City Talk: Will endorsements sway Savannah voters?

Editor's Note: Although this is an opinion column, it has been updated to clarify that Savannah Mayor Van Johnson has not officially endorsed Carol Bell for the At-large Post 1 seat.

This is the City Talk column by Bill Dawers, a longtime contributor to the Savannah Morning News.

With Nov. 7 fast approaching, Mayor Van Johnson has announced endorsements by three high-profile Democratic politicians in Georgia.

Stacey Abrams, who made a $1,000 donation to Johnson’s reelection campaign in July, was scheduled to appear with the mayor at a campaign rally on Oct. 28 at the International Longshoremen’s Association on North Lathrop Avenue.

Congresswoman Nikema Williams, who represents Georgia’s 5^th District, will show her support for Johnson at the Beach Institute on Oct. 29. Former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms will appear at an event on Oct. 30 at The Clyde Venue on Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard.

The endorsements are good news for Johnson, who could run for another office at some point if he has a solid win over challenger Kesha Gibson-Carter. I struggle to see an elected position that would be a step up for Johnson and that would be winnable, but a lot can happen in four years.

With early voting underway and with so many voters’ positions hardened after a rough few years for local politics, it’s hard to imagine that the endorsements by Abrams, Bottoms and Williams will change many minds, but they might spur slightly stronger turnout among likely Johnson voters.

Johnson isn’t just getting endorsements. He is also one of many politicians and community leaders who have been making them.

Endorsements are a part of politics in any election, but current patterns reflect deeper divisions than in the past and pose more risks for the City Council that will take office in January.

A short video recently posted to Johnson’s official Facebook page shows images of candidates in seven of the aldermanic races. The only omission is District 1, where incumbent Bernetta Lanier is running unopposed.

Not surprisingly, the video suggest support for the incumbents who comprise the key voting block on council and who have rarely challenged Johnson on policy, including Detric Leggett in District 2, Linda Wilder Bryan in District 3, Nick Palumbo in District 4, Estella Shabazz in District 5 and Kurtis Purtee in District 6.

Johnson has formally endorsed Pat Rossiter in his attempt to unseat incumbent alderwoman Alicia Miller Blakely for the Post 2 at-large seat. The short video also has an image that suggests support for Carol Bell in the race for the Post1 at-large seat being vacated by Gibson-Carter.

Blakely and Rossiter: Here are the two candidates vying for Savannah's Post 2 At-large seat

As I noted in last week’s column, Johnson and the candidates whom he is backing have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars even though it’s likely that only about 30,000 people will actually vote.

City Talk: Campaign fundraising patterns raise questions, invite cynicism

Johnson’s fundraising contrasts starkly with his comments about the role of money in the 2019 election.

Largely in response to the formation of a de facto majority slate, the council minority – Blakely, Gibson-Carter and Lanier – have aligned themselves with a strong cast of challengers for various other races.

Given the extreme differences between districts, I don’t know if running as a slate of candidates will have much impact. Some voters might be reassured to imagine four years of harmony, but others have clearly been turned off by the idea of a council with no effective opposition.

I have written often in this space about the lack of vision and weak policies coming out of City Hall in the past few years. Voters will get more of the same if Lanier is left alone to raise hard questions and vote no at critical times.

So the election is shaping up as a series of interest tests, of everything from Johnson’s political future to the level of voters’ discontent with the direction of the city.

Bill Dawers can be reached via @billdawers on Twitter and CityTalkSavannah@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Dawers: Will voters care about endorsements for, by, Mayor Johnson?