CARLTON FLETCHER: Ousted candidate stands tall in Ward II race

You got to stand for something or you’re gonna fall for anything.

— John Mellencamp

When an election ends, especially a local election, the losing candidates typically thank all their supporters, pull up their yard signs and go quietly back to their business. Eventually, they might strategize — either alone or with trusted supporters — about what went wrong and whether they want to put themselves out there again in a future political campaign.

CaMia Hopson got into the Ward II Albany City Commission race — at the absolute last minute — after being encouraged to run by Rawson Circle neighbors who said they were not happy with the representation they’d received over the past four years from incumbent Bobby Coleman.

The Rawson Circle neighborhood is a politically active one, with residents who touch every point on the class spectrum. A running feud among citizens in the neighborhood who want the area to become part of the city’s historic district and others who don’t ratcheted up the activism going into the Nov. 7 municipal election.

Hopson fared well in the precincts that touch on the Rawson Circle neighborhood — in fact, the first-time candidate actually did well in all five of the Ward II precincts, getting the second-most votes in all five. But her quest to at least get into a runoff in the five-candidate race came up 46 votes short, primarily because one of her Rawson Circle neighbors, Matt Fuller, also entered the fray on the final day of qualifying.

I talked with Hopson the day after the election, and her disappointment was obvious. Much of that disappointment, she told me, centered on the fact that Coleman made the runoff. She then told me of the Ward II incumbent’s “verbal attack” on her while she was campaigning the day before the election. She said Coleman “ordered” her off school property and indicated if she “didn’t leave in 15 minutes,” he’d have her removed.

“I called the Elections office to ask if I was doing anything wrong and was assured I was not,” Hopson said.

The confrontation left Hopson shaken. She actually called police and asked them to patrol the area around her home during the night, saying she feared for her and her family’s safety.

Fuller, also a first-time candidate, ran a well-planned and well-financed campaign to collect the most votes in the municipal election. As he began the short campaign leading up to Tuesday’s runoff election, he reached out to Hopson and the Rev. Ivey Hines, who finished fourth in the race, asking for their support.

We all say we don’t like to bring race into any public conversation because it’s such a volatile issue. I say most people don’t like to bring race into an issue because they’re afraid their deep-seated racism — which some don’t even realize they have — will surface. I also say that I harbor no such fears and, conversely, believe the most effective way to negate the impact of race on touchy issues is to talk about it.

Fuller was the lone white candidate in the Ward II race. He understood that, in racially sensitive Albany, asking African American candidates to publicly endorse him was asking them to open themselves up to criticism, especially from a surprisingly (surprising in that it is 2017) large group of people who look not at D, R or I on their ballots but instead focus on the B or W. (It would shock some whose worlds revolve around their own tiny spheres of influence to learn that many of the people who make race a primary talking point, in political campaigns and just about any other issue, offer their racist commentary from the pulpits of well-known and -respected churches.)

Hopson wrestled with the request, but in the end she wrote an eloquent endorsement letter offering her support for Fuller. In it, she touched on the race issue and on her personal concerns about Coleman’s leadership ability. She also acknowledged that she expected to come under fire, but she, in the end, said her concern for this community outweighed the personal discomfort that might be directed at her.

This is not meant as an endorsement of either candidate in the Ward II race. Hopefully, the people in that district are paying attention and they will make their decision based on one factor: which candidate will best represent their interests on the City Commission. Because for both Fuller and Coleman, win or lose, life will go on on Dec. 6.

But for Hopson, life may take a few different — and sometimes uncomfortable — twists in the coming days. That she was willing to accept that based on her core beliefs is more than admirable. It’s courageous. There will be those who say she “sold out,” others who will say she was bought out. But make no mistake — and trust me that I say this with all due respect and admiration — this is one strong individual.

So many of us are willing to take a stand on issues that impact our community, so long as we’re allowed to do so with the anonymity of social media and even features like this newspaper’s Squawkbox. CaMia Hopson was willing to stand up for what she believed in and to do it very publicly. If you can’t find it in your suspicious heart to applaud that, you damned sure ought to at least admire her guts.

Staff Photo