GA-08: Controversial Macon Mayor Announces Primary Bid Against Jim Marshall

Hoo boy.  Jim Marshall is not my kind of Democrat, but this isn’t exactly the kind of primary challenge I could get behind:

Macon Mayor C. Jack Ellis declared today he is running for congress in Georgia’s 8th district against incumbent Jim Marshall. Ellis says he is forming an exploratory committee, and will travel the district seeking citizen input.

Ellis has long hinted at his desire for higher office, with talk of a congressional run going back more than a year.

Ellis was elected Macon’s first black mayor in 1999, on his second try, with significant white support. His hope, and that of his supporters then, was to bring the city together. Instead, many observers say he’s divided it with provocative moves – trips to Africa at taxpayer expense, a December conversion to Islam, and a letter lauding Venezuela’s anti-American president.

He has also survived recall efforts, constant bickering with the City Council and repeated federal grand jury investigations into public spending.

More here.

(H/T: Tondee’s Tavern)

Race Tracker: GA-08

18 thoughts on “GA-08: Controversial Macon Mayor Announces Primary Bid Against Jim Marshall”

  1. because of a black-white primary that turned ugly.  (Technically, it was a Louisiana jungle primary, but there was a white and a black democrat each trying to make it to the runoff against the one republican.  The republican and the white democrat made it, but relations between the white and black democrats in the district had grown so terrible that the white democrat never stood a chance… and so now we have Congressman Boustany.) 

    And of course, Sparks was unwilling to enter a black-white primary.  And TN-09 was bitterly fought in 06 and looks like it will be bitter again in 08.

    I’d say this may well qualify as the Worst Type of Primary Ever.  It’s our version of the business vs religious GOP primaries in Kansas: completely destructive of the coalition.

    The black-brown primary in Juanita Millender-McDonald’s district is another example.  Actually, every LA mayor’s race ever is probably an example.  Although in those cases, there’s no danger of losing the seat to a Republican, which is true in TN-09 as well.  Not so here.

  3. If Ellis manages to win the primary, I can barely see him pulling 40% in the general, even if there’s a divisive Collins-Goddard primary (and even worse if the party unites around Goddard).  If Marshall survives, then he’ll be crushed on the left and the right, with Ellis supporters possibly refusing to vote for him due to the race issue and crossover conservative voters leaving him because he’ll have to run to the left in the primary.  While Marshall is awful from a progressive’s point of view, he is still far better than a Republican that could win the seat.

  4. Would African-Americans account for a majority of GA-08 primary voters based on the district’s demographics?  If so, Marshall’s probably finished.  Marshall has flanked himself about as far right as one can get with a (D) next to his name, but it’s his only chance of surviving in that district.  Hopefully, black voters in the district recognize the political calculus in play and resist pulling the lever for Ellis.

  5. I really dont understand why some Democrats feel the need to work against the party as a whole.  Can Ellis to be so deluded as to think he can win the Congressional seat because it is pretty obvious to me he doesn’t have a chance in hell.

    Personal ambition shouldnt win out over the desire to help out the Democratic Party as a whole.

    I think this also goes to the very liberal Democrats who dont want to see a Kerrey return, take what you can get when it comes to picking up seats in red districts.  It is by far better to have a conservative Democrat sitting in that seat who votes our way in a good number of issues than run the liberal who will very clearly lose against the Republican, who will never vote our way.

    1. We don’t have much of anyone running against Saxby Chambliss.  If this multiple-primary-challengers scenario is for real, then Marshall’s odds might actually be better statewide than they would be in the 8th.

  6. That “2 recall attempts” Ellis is just blowing smoke.  Great local Macon blogger/reporter Travis Fain gives a good read on the many things Ellis has already talked about doing.  It’s a lot to be running for Congress.

    I suppose I will disagree with some of the tenor in this thread re: the “political calculus” of keeping Marshall in the 8th.

    I think it is worth asking at what point progressives consider the financial support Democrats throw into this race every cycle, while Marshall goes even farther right.  He is wrong on Iraq, on choice, he voted for the Schiavo bill, against stem cells, and now SCHIP (aka PeachCare).

    Marshall is a DCCC frontline candidate.  He is getting progressive money for what is a pretty terrible anti-progressive, hell, anti-Democratic voting record.  If he is so reflexive to support conservative positions out of weakness, why shouldn’t we run a primary that forces him back.  And if he  doesn’t come back, is this seat worth it given the cost?

    If it is ok to make a calculated argument, despite our shared goals in the party, for why he can vote against certain things, then turnabout is fair play.

    1. ….but I think Marshall has a better chance of surviving this fight than he does in beating Chambliss in Georgia in a high-turnout Presidential election year.

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