Memories Of Zell Miller And The Campaign Of 1990

The recent death of Zell Miller, who held several elected offices in his career, brought back a ton of political memories, especially the 1990 governor’s race in our state.

That year’s primary was very entertaining for several reasons and also memorable for me because it was the first time I was able to vote. Miller eventually was the winner of the Democratic primary and was later elected governor during a time when Democrats were still elected statewide in Georgia.

The Democratic primary that year featured Miller, who had been Lt. Governor for what seemed like an eternity, civil rights icon Andrew Young, lawyer Roy Barnes (in his first statewide campaign,) state representative Lauren “Bubba” McDonald and former controversial governor Lester Maddox.

Miller was the favorite going in because he had been Lt. Governor for so long. However, Young also had a lot of name recognition in the state. Barnes was somewhat unknown statewide as was McDonald.

Maddox had no chance of being elected governor again by this point but he certainly added entertainment value to the race.

I still have a candidate forum that was aired on an Atlanta television station from the summer of 1990 and have watched it numerous times through the years. Miller was criticized heavily by Barnes for being able to draw a higher retirement rate than teachers who worked 30 years. Miller was unable to really defend that issue and was only able to laugh about it and to tell Barnes to not get so worked up about it.

The highlight of that forum though was Maddox pointing out how Miller used his influence as an elected official to get certain perks noting he didn’t need a retirement fund because he had basically already lined his pockets so much through political influence.

“There’s not a position Zell Miller hasn’t stood for at one time or another,” Maddox said. “He wanted to ride a bicycle in a parade but they wouldn’t allow him because he was declared a danger with all his zig zagging all over the place.”

Miller sat there with a blank look on his face like he wanted to punch Maddox.

Miller and Young eventually went to a runoff before Miller won the Democratic nomination and then defeated Johnny Isakson in the general election. Remember this was still more than a decade before the Republican tide swept over Georgia when it came to statewide elections.

Miller would serve two terms as governor and later serve as U.S. senator. He actually drew primary opposition in 1994, something unusual for an incumbent governor.

Two of his primary opponents that year had what I thought were some of the best campaign slogans I’ve ever heard. Jim Boyd used the slogan of “Jim Boyd as Governor could not be worse than Zell Miller.”

Mark Tate ran primarily based on Miller wanted to change the state flag. Tate’s signs read “Zell No! – Mark Tate For Governor!”

In later years Miller became viewed as somewhat of a loose cannon appearing at Republican National Conventions speaking against the Democrats. He will be best remembered for bringing the lottery to Georgia and helping generations of students attend college.

Miller was definitely a career politician and many people view him as a cause for term limits. For me, I have always said we have term limits. No politician is guaranteed any amount of time in office. Voters have the ability to send them packing at any time. If voters are too lazy to do so well that’s their fault.

I’ve thought a lot about the spring and summer of 1990 in recent days and the fun times that were that campaign. I remember going into the voting booth for that first time. Much has changed since then, however, both in politics and for me personally.

Monticello native Chris Bridges is a long-time newspaper columnist. He welcomes feedback from readers of The Monticello News at pchrisbridges@gmail.com.