Nobody can ever say Fayetteville Mayor Greg Clifton went quietly in the night.
Less than 48 hours after losing his re-election bid to City Councilman Ed Johnson, Clifton let the City Council, along with a small group of residents, know how he felt during Thursday night’s council meeting.
“Your second election as a black man in a majority-white at large election, the first time with 61 plus percent of the vote with the help of Harold Bost and the second with 53 plus of the vote without his help, proves that a good black candidate who runs a good campaign can in fact be elected in Fayette County. It also destroys the premise of the racial discrimination lawsuit to impose district voting by the NAACP against the county and school board. I therefore herewith call for the NAACP to drop its frivolous and unwarranted lawsuit immediately,” he said.
As the City Hall chambers grew quiet, Clifton continued.
“Some of what I say below may sound uncharitable, but that is not my intent, so please hear it through to the end. I still do not understand how you won. I have always heard that you can’t beat something with nothing but your ‘Taking Fayetteville to the Next Level’ is about the most nothing slogan I have ever heard,” Clifton added.
Then Clifton invoked Johnson’s church and God in his opinion of the election results.
“The fact that you have added fewer than 100 members to your church in 12 years on the job is not what I would consider exemplary leadership that would recommend you for the post of mayor. Nevertheless, the Lord rules in the affairs of men, and I cannot very well claim that “God puts down one and raises up another” [Psalm 75:5] when He did it for me four years ago and deny it when he did it to me this year. So while I cannot understand my defeat on the merits, I can accept it as being the will of God and while the defeat is a bitter disappointment, I am not bitter.”
After the meeting, Clifton went up to Johnson and shook hands. The two exchanged brief words. On Friday, Clifton said he only spoke from his heart and realized that “politics is a blood sport.”
In other news from the council meeting, the city agreed to rezone a parcel on Ga. Highway 54 near Piedmont Fayette Hospital for a new Holiday Inn Express. The council did mandate that landscaping requirements would have to be in accord with the city’s Hwy. 54 guidelines and that architecture should be more in tune with the existing buildings. Architectural plans will have to come before the City Council, as well as the Planning Commission.
