 |
| James Lee Knox |
James Lee Knox
received his wife’s blessing to run for mayor of Winston-Salem, but not the
Republican Party’s.
Knox filed about an hour
before the deadline on July 19, taking on a popular Democratic incumbent with
solid backing in the city’s business community and among liberal
constituencies, including African Americans and many seniors.
Long active in the
Forsyth County Republican Party, the 56-year-old Knox drives a wrecker for
Coliseum Towing, a company owned by his wife that contracts with the city,
among other clients. He said he disagreed with the Republican Party’s strategy
four years ago to allow Mayor Allen Joines to run un-challenged.
“I’ve had probably a
couple hundred people who have said it’s terrible that we didn’t have anybody
run,” Knox said. “I said, ‘Yeah, I hope we can find someone.’ Apparently the
party didn’t want to do that.”
Knox declined to
discuss in detail conversations within the party, but said, “The chairman isn’t
happy with me, but I’ll get over it.”
Republicans ranging
from Lida Hayes-Calvert, a successful businesswoman with strong institutional
backing, to Michael Owens, an unemployed self-generating candidate with no
civic volunteer experience, have filed in all but one ward race. Forsyth County
Republican Party Chairman Scott Cumbie did not return calls seeking comment on
the party’s electoral strategy.
Five days before
filing, Knox signed up to address city council during public comments
in the most recent meeting. He took the council to task for voting to
approve a resolution designating Winston-Salem a “compassionate city.”
“You can talk
compassion, but where does that help us bring us jobs?” Knox asked. “Where do
the jobs come from? How does that reduce crime rates? How does that help us
with our streets? We can look at compassion in many ways, but compassion is a
word. Where is the action? How do you do an action from that? How do you
translate that into something positive for the citizens of Forsyth County? I
know there are people who are discriminated against, and that’s good for them.
This will probably help them. But for the average person out there — the
average Joe — how does this translate into jobs for the people who are
unemployed or lost jobs at Dell or whatever?”
City Manager Lee
Garrity, who knows Knox well from his business dealings with the city, kidded
him: “That sounded like a campaign speech.”
Knox is no political
rookie. Last year, he won election as a Forsyth County Soil & Water Board
Supervisor. And he ran unsuccessfully for the North Ward seat on city council
in 1985 and 1989.
Knox said he’s
modeling his candidacy on Republican Jack Cavenagh’s ousting of Democratic
Mayor Martha Wood in 1997. That year, Republican candidates Vernon Robinson —
known as “the black Jesse Helms” — carried the South Ward and Republican Steve
Whiton prevailed in the Southwest Ward — seats that are both occupied by
Democrats today.
“I’m going to be
running an aggressive campaign — low money, but aggressive,” Knox said. “Think
of Jack Cavenagh running against Martha Wood. He ran a low-money campaign, but
attacked, attacked, attacked.”
The strategy worked in 1997 until the next election, when savvy challenger, former City Manager Allen
Joines, turned the tables on Cavenagh.
Visiting with
constituents at a campaign event hosted by fellow Democrat Dan Besse on Sunday,
Joines indicated he relishes the opportunity to meet Knox in the
general-election contest.
“Good,” the sitting
mayor said. “It worked real well for [Cavanagh]. I won with 78 percent of the
vote.
No comments:
Post a Comment