Word count: 880 | Reading time: 4 min read
Pretzel Logic
“Run Alex, Run.”
City Commissioner Alex Talmadge, Jr. says he hears it everywhere he goes.
“I will go someplace and they say, ‘We need you,’” Talmadge says. “I go to a church and the people will say, ‘We are behind you.’ I will go to a bank and people will recognize me and say, ‘You can do this, we want you to do this.’”
This, of course, means taking on incumbent District Attorney Lynne Abraham in the May Democratic primary, which, depending on the outcome, would either be one of the city’s major political upsets or professional suicide.
Abraham, who has been DA since 1991, is backed by the money and the clout of the Democratic machine, with everyone from Mayor John Street to Vince Fumo in her corner.
Last Saturday, in an event that was the political version of reaching third base, an enthusiastic crowd at the Berean Presbyterian Church did everything it could to urge Talmadge to run against Abraham. The incumbent is widely despised in the black community for her unflinching support of the death penalty and for her opposition to a federal judgeship for Frederica Massiah-Jackson.
Talmadge, who under city charter has to give up his job when he announces, danced like Ali when it came to announcing that day. On Tuesday over the phone, he continues his understandable verbal rope-a-dope.
Talmadge, who has until March 6 to make up his mind, says he is not intimidated by the omnipotent Abraham. Nor does he feel that by running, he will merely be Jerry Mondesire’s sacrificial lamb.
He has yet to speak with the DA, but Talmadge says he has spoken with many people who want to know why he would even consider taking on Abraham.
“I have heard from people who have said to me, ‘What are you doing?’” Talmadge says of reaction to his very public campaign-tease. “They have asked me ‘How?’ and ‘Why?’ And, if how, how do I think I am going to win? I told them to stay tuned.”
Talmadge has a message for anyone thinking about supporting him.
“I will not do anything just for the sake of doing it,” he says. “When I do something, I intend to win.
“I do not feel any pressure to be a sacrificial lamb,” he adds. “My feeling about pressure is that pressure is what you make it. If I let it be pressure, it will be. If not, it won’t be. There isn’t anyone who I have dealt with that wants me to go out as a sacrificial lamb.”
As for the possibility of being out of a job, Talmadge is philosophical.
“When I ran for commissioner, nobody knew who I was. They gave me an opportunity, took a risk, took a chance. I wasn’t a ward leader. I wasn’t a committeeperson. And through my tenure, I proved that I am somebody worthy of trust. People can not vote for me for a number of reasons, but they can’t say ‘He was an evil SOB.’”
During our phone conversation, I try mightily to get Talmadge to admit he is running. But the most I get is why people want him to run, not that he will.
“The basic sentiment is that there needs to be a change,” says Talmadge.
“Is that your sentiment?” I ask.
“I’m really not going to get into that right now,” he says with a laugh. “I will wait until if and when I decide to run to talk about that.”
Mondesire, says Talmadge, “represents a portion of the population that has a problem with the continued candidacy of Lynne Abraham.”
Again, I ask Talmadge if that represents his position.
“I’ll reserve that for if and when I decide to run,” he says, again with a laugh.
Realizing that this is getting to be a fruitless loop, that I am not going to wheedle, cajole or otherwise trick Talmadge into giving it up for me, I switch the topic ever so slightly.
Okay, so you aren’t talking about your positions. What is your decision to run, or not to run, contingent upon?
“That’s a good question,” says Talmadge. “Nobody has asked me what my decision is contingent upon. It is contingent upon me being able to present what I see are the problems in the District Attorney’s Office. I don’t want my candidacy to be a one-man show, or a one-person show. If I decide to run, I want to represent the entire population, not just one segment, not one territorial area, not one race, creed or color. I want to represent everyone.”
Once again, I cannot help myself. Talmadge has presented me with a big, fat hanging curve. I would be remiss in my job as a nudge not to swat at it.
“Do you feel that the current DA is not representing all the people?” I ask Talmadge.
“You know that I am going to reserve answering that,” he says.
Here’s hoping you finally get a chance to answer these questions, Alex — at the press conference officially announcing your candidacy.
You might not win, but we’ll all be better off if you give Abraham a good run for her money.
