Vote 2009: The strutinizing of Bell and Cooper
By Wade KwonWith two candidates and 1 week left before Birmingham’s mayoral runoff election, the war of words has escalated.
Black and White pulled out a 10-year-old Mark Kelly story on then-interim-mayor William Bell. A few selected excerpts …
A “domestic problem”:
December 1979: Bell’s wife, Sharon, is treated at a local hospital for injuries resulting from a dispute at the couple’s home. The Birmingham News reports that Mrs. Bell told an unidentified Birmingham policeman that her husband had beaten her. Bell admits there was a “domestic problem” but denies hitting his wife.
Likening the situation to that of Senator Ted Kennedy’s Chappaquiddick incident, Bell says, “I’ll never explain that to anyone’s satisfaction.”
The Hitler card:
February 1982: After a council meeting at which new council President John Katopodis suggested the council should consider adopting an ethics code, Bell says, “Little Hitler and his Gestapo group can do whatever they want. I’m through with all that bullshit.” He retracts the statement the next day.
Profile of a mayoral candidate:
February 1989: The (Birmingham News) story also notes an apparent disparity between Bell’s penchant for living well — expensive suits, Mercedes-Benz sedan with “18K” license plate — and his $25,000 income as a city councilor and his salary as a part-time administrative aide at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Questions are also raised about the nature of Bell’s job at UAB, described as overseeing a computer system that tracks the progress of bills in the Alabama legislature. A UAB dean says Bell does “an extremely valuable job … mainly the dissemination of information” on legislative matters to top university administrators.
Bad business:
July 1993: When Magic City Concessions defaults on approximately half of a $260,000 loan from First Commercial Bank, Bell — along with Germany and other owners of the company — has his wages garnished.
Scandals during his 3 months as interim mayor in 1999:
Bell has kept a tight grip on public documents and information in each of the three scandals—related to the Alabama State Fairgrounds, the Birmingham Water Works, and a controversial land deal in Center Point—that have rocked City Hall in the weeks since Arrington vacated the premises.
Through various aides and department heads, Bell has stalled at every turn, doling out in eye-dropper portions what is proving to be a flood of information. In the process, he has given the appearance of covering up for Arrington and others, calling his own credibility into question.
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Meanwhile, William Muhammad of the Committee to Develop Birmingham wrote a column in the Birmingham Times titled “Is Patrick Cooper Avoiding the Black Community?”
Muhammad organized Monday’s debate, in which Cooper declined to participate. (Cooper also skipped a debate on Friday sponsored by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.)
On Cooper and Monday’s debate:
I received a call from the Cooper campaign informing me that Cooper will not participate in a debate sponsored by the Committee to Develop Birmingham on Jan. 11 at the Five Points West Library … The person who called me said, “It’s not personal, it’s business!” Well, I take it personal!!
When 75 percent of the City of Birmingham is black and 50 percent of blacks in Birmingham are in poverty. When only 3 percent of city business is going to black businesses, I want mayoral candidates to come to the black community and answer some hard questions on the air!
Plantation politics:
I have tried to remain as neutral as I can in this race! I felt that the issues that the Committee to Develop Birmingham have been working on for the past 6 years are too important to be dismissed by a candidate because of partisanship. …
The only thing we are vehemently against is “plantation politics”!! Politics where you take white money and ask for black votes, but you serve white interests!! I guess it’s not personal, it’s business as usual for Patrick Cooper. The business of plantation politics!!!
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The runoff election is Jan. 19.
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More Vote 2009 coverage.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 5:46 pm
The Muhammad column is identity politics at its worst. While I think it was terrible politics for Cooper to miss the debate, to suggest he is a racist because of that is just shameful.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 6:44 pm
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Wade Kwon and jaysimpson, clickityclack. clickityclack said: RT @WadeOnTweets: Troubling allegations against William Bell, Patrick Cooper. 1 week till Bham elects mayor http://bit.ly/5mRvgf #alpolitics […]
Wednesday, January 13, 2010, 1:09 am
Wade I am out of town but have any of these attacks made it to the airwaves (radio/TV)?
Wednesday, January 13, 2010, 4:06 pm
Will, a lot of the stuff around Cooper and these possibly last-minute debates seems fishy. The column just adds fuel to the fire. Seems some folks want to judge Cooper not on the merit of his ideas but on how “black” he is.
Jeff, I haven’t seen much TV or radio coverage (usually pay attention to online). The B&W stuff is 10 years old, so I don’t expect news orgs to pick up on it. At least a couple of outlets have covered the anti-Cooper flyers.