By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
OCT. 15, 2019 | Irony reigns.
Read on to understand.
It was a letter this week from Monte Nichols of Peachtree Corners. He asked simply: “I seem to remember that you previously listed an objective related to having a vital two party presence in the Gwinnett political scene. Is my memory correct?”
Monte’s memory is sound.
Indeed, previously in GwinnettForum’s List of Continuing Objectives for Gwinnett County, included “Development of a two-party system for county offices.” When the 2018 elections were over, that objective came down. We wrote at the time:
Two-party system: The 2018 election flipped parties on many legislative districts in Gwinnett, and also brought two Democrats to the County Commission, and one to the School Board. It appears that Gwinnett has achieved this objective. However, this arena needs constant surveillance as each election can bring changes. We therefore reword this objective to be: “High quality candidates for elective office in Gwinnett.”
This area needs some perspective. Here’s why. While Democrats this year seem to be coming out of the woodwork to announce their candidacies for many offices, there has been an abrupt silence from the Republican side of the aisle. Other than several Republicans having their eyes on the Seventh District Congressional seat, it’s mighty quiet from Republicans announcing their intention to seek office for county and legislative positions this season. Yes, the overall lack of interest of the Republicans wanting to offer themselves for any post is surprising.
Perhaps all it took was a gander at the 2016 election results in Gwinnett by the GOP side, where either Democrats took many races, or at least scored nearly 50 percent of the votes in elections the few Republicans won.
“That’s it,” many seemed to respond. “I’m not offering next time.”
And that’s what makes all this seem so ironic. For since 1984, Republicans have been dominant in Gwinnett politics. In one sense Republican candidates faced more opposition in the party primary against other Republicans than they did against Democrats in the General Election. For 34 years, the Grand Old Party virtually “owned” Gwinneett. And it was almost impossible to even find a Democrat hiding under a rock.
Now that it’s apparently changed, we’ll go with our objective as it now stands until after the election: “High quality candidates for elective office in Gwinnett.” We just hope the Republicans find people willing to seek office in Gwinnett in the 2020 election. And to us, that’s really ironic after years of GOP domination.
A little more background: Having a long-term list of objectives for us came after one (cold) year we spent in the Midwest, occasionally reading The Chicago Tribune, that rock-ribbed conservative voice of the area. That’s where we first spotted a list of continuing objectives for an area. Once we began publishing the Wayne County Press in Jesup, we started a list of worthy objectives for that county. When seeing situations that needed improvements, we would write an editorial about it, and on that occasion, add it to our list. Eventually the list grew to 10 or 12 overall objectives.
Happily, when an objective was attained, we wrote of it, praising those involved, and removed it from our list. We will say that while 13 years in Jesup, we never removed the objective “Republican candidates for local offices” from the list. Only years after Ronald Reagan changed the Republican Party, did Wayne County finally vote Republican, as it is mostly today.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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