John Pruitt anchors Channel 2 Action News at 6 p.m Monday through Friday with Monica Pearson. John has covered Georgia and the South for more than four decades. Now he’s weaving his unique perspective on history into issues that are important to Georgians today.
Ed Jackson/University of Georgia Carl Sanders IM Carl Sanders served as Governor of Georgia from 1963-1967. In covering the Roy Barnes-Nathan Deal campaign for governor, it’s interesting to consider the historical challenge facing Barnes—trying to win back the governor’s office after being defeated in his re-election bid 8 years ago.
I am reminded of the first governor’s race I covered in 1970, which to this day remains the most interesting gubernatorial campaign I’ve ever been involved in. The odds-on favorite to win was Carl Sanders. He served as governor from 1963-1967 but could not run for re-election because the state constitution then would not allow a governor to succeed himself. Sanders had to sit out 4 years of the Lester Maddox administration before trying to win his old job back.
Sanders was the first so-called “new South” governor whose moderate policies in a time of racial unrest attracted very favorable national attention. He was intelligent, poised, innovative, and handsome. His administration, while not without controversy, was considered a major stride forward for Georgia. So it was no surprise when he announced he was running again.
This was the first campaign in Georgia in which television advertising played a major role, and Sanders’ spots were extremely slick. They showed him jogging, Ed Jackson/University of Georgia Jimmy Carter IM Jimmy Carter served as Governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975. flying an airplane, playing racquetball, and tagged the commercial with “Carl Sanders ought to be governor again”.
But there was another candidate in the Democratic primary who did not accept the inevitability of a Sanders victory. His name was Jimmy Carter.
Carter had his own TV spots showing him working on his peanut farm. The spots portrayed Carter as a South Georgia working man and painted Sanders as a rich elitist who wouldn’t think of soiling his hands on the farm. Carter also derided Sanders’ “ought to be governor” slogan as presumptuous.
Carter’s strategy to contrast the images of the 2 candidates worked. In a bitter runoff campaign, Carter turned Sanders’ moderate policies of his previous term against him, branding him the “liberal” in the race.
In Georgia politics that is never where you want to be, and Carter emerged the victor. He went on to easily defeat the Republican nominee Hal Suit in the General Election.
Of course the Barnes-Deal campaign is entirely different with a dynamic all its own. But you can be sure that Barnes and Deal both know their Georgia history and are quite aware that to be a comeback kid in our state involves negotiating a sometimes precarious path. You can email John at john.pruitt@wsbtv.com