Georgia Gazette

I'm Bruce Dorton and this is Georgia Gazette coming up on today's program. The most of these people never travel at all and most of these travel schemes that we've worked on, they just never could work it out. Get where you're going this holiday season without getting ripped off. We'll hear from a consumer expert who has tips for spotting and foiling scam artists out to take your money and ruin your trip. A lot of campaigning, a lot of advertising, there's a lot of interest down here and the rice is particularly the governor's rice. Elections are next Tuesday. Georgia Gazette talks to newspaper editors around the state about the mood of voters in their areas, plus NPR commentator BB Moore Campbell and her new book Brothers and Sisters. Those stories along with our regular features, movies, sports, and the arts all ahead on

today's Georgia Gazette, but first the news from National Public Radio. Good afternoon and welcome to Georgia Gazette, I'm Bruce Dorton. On today's edition and overview of the upcoming General Elections in Georgia, voters go to the polls on Tuesday. There are some unscrupulous people out there plotting even now how to take your money. That's ruining your holiday travel plans. Barry Reed with the governor's office has tips on how you can protect yourself from these crooks. That's the sports report, the arts calendar, and a movie review.

Georgia Gazette is a radio magazine and joy it, then pass it on. Voters go to the polls Tuesday to elect a governor, congressional representatives, and to fill other state and local posts. Voters will also be asked to decide a number of issues, including Governor Zell Miller's controversial two strikes in your out crime bill. Any of the races are expected to be close ones. James Argroves talks with Emory University Political Science, Professor Murrow Black, about some of the more important races and issues facing Georgia voters. Thank you, Bruce. Dr. Black Republicans are both a national and a state level, say this is their year and they expect to make unprecedented gains here in Georgia. In your opinion, will that be the case? Well, the Republicans are in position to make some gains. The biggest office would be the governorship, of course, and there, I think Governor Miller would still be the favorite to be reelected if the Republicans were able to put off an

upset there. That would be a major advance. I think the Republicans will win the Attorney General's race with Mike Bowers after he shifted parties. I think there are several congressional seats that the Republicans are competitive for and might be able to win. Let's talk about the governor's race a little bit. The incumbent governor, Zell Miller, is running against Republican Guy Milner. You've mentioned it is a close race. How do you account for that? Is it the fact that people are angry at incumbents this year or is it the fact that in Milner, you have a candidate who can match the incumbent dollar for dollar when it comes to advertising? Well, I think Governor Miller is the favorite in this race, but when he won in 1990 against Johnny Isaacson, he won with a percentage in the low 50s. He did not win a huge landslide. Since then, he's made some controversial decisions in the state and may have lost some support. So I think he's in a position of being an incumbent governor who's had to make some tough decisions and have suffered some political reverses as a consequence of that. Guy Milner has virtually no political experience.

He's no office holding experience at all, but he does have a lot of money. And there is a growth of the Republican Party and the suburbs of Atlanta and other cities. There's also growing Republican strength in some rural areas in Georgia. And so the Republicans this time are making a fight of it. And although I think Milner is the underdog, he has a chance to pull an upset. So this last week of campaigning is really critical then. It's very critical. Much of the campaign is being waged on television with both candidates doing a lot of negative advertising as well as some positive advertisements about themselves. And it's a battle over undecided voters. It's a battle over trying to get people fired up enough to come out and vote in the first place. And right now both campaigns are waging very, very heavy negative advertising on television and radio. Is that one of the reasons you see a commercial, for instance, on the flag flap coming up at this very late date? There's a possibility of that.

The flag issue has been one of the most controversial issues. And because it is so controversial, I think it's been largely ignored by both candidates in the course of the campaign. Milner would be the politician who would use a flag commercial if that were to occur. But that's tricky for him. He might lose more votes and gain more votes by doing that. He might pick up some rural white support, but he might also lose some suburban white support. This race between the governor and guy Milner is at the top of the ballot. Do you think this is the kind of race that will bring people out to vote next week? Well, historically and off-year elections in Georgia, we have a pretty low turnout. It's around 29% of Georgia adults who are eligible to vote, usually vote in these kinds of contests. I think we'll have similar figures this night. So most judges actually won't vote. Who will that help a low turnout? Low turnout. I think in this instance, low turnout would probably help the Republicans. They seem to be more motivated than Democrats. There's a very strong anti-clinton feeling among many white Georgians. And I think most of those people would stay around and vote Republican in most of these

contests. I'm turning to other races. You mentioned the State Attorney General's race in which the incumbent Michael Bowers switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party, and this is his first election as a Republican. You think he will win this, and he could be the first Republican to hold such a high profile race? I mean, a high profile office, I should say, in Georgia. Yeah, as the incumbent and enjoying a very high name recognition, I think he would be the strong favorite to win this race. If he's able to switch parties and do this, and that's a signal, maybe to other politicians in Georgia that going over to the Republicans is not an end to a career, it might be the beginning of a career. So there's a lot riding on the Bowers experience. How about other statewide races, specifically agriculture commissioner, insurance commissioner, PSC, things like that, are those close races? My impression is that they would not be as close as some of these other races. There's not as much money to be used in television advertising. And there, the Democrats may have their traditional edge.

And turning to the congressional races, Republicans are predicting they will hang on to the four seats they have now and could pick up as many as three here in Georgia, do you think that will happen? I think that's a possibility. Now, whether they hang on to four, pick up three, remains to be seen. But this looks like a year in which Republican congressional candidates will do very well for Democrats to beat incumbent Republicans that would be really going against the tide. I don't think that's going to happen. In the three races for Congress where the Republicans are trying to either unseat incumbent Democrats or take over an open seat, I think they've all got good shots at this. I don't know that they would take all three, but they could certainly take two out of three. You know, if they were able to do that and hold the four seats they have, they would control the majority of the Georgia congressional delegation. And we're specifically talking about the 10th district where incumbent Don Johnson is running against Augusta Dennis Charles, Norwood. And in the 7th district where incumbent Buddy Darden is running against a former state attorney Bob Barr.

And then in the 8th district, Roy Rollins retiring there. So you have the Republican sacks, be shambles against the Democrat-Creg Mattis. Very Mattis, right. Right. Yeah. All of those seats look very competitive. We haven't had much in the way of published polls, independent polls in those races. So it's pretty much an open shot right now. Are there any congressmen who were safe this year? Well, I think the three black members of the Georgia Democratic delegation are safe. I would think that Nathan Deal in the 9th district is also safe. The Republican congressman from the 1st district at Kingston, I don't think has an opponent. So yes, there are some safe members this year. Now this could be the last time we have these districts in this configuration because it also has been filed against the 11th district in which is held by Cynthia McKinney. She's the congresswoman in that district. Is that pending lawsuit have any effect on how people are campaigning this year? Does it have any effect at all? I don't know that it will affect the outcome of the races this year, but they certainly will affect the races in the future.

I think if the 11th district is redrawn, then that will affect other districts also. And as that spreads across the state, and if the issue goes back to the state legislature for some resolution, this could be a major political issue, a matter of controversy in Georgia for some years to come. And the Republicans take over both the House and send it in the state legislature this year. I don't think so. I'd be very surprised if that were to happen. No one's really talking about gains at that level in Georgia. I think they would have a shot at South Carolina, perhaps in Florida, but not in Georgia. So this election year is really an example of Georgia becoming, finally, I guess a two-party state. Yeah, the Georgia has kind of re-aligned at the level of presidential politics. The Republicans are now favorites, even though they don't ordinarily always win. And the question is whether or not the Republican gains at the presidential level can be driven through the rest of the Georgia system. And we'll get a good test of that tonight. The negative campaigning, we've talked about it briefly, has it had any effect on the races this year, other than you hear voters saying they turned off by the ads? Well, I think the negative campaigning by both sides may have the effect of reducing

the enthusiasm of people for both candidates, both Governor Miller and Governor Miller. Georgia voters are being given lots of reasons not to like either the incumbent governor or the challenger. And that may really affect the ability of either of these candidates to really draw a large vote. Why did they continue to do that then? Does it work? Yeah, I think the perception is that it works. You can really, if a candidate is unknown and the opposition can paint the candidate in such colors as to make him very, very unattractive, then part of your work is accomplished. And it's easier to do that. It seems like it gets voters attention more with these negative ads than with just positive ads. So if you could sum up this election year in Georgia, how would you do that? Well, it's the potential to be a watershed in Georgia. There's a lot on the line for the Democrats and for the Republicans. This looks like a Republican year in national politics, President Clinton is clearly unpopular in Georgia. So if the Democrats can hold their own, if they can hold on to the governorship when most of the state offices beat back the Republican challenge in these congressional seats, the

Georgia Democrats will think they've had a very good year. On the other hand, if the Republicans can pull off an upset for governor when some other state offices pick up some more congressional seats, then the Republicans will think they're the party of the future in Georgia. Dr. Black, thank you very much for being with us on Georgia Gazette. Thank you. Pete States, James Argroves, talking with Emory University, a political science professor Moral Black. Thank you both. Some election watchers say Georgia voters on the whole appear indifferent to most of this year's races, who better to turn to in an attempt to assess voter moot across the state than newspaper editors and reporters. Throughout today's Georgia Gazette, we'll hear from six of them, Richard Ball with the Katusa County News and North Georgia, Val Dosta Daily Times election reporter Brian Lawson, Jack Williams with the Way Cross General Harold, Billy Wynn, editor for the Columbus Ledger Inquirer, the Albany Herald's K-Read and Bob Garrett with the Sandersville Progress in Central Georgia. Stay with us. My name is Richard Ball, and I'm the editor of the Katusa County News and Katusa County

Georgia. It's kind of a mixed thing between, especially between the governor's race, Miller and Miller. A lot of people are unhappy with Miller because of the flag issue that he raised wanting to do away with the Georgia state flag. As far as Miller is concerned, the Katusa County, most people are mid-middle class people, and they are a little bit wary of Miller because he is some rich. The county is traditionally democratic, Republicans have a hard time of winning anything. As far as the district three representative goes, it's between the incumbent Democrat Ken Post and then there's an independent who's running against him named Charles Proctor. Most people seem to be happy with the representative post. My name is Brian Lawson. I'm with the Valdosta Daily Times. Essentially, I'm a political writer, although that covers a pretty broad gamut, but I'm

responsible for covering all of our elections. There's a real strong anti-income feeling, and I guess specifically an anti-Washington feeling. Anybody that the voters and we've got one particular down here, Craig Mathis, who they see as aligned with Clinton policies that tends to be a disadvantage for them. The eighth district seat, Roy Rowland, has held that, but he's retiring. So, it's essentially an open seat between Republican, sex, bechambless, who's from Moldtree, Georgia, and Democrat is Craig Mathis, who's from Albany. His father, Dawson Mathis, was a congressman at one time, but he's been in Washington. Mathis has the last eight years working as a congressional staffer, and that's been something that Chandler has really hit him hard on about being a Washington insider and a professional politician and those kinds of things, and that seems to have struck a chord of voters. It appears to be running, I don't want to say comfortably ahead, but definitely ahead

at this point, but all of our state reps are essentially running by themselves, so this probably will be a low turnout kind of year, down in Laos County. The listening to Georgia Gazette, today is Friday, November 4th. On this date in 1884, Democrat Grover Cleveland was elected to his first term as president, defeating Republican James G. Blaine. Nellie Ross of Wyoming became the nation's first female governor on this date in 1924. She served out the remaining term of her late husband, William Ross. On this date in 1964, the Beatles performed for the Queen Mother in London. It was at this concert when John Lennon quiped that people in the cheap seats could clap, and the rest could rattle their jewelry. Known on November 4th, 1980, Ronald Reagan won the White House defeating president Jimmy Carter by a white margin. Today's birthdays include former CBS News and Command Walter Cronkite, he's 78, actor

Art Karni turned 76 today, actress Marky Post is 44, and actor Ralph Machio is 32. Well as professional basketball in the Georgia dome, hockey in the Omni, and a number of big college games involving Georgia teams going on around the state, here's Georgia Gazette sports guy Mike Savage with all the details. Thank you Bruce and good afternoon. Here's the official Peach State sports update for the weekend of November 5th, 1994. Georgia Bulldog coach Ray Goff continues to take heat from growing numbers of critics after last Saturday's humiliating loss to Florida. The dogs are off this week, but they have a rough road ahead as they travel to Auburn next weekend to take on the number three ranked Tigers. More critics are sure to follow. Florida State travels to Atlanta to take on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Coach Bill Lewis and company are hoping this is not another episode of Mission Impossible. The seminoles are undefeated in the Atlanta Co's conference play while Tech is 0 and 5.

You might want to change the channel early on this one. Kickoff is at high noon Saturday. It's number one versus number two, and it's being labeled as the game of the year by many. For the biggest game of the season for Valdosta State, as they travel to Florence, Alabama to take on a number one ranked North Alabama Saturday. State is ranked number two in the NCAA Division II standings with their 9-0 record. North Alabama comes into the game with a mark of 7-1. Game time is at 5pm Peach State time, and it will be televised live by sports south. A 6-2 West Georgia team is on the road to take on Delta State. One more win for the braves would give them their best season since their 1982 12-0 mark. Kickoff is at 1-30. In other college football around the Peach State, Georgia Southern travels to Greenville, South Carolina to take on Ferman with a win that Eagles can rise above the 500 mark for the first time this year. Albany State is at Morris Brown College, and Savannah State hosts Fort Valley State College at 1-30.

Now it's time to find out who's on top in the Peach State High School football poll courtesy of the Associated Press. In class Quade, Colquate County is number one, followed by Southweste Cab. In Triple A, Hart County still controls the top spot with Dalton Second. In double A, Washington County is number one with Carrollton close behind. And in class A, Macon County is first with Manchester Second. Moving to pro football, the Atlanta Falcons have something to prove Sunday, as the San Diego Chargers ride into town with an NFL best 7-1 record. And the Falcons rise above mediocrity and defeat a team with a winning record. Tune in Sunday at 1 p.m. to find out. In other NFL news, the two newest expansion teams have been placed in divisions for 1995. The Jacksonville Jaguars will compete in the AFC Central, and the Carolina Cougars will join the NFC West division. Moving to the NBA, the Atlanta Hawks open their regular season tonight against the Indiana Pacers. Atlanta coach Lenny Wilkins needs only 13 wins to become the NBA's new leader on the list of all time coaching victories.

And now it's time for the quickest professional labor update in sports. Quoting Toronto forward in NHL player representative Mike Gardner, hockey is getting close to the point of no return. I guess they haven't figured out what that point is yet. Quoting baseball thug, Bobby Bonilla of the New York Mets, strikebreakers could end up in the East River. Virginia should try to be a nightclub bouncer instead of a baseball player. That's it for the Friday sports page. I'm Mike Savage for the Georgia Gazette. With me now on Georgia Gazette, as Barry W. Reed, the administrator of the governor's office of consumer affairs, Barry, let me begin by thanking you for coming in and being with us on Georgia Gazette. Great to be with you today, Bruce. We're going to talk about people who get ripped off or people who are ripping other people off with vacation plans. This is coming into the holiday season and a lot of it's happening right now, correct? Really, and it's one of the more prevalent forms of consumer scams that we've got going around the country.

We're in a state court right now with a firm vacation invitation that I have alleged has deceived the consuming public out of at least $300,000, Bruce that we know of. And it's some 200 consumers we're trying to help. Essentially they set up a program where they were guaranteeing you certain kinds of packages. And in point of fact, when you went to take advantage of them for one reason or another, it wasn't available. And by golly, if you wanted that package, you're going to have to pay more. Okay. Let's start from the beginning. How did I find out or how was I notified about this package? What made me attracted to it? Print ads primarily, although there was some telemarketing attached to this particular program, but basically it's print ads. And you can get them out of the newspaper where we had a lot of them come right out of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, frankly, advertising wonderful vacation deals. And Bruce, again, it's one of those things. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And that's certainly what I have alleged in this suit that we have filed on behalf of these consumers. Okay.

I see this ad. It makes, give me an example of what type of ad might say to me. Well, I'm going to back away from vacation invitation for a second and just talk in general because it'll be easier for your listeners to follow. Essentially, the ad will advertise Denver or some other attractive location at a very low price. It'll talk about the kinds of quality of first line accommodations that'll be available to you. It will give very little in the way of any restrictions that might apply to your getting it. And basically, it will never talk about the fact that they're just simply the broker and they're going to work with a company called a fulfillment company, Bruce, who has the product, has the chore of fulfilling whatever it is that's packaged to the consumer. So I call, I say, I'm interested in taking a vacation to San Diego, California, pick it up from there. Sure. Well, basically then, we just simply say to you, well, when would you like to travel and we'll try to get you interested in a certain amount of time there? Would you like first class accommodations?

You typically will say, well, if I can, if all this is very affordable, I'll go through the pitch with you on that and try to get you signed up for as much money as I think. Basically, what I think the traffic will bear, then I'll ask you to us, and I might even ask you for your credit card number over the phone if I think you're gullible enough to give it to me. And who knows what's going to happen after that? Do they demand all of the money up front? Basically, it's an advanced scheme and that's one of the tips we have for the public, Bruce, ever-ever, never-ever, pay in advance to a company that you haven't thoroughly checked out. Just an ad in the paper does not legitimize any operation. Again, I'm going beyond the suit that we're talking about, Bruce, for legal purposes, I want to talk in general about any advanced travel scheme, don't pay up front any more than a reasonable deposit. And only do that after you have carefully checked out the company. And there are many different ways to do that, one of the best resources.

And we have five great BBBs, Bruce, throughout the state of Georgia. Pick up the phone and call the one in your area and say, do you have any complaints against the XYZ travel company because I'm thinking about doing business with them? And find out what the track record has been. You can even ask that guy or woman on the phone doing the pitch. Listen, are there any satisfied customers that I can talk to? And then you've got to be careful there because they'll always have a singer or two as we call them in the con game. But somebody they've paid to sing their praises. But what you need to do is go back and check carefully to make sure these are legitimate customers. And find out how was the travel, how was it? And always ask, are there restrictions here? Are there times when I'm not going to be able to travel? How much advance notice, that's another thing. If people didn't give them ever so much advance notice, well, the trip just couldn't be done. You'd have to try to travel at a later time. Most of these people never traveled at all. And most of these travel schemes that we've worked on, they just never could work it out. And they were out, again, 200 people, about $300,000 in cash.

So it's a big ticket consumer con game and people need to be aware it's going on right now. And I understand it is never give out your credit card number. Never, ever. No matter how legitimate the company sounds, if they've called you and that's the term, they've just simply found your name through a list or guys say they've seen, gotten your name out of the phone book or whatever, you don't know who you're talking to. You've got to be very careful and protect your financial privacy. Say, and this is what we advise, if it sounds good and it sounds like it might be legitimate, go ahead and ask for some printed material, say, look, will you send me your brochure or a flyer on this so that I can look into it a little more carefully? Hey, if they don't have the wherewithal to put together a brochure or a flyer, what's that tell you about the company? And they're going to try to tell you everything in the world reasons why they can't do that. If they can't do that, let that be your red flag. There are some tremendously capable vacation travel companies, agencies in our state. They've got a great association here in Georgia and they have their own ethical code and

standards and they're just as concerned as the consumer affairs or the public is about getting these characters out of the marketplace. But we need an educated consumer ship to get the job done. So you're suggesting also if someone calls you, for example, and has this great travel plan, one of the first things you should do is ascend me a brochure and be, check with the better business here. Exactly. And beyond that, there are, call the, there is in your, you can find it in the white pages of your phone book, there is a travel association in Georgia that represents the legitimate industry. They'll tell you, they'll let you know if the offer is legitimate, if it sounds good, if not, they'll give you some advice, you know, what else you can ask. There's just so many things you can do. On any of these financial advance fee things, you know, there's somebody you can check with, you've got somebody in a bank or maybe you have a family lawyer, somebody that can look into the matter for you and help you with those things. I understand there was a case of a couple who actually went to the airport, bags and baggage ready to go to pick up their tickets in the airline, you know, nothing about it.

That's right. And we've got, we, the saddest story I can tell you is a group from South Georgia less than a year ago. We're going on their senior trip and it was a scam. And the kids' hearts were broken, these people, you know, they just don't seem to have a conscience, Bruce. And so it's very important that the people in the high schools that are setting up these senior trips check very carefully with who they're doing business with. And again, the same advice, there are legitimate people out there. There's an association, there's a BBB, check them out carefully. We like the old phrase, check before you write the check. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it just sounds too good to be sure to reflect the case with vacation travel programs. And it's a shame in a way that we have to be this way, but in today's marketplace, with every, you can't know who you're doing business with thoroughly. You can't know the product or the merchandise or the service you've got to check to protect yourself. All right. Well, Barry, is there anything else you think we need to pass on? I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation. Well, I've enjoyed being with you. Hopefully we'll be able to do more of these in the future. Maybe we'll talk about these telephone fraud, boiler room operations, which is hitting,

taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from, particularly older Georgians, and we got to talk about what you can do to protect yourself there. We've set up a new program, the Governor and Lieutenant Governor got together and funded in our office, a program called G-CAP, G-E-C-A-P, the Georgia Elder Consumer Abuse Program. And Bruce, what this program is going to do, it's an undercover sting operation, already gotten money back for older Georgians that have been ripped off, want to give a telephone number. It's an 800 number. It's a toll free call. 1-800-805-7544, if you believe you've been victimized or a loved one in your family, maybe an adult parent has been victimized or is about to be taken advantage of by any kind of a fraud, whether typically telephone, but anything else. If you'll call 1-800-805-7544, a trained counselor will take that information down. We will investigate that matter. We got a lady back $23,000 the other day by simply being persistent with our investigation

and letting them know that we were about to fire off the cease and desist order and they thought, hey, I think we'll give this lady our money back and we were glad to get it. We'll keep an eye on that company, but in the meantime, that service is there for you, as taxpayers, we want you to call that number. We want to check these things out and we want to get in front of these things, Bruce, prevent them before they occur. All right. Number again, 1-800-805-7544, and coming programs, we'll take a closer look at this program that you've put together. Very great. All right, Barry Reed, administrator of the Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs. Thank you for coming in and being with us on Georgia Gazette. My pleasure. And now, Georgia Gazette, movie critic, Eleanor Ringles with us, reviewing two new movies opening in theaters this weekend, The War and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. This weekend, a pair of new movies open when we shot right here in Atlanta. It's called The War and it's Stars, Kevin Costner. Actually, it doesn't sound like Star Costner is. He plays a very generous supporting role. He's a Vietnam vet returning home in the summer of 1970 with the usual Vietnam vet problems.

The movie is not really about him, this problem. The movie is about his two kids played by Lexi Randall and Elijah Woods, and they build a little summer house up in the trees, and they're having a kind of mini-war themselves with some neighbors. The movie has all the right intentions, it wants to tell you where it's bad, it wants to tell you that racism is bad, it wants to tell you all those things, you ought to probably go and kill a mockingbird instead, because it's a well-intentioned bore, it's more is, but support your local film industry. And the second movie, which could not be more different, is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. This may be the 28th film version of Frankenstein. This one is directed by Kenneth Branagh, who did movies like Much Do About Nothing in Henry V. This is not Shakespeare, this is Shelley, but he handles it well anyway. He also stars as the ambitious young medical student, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, who creates life when he probably shouldn't. The monster is played by Robert De Niro, and interestingly, the movie's problem, just as it was Dr. Frankenstein's problem, while De Niro is really interesting to watch, and

he's probably closer to the original concept than the well-known sort of, you know, Fred Munsterish character that we all know from Boris Karyloff, when Karyloff was cast in the total unknown, and Robert De Niro is, well, Robert De Niro, and when we see him, we go, my goodness, it looks like Travis Bickwin, he's been rober by his own taxi cab. But still, the movie is not a total dud, it's got a real romantic flair to it. I think it's worth checking out because it's got a lot of talent, it's got a lot of dedication, it's just not going to scare anybody. Thank you, Helena. You're listening to Georgia Gazette, still to come on today's program, an election story out of Athens involving a 24-year-old Republican candidate who's running for chief elected officers there. Author, an NPR commentator, B.B. More Campbell will be in talking about her new book, Brothers and Sisters, plus the Arts Calendar. All ahead on Georgia Gazette, stay with us. I'm Jack Williams, editor of the White Cross Journal, Harold at White Cross, Georgia, so they link these by per circulating and they continue with counties.

The voter mood seems to be focused around the governor's rural rise, I'm predicting that the incumbent governor, Zell Miller, will carry wear county. As you may be aware, we have a Republican congressman from the first congressional district, Jack Kingston, who is the first Republican to represent this area in Congress since re-construction, he will be a shoe. Mr. Kingston has fairly represented his constituency in Congress. This area, for instance, is a pro-NRA area, gun rights are sacrificed, and Mr. Kingston has received an A-plus rating from the NRA after the past you can get. This is Billy Wynn. I'm editor of the editorial page of the Columbus Legend Inquire, way down here in West Central

Georgia on what the state tourist board likes to call the West Coast of Georgia. At this point, there seems to be some slight shift in voter mood over the course of the past 10 days. Initially, we got plenty of signs that voters were turned off by not just the national congressional elections, but even by local elections, and we don't expect a particularly large turnout in the midterm elections, but there does seem to been some interest generated lately. Down here, the principal race that is attracting attention is the third district congressional race between the incumbent Republican, Matt Collins, and his Democratic challenger, Fred Overby, it somewhat reverses the subject of so much national interest in that in this case, we have an incumbent Republican who is trying to hold off a challenging Democrat

instead of the other way around, and it's a very, very close race right now to a little too close to call, we think, Matt has got close ties to the business community in South Atlanta and in this area, whereas Fred is regarded as a young, up-and-coming, very intelligent person who is quite articulate, and he's given Matt Collins, I believe, Matt would agree on a wrong choice, buddy. The 1994 election season is notable for many are calling a strong anti-incumbent mood felt by voters around the country, and for the fact that Republicans are poised to become the dominant party in Congress. Well, in Athens, there are two factors that have helped the campaign of Republican Mike Hamby, who at the age of 24, is hoping to become the town's next chief elected officer, the equivalent of mayor.

Malinda Wehrer of W.U.G.A. in Athens has the story. Mike Hamby, in his suit and tie, shakes hands with nurses, factory workers, and homemakers outside in Athens' grocery store. He wants to unseat the incumbent Democrat, Gwen O'Looney, to become the first Republican CEO of Athens, Clark County. It's a blustery day, and people seem to be in a hurry. Still, in half an hour, Hamby speaks to a couple dozen people, and no one says they wouldn't vote for this 24-year-old graduate student. Until recently, Hamby managed a local Italian restaurant while working on his master's degree in computer-based education at the University of Georgia. Although he had no opposition in this summer's Republican primary, Hamby denies that he entered the race just so the GOP would have a candidate. He says he's always planned to run for public office, but knows that because of his age and his lack of political experience, he's had to fight hard for respect.

I am younger, and people would be, they want to meet me and see what I'm about and see how I stand on a lot of things before they're inclined to vote for me, and that's only fair. I don't know why a lot of people shouldn't vote for me. Hi. How are you doing, sir? Good. Although polls have not been released on the race, UGA political scientist Charles Bullock says he predicts a win for the 46-year-old incumbent, Oluni. Bullock says the National Anti-Enconvenancy Mood isn't as prevalent in the local level. And after four years in office, and in additional five years in the former Athens City Council, Oluni's name recognition is high. But Oluni is vulnerable. She barely won the Democratic primary runoff, and because of recent contributions to the Hanby campaign, she's been easily outspent these last few weeks. But just how much of an issue is age? Even though Mike Hanby has not run as a student candidate per se, his supporters say students will vote for him.

These UGA students express mixed feelings about the issues of age and experience. It is something I've been debating, he is kind of young and inexperienced. But I just have faith in him what he says, and I'm willing to give him a chance. I think that's pretty good because we need a voice in the Athens community, but I don't necessarily know if he would be the best candidate because he seemed pretty, uptight, pretty stringent. It's not really an issue with me. I wouldn't be more likely to support him either, just because someone's about your own age. It doesn't mean that they support the same things that you support. I think a lot of the generational politics sort of stuff that's been banded about is, and it's not really on the level. I think it's time to get a new voice in there, and see, I don't think that just because you're young means you're incapable of, you know, forming well. And CEO Guino Looney says age is important, and she says she expects to win.

In a way it would be embarrassing to feel worried about an opponent that was 24 years old had no experience in government and was just not aware of either how our local or state government is set up and how it works. I have confidence that people in Athens want experience at the helm. Looney says the voters will reelect her because of her record on economic development, crime prevention, and attention to issues like historic preservation and the environment. She stresses her years as a social service advocate and time spent as a nurse in Vietnam. Mike Hamby has campaigned in the themes of crime and taxes. He says if he's elected, he'll improve the climate for businesses and will suggest anti-crime measures like a curfew for minors. Regardless of who wins Tuesday's election, one thing's for sure. With issues like the Olympics and urban growing pains on the agenda, the next CEO of Athens

Clark County is sure to face plenty of work. For Georgia Gazette, this is Melinda Weir in Athens. And we'd like to thank University of Georgia student Lisa Abraham who helped prepare that story. Race is a touchy, sometimes volatile subject in the U.S. In a new novel, Brothers and Sisters, author BB Moore Campbell explores race relations, baggage, and stereotypes. She talks with Sid Hoskinson about the book. The flames of April came out of season. There is a time for burning in Los Angeles. When devastation is expected and planned for, and blazes attack with the power and cruelty of old enemies, August, September, these are the city's appointed months of conflagration. But the fires of April were not weather. They chose their own time, creating destruction that spared no one. Long after the flames were quelled, the city was still smoldering.

And even those whose lives were cooled by ocean breezes felt the heat. Brothers and Sisters is a book that is based in LA. The story takes place in Los Angeles. And it takes place in the aftermath of the civil unrest, the riot, the rebellion that shook that city following the first Rodney King verdict. This is some month's after. And everybody's carrying racial baggage, everybody's fearful, everybody's jumpy. People are trying to heal. Where people of different racial groups are dancing toward each other and then they're backing off. And into this mix, there's Esther, a black woman in Mallory, a white woman who worked together at Angel City National Bank. They're professionals. They're trying to get up that ladder. They like each other. They go out to lunch. They laugh at each other's jokes. But they're hesitant about being closer, even though they're attracted to each other's friends, because they're carrying the same racial baggage that any black or white American

carries from birth in this country. Nevertheless, they do overcome a lot of things in the form of friendship and cement that friendship and enjoy it. Only to have it threatened when Mallory accuses Humphrey Boone, a black man who is the highest ranking black and banking in Angel City and in the whole city of sexually harassing her, forcing Esther to choose between loyalty to her white female friend or solidarity with the member of her own race. There's some other issues that come up, relationships between blacks and whites, blacks and Asians, blacks and Latinos, as everybody scrambles to get a piece of a shrinking pie. I look at some class things. Esther's a professional, upwardly mobile black woman with an MBA. She owns her own home. She drives a BMW. She's looking for Mr. Wright. Mr. Wright, she feels, ought to match her degree for degree, home ownership for home ownership and BMW for BMW.

And she falls for Tyrone, who is a great guy, but who drives a mail truck. And so she has to reexamine her values. And it's a book that really looks at racial loyalty. How loyal can you be to the group and still have your own sense of integrity? It's an issue that I think for African Americans, we have to come front on a daily basis. Why is there a need to confront that? Because when you come from a group that's been oppressed as African Americans have, their grows out of that oppression, the sense that it's your group, you and your group against the world, so that when you don't go along with the group's position on something, you have a sense of disloyalty if you're going to publicly step aside and a sense of fear, because if you're out there on your own, who is going to back you up? You're certainly not looking for white Americans to back you up, so that when you're asked,

do you believe Anita or do you believe Clarence? You'll get a number of African Americans who felt that Anita was pulling down the brother. She was going against the group. She should have kept her mouth shut and not said anything in the name of racial solidarity so we can get this black man on the Supreme Court. When it comes to is O.J. guilty or is O.J. innocent, black people are going to be very hesitant about publicly saying O.J. is guilty, even if they believe it, because that's perceived as going against the group, going against the brother, and I think it's a normal reaction to our history in this country, but it's one that gives us daily cause for examining our feelings and questioning ourselves. It's a problem.

Greatest relations are pretty volatile right now in this country. Very. I think at all time, high in terms of that. Did you at all, with this in mind, does this book somehow try to bridge some of those feelings? Well, I tried to, you know, having been with people who very carefully say things and sort of step away and not say them, I tried to give them in Mallory and Esther a good story, but also a kind of blueprint, if they don't want to, they can talk about Mallory and Esther if they don't want to talk about Sid and Beebe, you know, so you can couch it in that way. And maybe in this way, the book can serve as a kind of tool. I know I went to a couple of talk shows where the commentator said that the staff was reading the book and that they were going to discuss it. You know, a lot of diversity kinds of, what do you call them, workshops have cropped

up in places of business. And I think sometimes those efforts are noble and should be lauded, but sometimes it's really a forced effort. And what might be better is to have some tools and also for managers just to look at what's the common ground that people share. It might be better to start a chess club than have a diversity session and then you get all the people who like to play chess who didn't know that they were there playing chess together and they have something in common and that, of course, isn't going to lead to being best friends and walking off into the sunset and singing, we shall overcome together, but at least it gets people dealing on a one-on-one, which is the way I feel, the only way I feel this country can move forward. And having said that, I know that as an African-American I always have to be mindful of what's going on in Congress and the Supreme Court, the executive branch because I don't want

my civil rights eroded, but to get to the place of racial harmony that I think America needs to address and to set as a goal, it's really going to happen between individuals. And I think that can be hastened by some very shrewd organizing on the part of management of large companies because, like it or not, the American workplace is the most integrated institution in the country, far surpassing our neighborhoods, which are by and large, racial enclaves, our schools, which are still segregated, our churches, which are still segregated. So if we are going to get to know each other, it's going to be during those eight hours from nine to five. And I think that management could do something far more beneficial than set up diversity sessions.

Did you have some revelations when you're writing this book, were there any words that came out on the page that rather surprised you when they got there? I guess I had a revelation of how emotional and deeply I feel about race relations in this country, how fearful and how much I would like for, in the words of Rodney, everybody to get along, you know, just get along, you know, that's what I would like. Arthur B. B. Moore Campbell is a regular commentator on NPR's Morning Edition. The movie rights to a novel, Brothers and Sisters, have an option to touch stone films. I'm Kay Reed, editor of the Albany Herald in Albany, Georgia, but there is a lot of talk because there's several contested races on the ballot and a lot of campaigning, a lot of advertise and there's a lot of interest down here and the race is particularly the

governor's race. On local races, I think what's generating more interest beyond the congressional areas, sales tax. This would be renewal of our 1% sales tax for the third time, $72 million worth of projects. It's a controversy because some of our black leaders have brought up the issue that they want at least 30% of the contracts to go to minority contractors and they've forced the issue with both the city and the county. That's created controversy in both the black community and the white community of the whites saying, well, I don't know if I want to go along with this, if this is what the sales tax is going to center around is some ultimatums, I don't know if I want to be a part of that.

The black community, some of them are saying, well, if you don't give us this, I don't know if I want to vote for it either. City and county leaders are very concerned about it, infrastructure contracts, involving roads, sewer systems, water systems, and, of course, that's very important to us now since we've been able to see firsthand some of our drainage problems. Bob Garrett, editor of the Sandesville Progress and Sandesville Georgia and Metal Georgia. Well, I think people won't change, but on the other hand, here in this county, I think that they are generally indifferent to this election. I think voter turnout will be relatively low because of that no contested local races. And there doesn't seem to be a lot of interest in the other races. Washington County generally has been very strong for Governor Miller. He won about two to one and four years ago.

He came in the spring for the ground breaking of the new technical school and I think about 500 or more people about tickets for a sort of thank you, Governor Miller type of gun off, which was a large turnout for County of this size. But on the other hand, you feel a mood for change and you see a lot of milling of signs of rion and I think the Republican party here in Washington can is getting stronger. I'm Kim Tiernan. Good afternoon. We'll begin this week's calendar with the Coral Arts events which are happening across the state this week. Robert Shaw conducts Mendelssohn's Elijah this weekend at the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta. So in Atlanta, as part of the Atlanta Broadway series, the Phantom of the Opera concludes its run this weekend at the Fox Theater.

Next week, you can experience the magic of creating beautiful Coral music by participating in the Sacred Music Coral Workshop Tuesday night from 730 to 10 in Spivey Hall on the campus of Clayton State College. This Tuesday night event, which includes a Coral sing along with Robert Shaw, is part of the week long Spivey Hall Robert Shaw Coral Workshop. Other events in the Coral Arena in Georgia this week include the Augusta Opera's production of Hansel and Gretel. The performances are held at the Imperial Theater, beginning Thursday the 9th through Saturday the 12th. All shows begin at 8. If you would like to hear some interesting symphonic music, the Cobb Symphony Orchestra represents two free concerts this evening featuring premiere performances of contemporary hopscord compositions at Spivey Hall. The 2nd Thursday concert series in Athens continues this week with Mark Seidel conducting the UGA symphonic orchestra.

For chamber music lovers, there's a lot going on in Georgia this week. The Arcadia trio performs at 8 tonight, trios by Beethoven, Ravel and Schubert, as part of the International Festival of Chamber Music in Augusta. French trio R Antiqua of Paris will perform in Spivey Hall Sunday afternoon. The concert features medieval to Baroque period music. And on Monday, the Columbus College Chamber Orchestra will be conducted by Patricia Cobbos. The concert is free and begins at 8. Well, that's it for this week's Arts Calendar. If you want details, call us at 1-800-654-3038. For Georgia Gazette, I'm Kim Tiernan. And that's Georgia Gazette for this week. Coming up next week, Veterans Day is Friday, November 11th. We'll have a tribute to the nation's military men and women. Book Editor, Renny Brown, talks about the current popularity of Southern writers in the publishing world.

Plus, we'll talk to the author of a biography about Gone with the Windrider Margaret Mitchell and her husband, John. Those stories and our regular features all coming up next week on Georgia Gazette. I'm Bruce Dorton. I do hope you enjoyed today's program. Have yourself a nice day and a nice week. The views expressed in this program are not necessarily the views of Peach State Public Radio, its staff, management, underwriters, or the Georgia Public Telecommunications Commission. Georgia Gazette is a production of Peach State Public Radio News. The executive producer is Bruce Dorton. The series producer is Sid Hoskinson. The contributing editors are Susanna Capeluto. James Argroves, Mike Savage, Brian Smith, Winston King, and Kim Tiernan. Additional support provided by the staff of WUGA Athens and listeners like you. If you have questions or comments about this program, write to Georgia Gazette, 1540

Stewart Avenue, Southwest, Atlanta, Georgia, 30310. For a cassette copy of today's program, call 1-800-659-TAPE. The program number is the same as the date the program aired. You can also reach us online to get our internet address, just call 1-800-654-3038. Thanks for listening to the Peach State.