Chatham Dems

Well! Who’d have thunk a mayoral forum could be so much fun! Otis Johnson put a card on the table before him, saying “Keep your cool.” And he managed to do just that, although it must have been tough.

Former mayor Floyd Adams brought up some scurrilous rumors about himself that have apparently been circulating (although I hadn’t heard them). He sounded a bit like Nixon’s infamous sentence, “I am not a crook.”

James Dewberry managed to make vicious ad hominem attacks on the mayor (for racism), and on Bennie Polote (for corruption). Bennie happened to be in the audience, and jumped up to deny the accusation.

Jerry Sammons claimed he fought with the Contras in Nicaragua for patriotic reasons, and also that as mayor he would tear down the school system and start over. He is a character. The woman sitting next to me said she wished he had been her grandad, although he’d have been an embarassment when you were a kid.

Yusuf Shabazz’s Black Panther credentials were in plain view and he railed against urban blight, although his name is all over one of the most dilapidated buildings in town, on the corner of Victory and MLK.

John McMasters and Otis Johnson were the only two who sounded even semi-sane, and I have no doubt the mayor will easily win reelection. I have fielded 2 calls in the last 24 hours asking me who the Democrats are in the municipal elections, so I’ve done my bit for the cause.

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