City Talk: Carol Bell, Tony Thomas change the dynamics of Post 1 at-large council race
This is the City Talk column by Bill Dawers, a longtime contributor to the Savannah Morning News.
Carol Bell’s decision to run for her former Post 1 at-large aldermanic seat on Savannah City Council will likely have broad impacts on the tenor and themes of the fast-approaching city elections.
Tony Thomas, who represented the Sixth District on council for 20 years, has also announced his candidacy for Post 1, which will certainly attract plenty of attention from voters and the media.
Bell, who worked for the City of Savannah for 38 years before retiring, was elected to Post 1 in 2011. Four years later, Eddie DeLoach defeated incumbent mayor Edna Jackson and challengers unseated two other incumbents on council, but Bell handily won reelection with nearly 59% of the vote.
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But then came the wave election of 2019. Broadly speaking, the electorate wanted more progressive policies and had lost confidence that leaders were representing the best interests of residents across the city.
Bell touted accomplishments like the Summer 500 internship program and the creation of The Front Porch,
but she lost her run for a third term by fewer than 300 votes to Kesha Gibson-Carter, who ran as a populist outsider.
Gibson-Carter has been a polarizing figure throughout her time on council and is now betting that she can unseat Mayor Van Johnson, who has mustered support from some powerful political players that backed DeLoach four years ago.
As I write this column, Bell and three other candidates – Roshida Edwards, Curtis Singleton and Marc Anthony Smith – have filed declarations of intent to accept campaign contributions for Post 1. Contributions have been modest so far, but look for relatively big numbers when Bell files her first disclosure.
As reported recently in this newspaper, Edwards owns Wild Cherry Entertainment and Vintage Special Event Center. Singleton has worked in politics in various capacities for many years and is president of the board of the Mediation Center of Coastal Georgia. Smith is a Navy veteran, former teacher and former police officer who retired in 2015.
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Antwan Lang has also declared his candidacy for Post 1 and seemed a possible frontrunner until Bell joined the fray. A former member of the Chatham County Board of Elections, Lang was defeated in 2021 by former mayor Jackson in the race for the Georgia House of Representatives District 165 seat. He is a Savannah State University alum who runs the lobbying firm Atlantic South Group and the nonprofit Atlanta Fulton Foundation.
Thomas teased a possible run in a lengthy post on July 30 on his official Facebook page and then declared his candidacy about a week later on his personal Facebook profile.
It’s worth noting that the official qualifying period is Aug. 21-25, so there’s no guarantee that all of these candidates will submit the necessary paperwork and pay the $750 fee to get on the ballot.
And it’s possible that more folks could join the race. In a such a crowded field, any candidate with a message that resonates with voters could get into a runoff.
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Thomas has been the subject of so many controversies that it’s impossible to cover them all in one short column. Among other things, he was investigated but never indicted for abuse allegations and was censured by his colleagues on council in 2017.
But Thomas has also had a knack over the years for making blunt statements that resonate with voters. It’s easy to imagine him garnering some support by focusing on concerns that the current council has not followed through on promises of creating a more equitable city.
Perhaps most importantly, the entry of Bell and Thomas into the race could shift the conversation to the past, including to the 2019 election in which both were defeated.
The lesser-known candidates for Post 1 seem to bring a lot to the table, but they will need to find inventive ways to reach potential supporters. Many Savannahians seem hungry for new voices on council, so they should take the extra time in the next three months to attend forums and get to know all the candidates.
Contact Dawers via @billdawers on Twitter and CityTalkSavannah@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah City Council elections feature former aldermen thomas bell
