant remains the only announced candidate for either of the two Peachtree City Council seats up for grabs. But that may change soon, say several people active on the city's political scene. Sources say multiple candidates may soon announce to run against Tennnat, who is wrapping up his first four-year term on the council, as well as to fill the seat left vacant by longtime council member Annie McMenamin, who is retiring on term limits after more than 13 years in city politics. All who join Tennant by throwing the proverbial hat into the ring will do so knowing this could be among the most fractious elections in city history. On one side is Tennant, who ran on a slow-growth, antiestablishment platform four years ago and openly supported Steve Brown in Brown's run for mayor in 2001. But in the 18 months that Brown has been in office, Tennant and the mayor have developed disagreements on a number of high profile issues most notably Brown's attempts to limit the duties of the city development authority, and his charges that authority members acted illegally in amassing millions in debt over a period of years. Tennant has said Brown misled voters as to his true intentions during the election, and accused the mayor of being on a "path of personal destruction" in the current campaign. Brown has admitted he is seeking a "viable" candidate to oppose Tennant in the November election, and has called it "sad" that Tennant has "gone to the other side." McMenamin, on the other hand, who has seen more change in the community during her tenure on the council than perhaps any other elected official in Peachtree City's history, said recently that she's aware of residents who are interested in replacing her and who are exploring the possibility of running, but would not reveal any specific names. Tennant, meanwhile, is taking advantage of his April announcement to seek reelection, and is already lining up key members of his campaign team. Last week, he tapped Pat Underwood, a three-year resident of the city and CPA, to serve as his campaign treasurer. He is still shopping for a campaign chairman, according to a press release submitted by Tennant last week. Meanwhile, founders of the a new Peachtree City-focused Political Action Committee, DIRECT PAC, are quietly gearing up for what they anticipate will be anything but a quiet election season. "If you look at the makeup of the City Council, it's almost got to be a race to see who is going to go in and challenge (Brown) and his ideas," said Rex Green, chairman of DIRECT PAC. That's because both McMenamin and Tennant, in recent months anyway, have been vocal about their displeasure with the direction of Brown's administration. The other two council members, Murray Weed and Steve Rapson, are generally regarded as Brown sympathizers by those who follow city politics. Making the race more interesting is the fact that McMenamin and Tennant both sit to the right of Brown on the council dais, while Weed and Rapson sit to his left. That potential for conflict is what discourages many qualified candidates from running for public office in Peachtree City, said former council member Carol Fritz, who lost her reelection bid to Weed in 2001. "Given the political atmosphere in Peachtree City, people don't want to be set themselves up, they don't want to be attacked," she said. That might also explain why candidates have been slow to emerge this summer, she said. "They will wait until their campaign is together and are ready to go. If they announce now, that will just give (the opposition) more time to trash them." Green said his committee knows of at least three persons who have indicated privately they will run in the November race, one against Tennant and two more for McMenamin's post. Names, however, will remain confidential, most likely until early August, Green said. "We're not ready to take a public position on anybody yet, but we are aware of some of the other people planning to run," he said. "As for Tennant, we have not endorsed him. We haven't NOT endorsed him, we just need time to have a general meeting of our membership once the candidates are announced and from that we'll vote on how we'll lend our support, and to who." DIRECT PAC, which claims between 60 and 80 members, according to Green, will also consider hosting some type of candidate forum or debate, perhaps in cooperation with a local civic organization. Assuming, of course, there are candidates. Fritz said she doesn't know anybody with real intentions to run in this fall's race, "Anyone you talk to, the basic feeling is they don't want to be involved, they don't want to be there, but we really need some good people," she said. Creating a false sense of security, said Green, is the general feeling among many Peachtree City residents that things are going OK, or at least have improved. "Frankly, I think some of the big issues (involving Brown) have been resolved," said Green, pointing to the TDK Boulevard extension and concerns about the finances and management duties of the development authority. Fritz offered a different take: "I think it's going to be nasty." And because of that, perhaps, it will also be expensive, she suggested. "One of the things that people don't understand is it costs a lot of money to run a campaign here, to try and get people's attention," she Fritz said. "Just to get the name recognition, you've got to do a lot of mass mailings and hit every household." Fritz said she still carries $8,000 in personal debt from her two election campaigns, she said. She encouraged the city's voters to contribute to the candidates they embrace once they announce for the election. "Campaigns cost a lot of money, even at the local level."
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