wshepperd, Thu, October 1st, 2009
“It depends on how much you’re paying,” one said with a laugh.
“We start paying in January,” Kimatian parried.
With his current operational base on North Midler, the former media executive was considering a downtown location. The volunteers pointed out the advantages of the large single first floor room in the State Tower building, freshened up considerably since it housed Murphy’s used book store, its front door opening onto the square formed with City Hall Commons. Although their candidate had not won the primary, they were upbeat, knowing that their efforts were part of a significant step in the politics of the local communities of color.
It would swing if it was
“We’re here,” Davis had announced emphatically, a day after garnering 11 percent of the Democratic primary vote, “and we’ll be here next time, and they will have to deal with it.” They, his party’s powers that be, had watched as their two leading candidates had spent almost $1 million on the primary. “They spent $450,000 and $400,000,” Davis observed. “Imagine if I had had $100,000.” Davis estimated he had spent $20,000, but the important numbers were reflected in the tally of votes.
Adding the 9 percent of the voters who pulled the lever for Carmen Harlow to Davis’ total meant 20 percent of the city’s Democrats who turned out for the primary chose a candidate of color. Of perhaps more significance was the turnout, surprisingly low for a primary with the contention brought by party designee Stephanie Miner and challenger Joe Nicoletti. At 23 percent, half of the number who voted in the 1985 primary when Nicoletti lost to Tom Young, that turnout gave a sense that many in the party preferred none of the above.
To Davis, the numbers had a special meaning. “A lot of people couldn’t pick between Carmen and myself, and just didn’t vote,” he suggested. “But the point is that the African-American and Hispanic communities now hold the balance of power, if they can unite to use it. What’s key is the message, and having the money to get that message out.”
What happened to the Dream?
Mindful of the numbers, Miner appeared at a weekly meeting of the National Action Network. Jumping up to be the first to contribute to the collection basket at the combined rally and church service, she was told she was starting out the right way.
Introduced by NAN local chapter president Walter Dixie as a fighter with high integrity, Miner quoted Sam Cook’s lyric that a change is gonna come, and referenced Dr. King’s Dream, noting how it seemed only that when he articulated it at the March on Washington.
“Thirty years later there’s no dream and it’s achievable,” she maintained. “Achieving goals for all our communities is achievable, but you have to dream.”
