Democrats' new leader Jane Kidd hits the road
Jim Galloway has done a splendid job in an article on our Party Chair. From the AJC:
Democrats' new leader hits the road -- Whether it's to replenish party coffers or to make sure every county has a grass-roots Democratic presence, state Chairwoman Jane Kidd travels the state to rebuild party.
Seven weeks into her new, unpaid job as chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, Jane Kidd's to-do list is already daunting.
There's a candidate, possibly sacrificial, to be found for a North Georgia congressional race in June, the first federal contest in the nation since the 2006 elections.
Women must be lured back to the fold, having been chased away by a brutal primary for governor last year between Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor and Secretary of State Cathy Cox. "I have talked to both of them. We haven't really gone over what happened," Kidd said.
Then there's a once-mighty party to be rebuilt from the ground up. Atrophied first by 130 years of success —- sitting governors never liked the trouble that came with close-to-the-ground networks —- then by four years of numbing defeat, Democratic organization has disappeared from nearly two dozen counties.
Most important is the fund-raising necessary simply to keep the lights on at the 10-person, $750,000-a-year state office. "We made the payroll this week," Kidd told a group of supporters in Atlanta recently. "But we can't do it again."
And so this former state lawmaker and daughter of a governor, when not making her daily Athens-to-Atlanta commute, has hit the road to Augusta, Macon, Rome and points in between —- searching out the checks that Republicans haven't already vacuumed up.
Kidd, elected in January, is the first leader of the state Democratic Party not to have been anointed by the state's top elected official. Her victory was in large part the result of a partnership with state Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond, an African-American who was elected first vice chairman of the party.
Kidd replaced Bobby Kahn, a Marietta attorney known for his sharp elbows and sharper tongue when it came to dealing with Republicans.
Kidd, by trade a public relations consultant, wants a kinder-but-still-firm face for the party, the better to appeal to independents. Upon the death of U.S. Rep. Charlie Norwood, a Republican, she issued a gracious statement of condolence: "While we sometimes disagreed with [him] on ideology and policy, we all agree that he was a man of principle and ideals."
But when Gov. Sonny Perdue decided to delay the special election to pick Norwood's replacement so that two Republican senators interested in the seat wouldn't have to resign during the session, Kidd was quick to denounce the decision as "political partisan maneuvering."
Supporters say Kidd was elected because of several strengths: her gender, her experience as a member of the Legislature and a candidate, her family pedigree, and her connection to small-town Georgia. "I can take her to Laurens County, I can take her to Buckhead, and everywhere in between," said House Minority Leader Dubose Porter (D-Dublin).
Amy Morton is a family therapist in Macon, an active Democrat and a blogger —- at georgiawomenvote.com. One day last month, Morton heard Kidd on the local talk radio station in Macon and caught her buttonholing Bibb County commissioners. "It seems like such a small thing, but it's not," Morton said.
Kidd, 54, may be the only person in Georgia who can say her interest in politics started with a stint in the Governor's Mansion —- the old one in Ansley Park. She's the daughter of Ernest Vandiver Jr., who was governor from 1959 to 1963 —- his political career ended by his decision not to oppose the integration of the University of Georgia. (He died in 2005.)
"It was at a time when Atlanta was different. We went to Spring Street [Elementary] School, which is where the puppet theater is now, and walked home and rode our bikes all over Atlanta," Kidd said. "It was a different Atlanta then, when you could do that. Mama's only rule was that we had to be home by five o'clock."
She can still remember Ku Klux Klan members protesting outside the mansion. She nearly drove them down with her bicycle. "I didn't have a real horn, but I pretended like I did and went beeep! beeep! and ran them off the sidewalk. They were just twirling around," she said.
After the Vandivers left the Governor's Mansion, they returned to their ancestral ground in Franklin County in northeast Georgia, where Kidd graduated from high school. From there, it was on to Queens College near Charlotte.
"That was Daddy's rule," Kidd said. "All the girls had to go to a girls' school for a year, and then we could go anywhere." Anywhere meant Athens and the University of Georgia. She graduated with a degree in journalism in 1975 and quickly married her high school sweetheart.
She and David Kidd are coming up on 33 years together. He's in property management, and they have two grown kids. Most of Jane Kidd's professional life has been spent doing public relations work for UGA and a variety of other universities.
Of three Vandiver offspring, Kidd was the only one to follow in the footsteps of her father —- and those of her great-uncle, U.S. Sen. Richard Russell.
She broke into politics with six years on the Lavonia City Council. After that came 1992 service as campaign manager to Democratic congressional candidate Don Johnson. He won —- though he lost the district two years later to an Augusta dentist named Charlie Norwood.
Kidd served a single term in the state House, representing Athens and Clarke County. Last year she abandoned that safe position to make a run for an open Senate seat. The Republican-controlled Legislature had packed the district with GOP voters. She lost.
Republicans weren't solely responsible for Kidd's defeat. When she began campaigning in next-door Walton County, newly added to the district, she found there wasn't a Democratic organization to show her around.
"We're really going to concentrate on building the grass-roots county parties, making sure they're energetic and active. There are about 20 counties in Georgia that don't have parties, so we're going to make sure every county has one," Kidd said.
Candidate quality is another area for Democratic improvement. Part of this is simply sticking with young political ingenues in election after election until they win. As Republicans have done.
But the most controversial part of Kidd's to-do list is to somehow discourage multiple Democratic candidates in the big matches —- like the contest in the 10th Congressional District in June, or the '08 race for U.S. Senate.
Expensive intraparty primaries, exemplified by last year's suicidal battle between Taylor and Cox, must be avoided in an era of shrinking contributions, Kidd said. "We're going to have to behave like adults. It's important for Democrats to have one qualified candidate. For the first time, we're going to have to say no," she said at last month's meeting in Atlanta.
Exactly how she'll do this, the new chairwoman is not sure. A wealthy party can wield its clout by threatening to deny funding to uncooperative candidates. But Democrats have very little money to withhold.
There is also the matter of how handpicking a single candidate will be greeted in a party divided neatly along racial lines.
"It's a challenge to find the right candidate and make sure no one feels like they're being excluded. That's what we're going to try to do," Kidd said.
While Democrats are still searching out candidates for June's congressional race, the new chairwoman asks to be judged by the party's performance in the '08 U.S. Senate race against Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss.
"It would be wonderful if we could win. But it's critical that we run a great candidate and a great race. I do think it's an opportunity to win, because Chambliss has a record, and plenty that Democrats can talk about," Kidd said.
Jane Vandiver Kidd
Age: 54
Degree: Bachelor of arts in Journalism, University of Georgia
Occupation: Public relations specialist
Family status: Married 32 years to David Kidd; two grown children
Political experience: Six years on the Lavonia City Council; managed one congressional campaign; served one term in the state House; ran unsuccessfully for state Senate in 2006. Currently: Elected chairwoman of the state Democratic Party in January
Democrats' new leader hits the road -- Whether it's to replenish party coffers or to make sure every county has a grass-roots Democratic presence, state Chairwoman Jane Kidd travels the state to rebuild party.
Seven weeks into her new, unpaid job as chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, Jane Kidd's to-do list is already daunting.
There's a candidate, possibly sacrificial, to be found for a North Georgia congressional race in June, the first federal contest in the nation since the 2006 elections.
Women must be lured back to the fold, having been chased away by a brutal primary for governor last year between Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor and Secretary of State Cathy Cox. "I have talked to both of them. We haven't really gone over what happened," Kidd said.
Then there's a once-mighty party to be rebuilt from the ground up. Atrophied first by 130 years of success —- sitting governors never liked the trouble that came with close-to-the-ground networks —- then by four years of numbing defeat, Democratic organization has disappeared from nearly two dozen counties.
Most important is the fund-raising necessary simply to keep the lights on at the 10-person, $750,000-a-year state office. "We made the payroll this week," Kidd told a group of supporters in Atlanta recently. "But we can't do it again."
And so this former state lawmaker and daughter of a governor, when not making her daily Athens-to-Atlanta commute, has hit the road to Augusta, Macon, Rome and points in between —- searching out the checks that Republicans haven't already vacuumed up.
Kidd, elected in January, is the first leader of the state Democratic Party not to have been anointed by the state's top elected official. Her victory was in large part the result of a partnership with state Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond, an African-American who was elected first vice chairman of the party.
Kidd replaced Bobby Kahn, a Marietta attorney known for his sharp elbows and sharper tongue when it came to dealing with Republicans.
Kidd, by trade a public relations consultant, wants a kinder-but-still-firm face for the party, the better to appeal to independents. Upon the death of U.S. Rep. Charlie Norwood, a Republican, she issued a gracious statement of condolence: "While we sometimes disagreed with [him] on ideology and policy, we all agree that he was a man of principle and ideals."
But when Gov. Sonny Perdue decided to delay the special election to pick Norwood's replacement so that two Republican senators interested in the seat wouldn't have to resign during the session, Kidd was quick to denounce the decision as "political partisan maneuvering."
Supporters say Kidd was elected because of several strengths: her gender, her experience as a member of the Legislature and a candidate, her family pedigree, and her connection to small-town Georgia. "I can take her to Laurens County, I can take her to Buckhead, and everywhere in between," said House Minority Leader Dubose Porter (D-Dublin).
Amy Morton is a family therapist in Macon, an active Democrat and a blogger —- at georgiawomenvote.com. One day last month, Morton heard Kidd on the local talk radio station in Macon and caught her buttonholing Bibb County commissioners. "It seems like such a small thing, but it's not," Morton said.
Kidd, 54, may be the only person in Georgia who can say her interest in politics started with a stint in the Governor's Mansion —- the old one in Ansley Park. She's the daughter of Ernest Vandiver Jr., who was governor from 1959 to 1963 —- his political career ended by his decision not to oppose the integration of the University of Georgia. (He died in 2005.)
"It was at a time when Atlanta was different. We went to Spring Street [Elementary] School, which is where the puppet theater is now, and walked home and rode our bikes all over Atlanta," Kidd said. "It was a different Atlanta then, when you could do that. Mama's only rule was that we had to be home by five o'clock."
She can still remember Ku Klux Klan members protesting outside the mansion. She nearly drove them down with her bicycle. "I didn't have a real horn, but I pretended like I did and went beeep! beeep! and ran them off the sidewalk. They were just twirling around," she said.
After the Vandivers left the Governor's Mansion, they returned to their ancestral ground in Franklin County in northeast Georgia, where Kidd graduated from high school. From there, it was on to Queens College near Charlotte.
"That was Daddy's rule," Kidd said. "All the girls had to go to a girls' school for a year, and then we could go anywhere." Anywhere meant Athens and the University of Georgia. She graduated with a degree in journalism in 1975 and quickly married her high school sweetheart.
She and David Kidd are coming up on 33 years together. He's in property management, and they have two grown kids. Most of Jane Kidd's professional life has been spent doing public relations work for UGA and a variety of other universities.
Of three Vandiver offspring, Kidd was the only one to follow in the footsteps of her father —- and those of her great-uncle, U.S. Sen. Richard Russell.
She broke into politics with six years on the Lavonia City Council. After that came 1992 service as campaign manager to Democratic congressional candidate Don Johnson. He won —- though he lost the district two years later to an Augusta dentist named Charlie Norwood.
Kidd served a single term in the state House, representing Athens and Clarke County. Last year she abandoned that safe position to make a run for an open Senate seat. The Republican-controlled Legislature had packed the district with GOP voters. She lost.
Republicans weren't solely responsible for Kidd's defeat. When she began campaigning in next-door Walton County, newly added to the district, she found there wasn't a Democratic organization to show her around.
"We're really going to concentrate on building the grass-roots county parties, making sure they're energetic and active. There are about 20 counties in Georgia that don't have parties, so we're going to make sure every county has one," Kidd said.
Candidate quality is another area for Democratic improvement. Part of this is simply sticking with young political ingenues in election after election until they win. As Republicans have done.
But the most controversial part of Kidd's to-do list is to somehow discourage multiple Democratic candidates in the big matches —- like the contest in the 10th Congressional District in June, or the '08 race for U.S. Senate.
Expensive intraparty primaries, exemplified by last year's suicidal battle between Taylor and Cox, must be avoided in an era of shrinking contributions, Kidd said. "We're going to have to behave like adults. It's important for Democrats to have one qualified candidate. For the first time, we're going to have to say no," she said at last month's meeting in Atlanta.
Exactly how she'll do this, the new chairwoman is not sure. A wealthy party can wield its clout by threatening to deny funding to uncooperative candidates. But Democrats have very little money to withhold.
There is also the matter of how handpicking a single candidate will be greeted in a party divided neatly along racial lines.
"It's a challenge to find the right candidate and make sure no one feels like they're being excluded. That's what we're going to try to do," Kidd said.
While Democrats are still searching out candidates for June's congressional race, the new chairwoman asks to be judged by the party's performance in the '08 U.S. Senate race against Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss.
"It would be wonderful if we could win. But it's critical that we run a great candidate and a great race. I do think it's an opportunity to win, because Chambliss has a record, and plenty that Democrats can talk about," Kidd said.
Jane Vandiver Kidd
Age: 54
Degree: Bachelor of arts in Journalism, University of Georgia
Occupation: Public relations specialist
Family status: Married 32 years to David Kidd; two grown children
Political experience: Six years on the Lavonia City Council; managed one congressional campaign; served one term in the state House; ran unsuccessfully for state Senate in 2006. Currently: Elected chairwoman of the state Democratic Party in January
posted by Sid Cottingham | 11:38 AM
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Shipp: State’s GOP officials are untouchable
Story updated at 10:02 PM on Saturday, March 10, 2007
Democrats in Congress have used their newly won subpoena power to hold hearings in which former Bush Justice Department U.S. attorneys told tales of political pressure on public corruption investigations. Several were fired in December, apparently for failing to obey the orders of their political minders in Washington. The New York Times reported the former U.S. attorney in Maryland thinks he was fired for investigating possible corruption in the administration of the state’s then-Republican governor.
The U.S. attorney in Atlanta, David Nahmias, was not on the list of prosecutors fired for allegedly resisting political pressure. That’s hardly news. Considering Nahmias’ connections and ambitions, his job might be more secure than the vice president’s. The stern-faced Northern District government lawyer is considered a superstar in the political firmament of the Justice Department.
After law school, Nahmias served as a law clerk for conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a sterling credential for any Republican lawyer. During President Bush’s first term, Nahmias served as a high-ranking political appointee under then-Attorney General John Ashcroft. Reporters who covered Ashcroft at the time tagged Nahmias as an ambitious, skilled climber.
Such lofty goals might explain the deafening silence from the Atlanta federal courthouse. Last year’s political season saw the media expose potentially serious corruption in state government. We heard about Gov. Sonny Perdue’s land deals, including his alleged blocking of the Nature Conservancy’s attempt to save a state wildlife preserve where he had used an undisclosed corporation to buy land next door. Once the area was slated for development, Perdue’s secretly purchased land skyrocketed in value. We saw an exposé of a tax bill, sponsored by House Ways and Means Chairman Larry O’Neal, Perdue’s personal lawyer, that was slyly backdated and saved the governor more than $100,000 in state capital gains taxes. And we learned about Perdue wheeling and dealing in Florida real estate with a major Georgia developer whom he appointed to the powerful state Board of Economic Development.
But the governor’s business dealings are just part of the messy picture. The Gold Dome is rife with talk of big money the GOP legislative leadership is raising through pressure on special interests and their lobbyists. Whether it’s Sunday sales of alcohol or reform of the state’s Certification of Need requirement for hospitals - you name it - the upturned palm (for campaign funds, of course) is certain to appear. Lawmakers are even said to drag out debates to get more time to soak up campaign contributions from interests on all sides.
All of which raises the question: Where are the untouchable feds? Nahmias has completed some investigations begun under his predecessors, including Democrat Richard Deane. He finished the prosecution of former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell, a Democrat, winning a conviction. He completed the prosecution of former state School Superintendent Linda Schrenko, a Republican who opposed Perdue in the 2002 primary and was generally a pariah among the GOP establishment. Nahmias, however, has made not a peep about the well-known allegations about Perdue and other powerful Georgia Republicans.
Georgia’s state attorney general, Democrat Thurbert Baker, hasn’t made any moves either. Of course, he’s a reserved man not known for taking risks or even trying for headlines, and he’s hamstrung by weak-to-nonexistent state anti-corruption laws.
That leaves Nahmias, who has all the resources of the U.S. government at his disposal - the FBI, skilled lawyers and powerful anti-corruption statutes. Despite that, we’re not likely to see Nahmias step up on any case that might reflect poorly on Republican leaders. His higher-ups have been clear with him and other ambitious federal prosecutors: Play political ball or you’re out, and so is your dream of being a federal judge, a higher-ranking official or whatever. That’s too bad, because the taxpayers deserve better.
Correction: Colonial Pipeline lobbyist Tom Boller points out our recent column on Colonial’s new pipeline bill (”Bill could blow up property rights,” March 6) incorrectly stated the firm in 1995 intended to build a pipeline through a portion of Georgia to serve Jacksonville, Fla. In fact, the facility was meant to serve Tallahassee, Fla. In addition, Boller contends our characterization of Colonial’s current legislative effort to expand its Georgia facilities with fewer restrictions and less oversight is unfair and inaccurate. We regret Boller harbors such feelings, but we think our account is both fair and accurate.
• Reach Bill Shipp at P.O. Box 440755, Kennesaw, GA 30160, or e-mail shipp1@bellsouth.net.
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