The Gantt Report – Off Year Elections
By Lucius Gantt
No matter where you reside, some cities, counties and election districts in your state are probably preparing for “off-year” elections.
The off-year elections will more than likely include races for Mayors, Council members, Commissioners and other seats such as political vacancies resulting from deaths, resignations and political expulsions.
It’s no secret that most Americans cast votes in Presidential election years but ALL elections are important.
It is not unusual for people that you follow, support and love might encourage you to stay at home and refuse to go to a polling place and cast your precious election ballots that your ancestors fought and died for you to have.
So called Negro leaders will always have something to say about voter suppression but the greatest vote suppressors are not the Republican Party members or the Trump supporting nationalists and supremacists. The greatest vote suppressors are the people that look like you that tell you not to vote!
Not too long ago, Black voters were told to stay away from polls and not vote for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump and that suggestion paved a way for Trump, who I call the “Russian Babayka” to win the close race for President.
That flawed suggestion also resulted in the election of devilish, conservative state legislators that are proposing and passing voting restriction bills, anti-abortion legislation, anti-vaccine and anti-mask bills.
If you don’t know, the trillion dollar Congressional spending bills reports say will go to Covid 19 relief and infrastructure spending to repair roads and bridges and fund other projects will not be paid with “stimulus checks”.
Most of that federal money will go to states, counties and cities to appropriate (or spend with friends and business associates).
If your street or road is not in a gentrified community, don’t expect newly paved roads in the hood or in Trap Town!
So, don’t be misled by the loudest voices in the ghetto and barrio that discourage you from voting in elections that will take place this year, in 2021.
Off-year elections are just as important as any other elections.
So many Black men and women will be running for office against one another and skin color will be the only thing they have in common.
Most Black candidates don’t have a clue about how to win an election. They don’t have a “campaign plan”, they are not very familiar with campaign and election laws that often change, they don’t know how to raise money because they don’t know people that contribute to candidates in the elections they seek to participate and most Black candidates that lose are their own campaign managers and campaign treasurers and refuse to consider expert help from political professionals unless, of course, the professionals are white professionals.
Black people that want to work in politics and on campaigns are told to volunteer.
Good luck with that, Black candidates.
The best candidates running in off-year elections are the ones that can represent you the best. They are the ones that can get political appropriations to get government services and assistance to you and your neighbors, government contracts for men and women in your neighborhood and get more and better job opportunities for your family, friends and next door neighbors.
Whether it’s the election of Congress men or women in Florida, a new Mayor in Atlanta or an election in any other state, the elections in 2021 are important and don’t let anyone tell you differently.
