Former Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) Seeks to Regain Congressional Seat

By Janet McMahon

“A proxy battle pitting pro-Israel Democrats against pro-Palestinian Democrats is unfolding in Georgia’s 4th Congressional District.” So reported Peter Savodnik in the April 29 edition of The Hill newspaper.

It wasn’t supposed to be that way, however. Only two years ago, the Israel-first community put its money where its mouth is and, in short order, contributed a whopping $52,000 to former State Court Judge Denise Majette’s successful bid to unseat Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney.

xut the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and friends needed more than money to oust the popular McKinney—and got it in the form of Georgia’s open primary system. According to McKinney press secretary Richard Searcy, 47,000 Republicans crossed party lines to vote against McKinney in the 2002 primary. As a result, in a district in which 52 percent of registered voters are African-American, compared to 47 percent white, white voters outnumbered African-Americans by a margin of 51 to 47 percent. Majette won the primary by fewer than 20,000 votes.

(A federal appeals court in Atlanta recently rejected a lawsuit by McKinney supporters challenging the open primary system and alleging “malicious crossover” voting.)

Once ensconced in office, Majette seemed happy to toe the AIPAC party line, as her votes and signatures indicate. When Georgia Sen. Zell Miller announced his retirement, however—and two days after McKinney qualified to run for her former seat, and announced her intention to do so—the freshman congresswoman surprised her pro-Israel backers by announcing she would run for the now-open Senate seat, rather than for re-election to the House.

“I don’t think Denise Majette will get quite the support from the Jewish community that she was anticipating,” an official with the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta told The Hill’s Savodnik. “I thought Cynthia would challenge her but that Denise would be successful and that she would continue to serve her district well.”

Former AIPAC executive director Morris Amitay, founder of Washington PAC, one of the largest of the pro-Israel PACs, was even blunter. “I would have been happier if she had run again [for the House seat],” he said, “and I don’t think she’s going to be the next senator from Georgia.”

Sounds like someone is getting a little too uppity for Mr. Amitay.

Indeed, pro-Israel PACs seem more interested in helping the newest senator from Georgia. Republican freshman Saxby Chambliss has been the lucky recipient of $18,500 in pro-Israel PAC contributions during the current election cycle—and he isn’t even up for re-election until 2008!

By contrast, Majette’s comparatively paltry total of $5,000 in pro-Israel PAC contributions, donated while she was running for re-election to the House, hasn’t increased a whit since she announced her candidacy for the Senate.

Meanwhile, back in DeKalb County, four of the five candidates for the 4th Congressional District seat made a May pilgrimage to Washington to attend AIPAC’s annual conference. According to Savodnik’s May 20 column in The Hill, “Jewish donors are split over whom to back” in the race.

They’re not split, however, over their opposition to McKinney, the only candidate not to attend the AIPAC love-fest.

“Three of the five candidates…are aggressively seeking support from Jewish donors,” Savodnick continued: “Liane Levetan, a Jewish state senator, and two black state senators, Connie Stokes and Nadine Thomas.…The fifth candidate, Cathy Woolard, also attended the conference, but has attracted less attention among major Jewish donors.”

In the 2002 elections, African-American Rep. Earl Hilliard (D-AL) also was opposed by the pro-Israel lobby—and, like McKinney, went down to defeat. Hilliard’s opponent, Artur Davis—backed by $61,567 in pro-Israel PAC contributions—was African-American as well, like Majette. Even though in neither case did AIPAC back a white challenger against an African-American incumbent, the lobby and its minions generated a great deal of hostility for interfering in the races of black politicians essentially because of their stances on Israel.

AIPAC clearly is sensitive to these electoral nuances. As Savodnik explained, “Democratic sources in Washington and Georgia said that Jewish activists across the country like Levetan but that the activists, for the most part, believe only a black candidate can win the seat.’”

According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, as of March 31 no candidate for Georgia’s 4th Congressional District seat had received pro-Israel PAC donations. That was before the AIPAC conference, however. Reported Savodnik: “Referring to contacts she made at the conference, [Nadine] Thomas said: ‘I just got off the phone with someone who’s committed to raising $25,000 to $30,000. I had someone call me yesterday setting up fund-raising events in California, Wisconsin and Denver.”

Who said all politics is local?

These individual contributions, moreover, do not show up as PAC donations. Instead they are “bundled” and presented en masse to the candidate—who, being no dummy, knows exactly who to thank.

According to Savodnik, “a recent internal poll taken by Levetan” found “McKinney at the head of the pack, with Levetan right on her heels, Woolard behind Levetan, and Stokes and Thomas trailing far behind in single digits.”

Nor are DeKalb County Republicans, who have their own issues to deal with this year, expected to cross over and once again cast their votes in the Democratic primary.

The primary election will be held July 20, with an Aug. 10 run-off for the top two vote-getters.

Janet McMahon is managing editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.