Associated Press
McKinney Loses Runoff for Georgia Seat
By ERRIN HAINES , 08.09.2006, 10:46 AM
Cynthia McKinney, the fiery Georgia congresswoman known for her conspiracy theories about the Sept. 11 attacks and the scuffle she had earlier this year with a U.S. Capitol police officer, lost a runoff election Tuesday for her district's Democratic nomination.
Attorney Hank Johnson, a former county commissioner, won the nomination with 59 percent of the vote, surpassing McKinney by more than 11,000 votes.
McKinney, her state's first black congresswoman, has long been controversial. Her suggestion that the Bush administration had advance knowledge of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks helped galvanize opposition and she lost her seat in 2002, but won it back two years ago.
In her latest brouhaha in March, she struck a Capitol police officer who did not recognize her and tried to stop her from entering a House office building.
A grand jury in Washington declined to indict her, but she was forced to apologize before the House. She drew less than 50 percent of the vote in last month's primary.
Tuesday, some voters - both Democrats and Republicans - interviewed by The Associated Press at polling places in McKinney's district said they were fed up with her controversial behavior.
"I'm getting tired of being embarrassed. She's an embarrassment to the whole state," said Republican James Vining, a 72-year-old retired electronics repairman from Tucker, who crossed party lines to vote for Johnson.
Johnson soundly defeated McKinney, winning 59 percent of the total vote. More than 70,000 votes were cast - 9,000 more than in the three-candidate primary three weeks ago, when Johnson came within 1,700 votes of McKinney.
As a county commissioner in DeKalb County - home to one of the country's most affluent black populations - Johnson's constituency included some of McKinney's biggest backers in her previous campaigns.
Though her supporters and staff were teary-eyed early Wednesday as she conceded, McKinney remained defiant. She blamed her loss on the news media, which she said failed to "tell the whole story," and echoed her previous criticism of the Bush administration and the war in Iraq.
McKinney also said electronic voting machines, which have been used in all of Georgia's precincts since 2002, "are a threat to our democracy."
She ended her concession speech, which sounded more at times like a campaign stump, by wishing her successor well, but without naming him.
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08-09-2006, 11:57 PM
Re: Ode to Cynthia McKinney
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