On Saturday, February 18, former state representative David Lucas from Macon, talked about reapportionment, Macon-Bibb consolidation and his political future on Central Georgia's largest television station, WMAZ-TV.
The host of the weekly public affairs program Close-Up, Randall Savage, engaged in a wide-ranging back and forth with Lucas in regard to politics here in Macon and Central Georgia.
The issue of race did come up in the conversation and Lucas admits that it does still play a pivotal role in politics, but Mr. Savage attempted to downplay the role race has played in Georgia politics which includes local integration in the public schools and city government along with the repealing of Jim Crow laws.
Savage had been a veteran reporter at the Macon Telegraph for decades since the early 1970's, but his disingenuous and combative response to Lucas was part of a narrative in which Mr. Savage tried to defend Allen Peake and Bubber Epps.
Epps, a former Democrat, switched parties shortly after the 2010 elections after running unopposed and saying publicly that he would not switch parties.
Lucas said that Epps would not change parties to his face. The veteran legislator pointed out Epps' dishonesty and his lack of loyalty to Democrats.
Lucas was also critical of Peake's consolidation plan and believes it is a attempt to diminish the impact that African-Americans have on the electoral process in Macon and Bibb County.
African-Americans were effectively locked out the electoral process due to racism and Jim Crow policies for nearly a decade after the 1965 Voting Rights Act and Lucas was one of the first African-American legislators to represent Bibb County on the state level. In regard to City Council, the first African-Americans to represent Macon occurred in 1975-- less than 40 years ago.
Peake talks about having a 'unique opportunity' in regard to pushing his consolidation plan and Lucas responds that his plan isn't about saving money.
Lucas told Mr. Savage that the mainly conservative narrative that reducing the number of elected officials in Bibb County doesn't necessarily mean success or would make government more efficient and cited Houston County as an example.
Houston County has grown in population over the years, but is still signifcantly smaller than Bibb County and consist of several communities such as Warner Robins, Perry, and Centerville along with the unincorporated areas of Kathleen and Bonaire. In essence, Lucas said that Houston County has more elected officials than Bibb County, but there isn't a clamoring for consolidation in Houston County.
In Peake's plan, he wants to dissolve the 15-member majority-black Macon City Council and have it replaced with a significantly smaller commission of elected officials of either 7 or 9 in a county --Bibb--that thas approximately 160,000 people.
Warner Robins, Perry and Centerville each has a mayor, individual City Councils along with numerous local city department and individual law enforcement entities in those three cities. Plus, the Houston County Commissioners is involved as well.
Is the Macon-Bibb consolidaton movement led by Rep. Allen Peake about efficiency/saving money or turning back the clock prior to 1975 in which African-Americans had a dimninished role in local government?
As of mid-February , no consolidation plan has been presented for the public to see, but the issue of voting districts has been a metaphorical sticking point. African-Americans make up 52 percent of Bibb County and approximately 70 percent of Macon's population.
Lucas had talked briefly about his political future and said that he doesn't plan to run for his former Georgia House seat that he held for 37 years as the state representative for East Macon, but did leave the door open for a potential run-- possibly as a candidate for the newly redistricted State Senate 25 seat which is currently occupied by Miriam Paris, the former President of Macon City Council.
Lucas cited that he has stayed busy with various ventures and projects and says he is happy.
However, the host of Close-Up attempted to get a more concrete answer in regard to Lucas running against Paris once again in 2012..
Paris did win 57 percent of the vote over Lucas in August 2011 during a hotly contested runoff election. However, the overwhelming bulk of Paris' support came mainly from conservative North Macon voting precincts that had had been won previously by George Bush, John McCain, Johnny Isakson, Saxby Chambliss and local Republican Allen Peake.
It is fair to say if Lucas runs again in 2012, the veteran legislator's chances of winning goes up exponentially, especially in a presidential year where more Democratic voters are likely to cast a ballot.
However, the likelihood of a Paris defeat in 2012, had prompted Republicans to use the redistricting process to carve out three conservative North Bibb voting precincts in an effort to form a third senatorial district, State Senate 26, in order to influence consolidation efforts here in Bibb, which has become a majority-black county for the first time according to the 2010 Census.
Lucas talked in a forthright manner and said that Republicans deliberately gerrymandered in order to minimize the impact of minorities here in Georgia and in Bibb County in particular.
Last year, Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams contended that Republicans were trying to purge Georgia of white Democrats.
"When we begin a redistricting process in a fashion that isolates, polarizes and re-segregate, we do not send a signal to the rest of the United States that we are a progressive state," Abrams told reporters after the proposed maps were released. "To say that my accusations were baseless was preposterous."
Lucas said Republicans wanted to pit white Democrats against black Democrats in an effort to get white Democrats to cross-over and change parties.
Lucas cited an example with Americus' George Hooks and Albany's Freddie Powell Sims. Hooks has remained a Democrat for now, but many other white Democrats had flipped after the November 2010 elections and many didn't have any opposition in their mid-term elections.
State Rep. Mack Jackson, an African-American Democrat from Sandersville --a city which 60 miles northeast of Macon-- is currently part of Georgia House District 142 which includes parts of Burke, Emanuel, Jefferson and Johnson counties along with all of his home county, Washington.
However, under the GOP-proposed plan, Jackson's district would become House District 128. Washington County is still the largest population center of the district, but Burke and Emanuel counties would be gone from Jackson's district. Additionally, majority African-American counties--Hancock and Warren--would be added along with the sparsely populated, but conservative Glascock County. Jackson will still represent the northwestern part of Johnson County and the southern part of the Jefferson County.
Sistie Hudson, a white progressive Democrat, is from Sparta in Hancock County.
Hudson currently represents House District 124 which includes Glascock, Hancock, McDuffie, part of Putnam, Taliaferro, and Warren Counties.
Georgia Republicans proposed map would potentially pit Sparta's Hudson and Sandersville's Jackson. In essence, the proposed changes by Republicans drew Hudson out of her district and 'packed' Jackson's district with more African-Americans.
Hudson's newly proposed Georgia House District 120 would not include her home county of Hancock or McDuffie, but includes Putnam, Taliferro, Oglethorpe, all of Greene County and the western part of Wilkes County.
The issue of Republicans attempting to 'pack' districts with more African-Americans or bleach districts has been a common tactic. Here in Macon and Bibb County, Republican Austin Scott who represents the 8th Congressional district, was able to have his largest and most progressive constituency in Macon 'bleached' or erased from his new district, in an effort to have a better chance to win re-election.
Previously Scott's district had a black population of 40 percent, but now it is around 30 percent.
