Diversity the hallmark of GOP battle for Secretary of State

By

Posted 4:06PM on Wednesday, August 14, 2002

ATLANTA - With a white man, a black man and a Hispanic woman on the ballot, the Republican race for Secretary of State in the Aug. 20 Georgia primary is the most diverse on the statewide ballot. Vernadette Ramirez Broyles, 37, a former assistant district attorney in Fulton County, is among the first Hispanics to seek statewide office on either party's ballot. Her rivals are Jerry Wyatt, 50, a black insurance broker, and Charlie Bailey, 56, a white credit consultant who lost bids in 1996 and 1998 for the post. The winner will face incumbent Democrat Cathy Cox and Libertarian Michael Pitts in the Nov. 5 general election. Cox was left unopposed in her party's primary after her lone opponent was disqualified for paying his ballot fee with a check that bounced. Libertarians chose their candidates earlier this year in conventions. Besides overseeing elections, the Secretary of State administers the boards which oversee the licensing of doctors, accountants and a variety of other professions, protects the state's vital documents and archival data and handles corporate registrations. It's a down-ballot race that in most years is overshadowed by gubernatorial and other battles. This year, Republican leaders are hoping the race will help them gain a foothold in the burgeoning Hispanic population, which both parties are courting hard. Backers of Ramirez Broyles include several top Republican leaders of the Legislature and some of the party's key contributors. Born in New York to Puerto Rican immigrants, Ramirez Broyles has never run for office before and has only exercised the right to vote a couple of times since moving to Georgia following her graduation from Harvard law school in 1995. "I was busy getting an education, building a (law) practice and being an advocate in the community," she said. Using money she saved from after-school jobs and scholarships, Ramirez Broyles put herself through Yale University before earning a law degree from Harvard. She said she hopes to serve as a role model "to inspire people to hope and to dream." She added, "I am very proud of being Latino but I stand before Georgians, not as a woman and Latino, but as someone highly qualified for office." Wyatt contends Republicans would be better advised to nominate him and thereby seek to expand their base among blacks. "In many black precincts, there is never a Republican on the ballot. So, by default, blacks vote for Democrats," he said. Wyatt said he's hoping to change all that. Bailey, who is white, said the election shouldn't be about diversity but rather "putting the best people on the ballot that can beat the Democrats. And that I can do because I have the experience, the knowledge, the name recognition." But in his 1996 bid for Secretary of State, Bailey won only 12.4 percent of the Republican vote in a four-way primary race and in 1998 won just 40 percent in a two-way race. Ramirez Broyles is the best-financed of the three Republican candidates, but the $29,000 she reported on hand June 30 paled beside Cox's $847,000. For the same period, Bailey reported just $550 and Wyatt only $272. To one degree or another, the three Republicans all are critical of Cox's push to replace the varied election systems in counties across the state with a standardized touch-screen system in time for the Nov. 5 election. The goal, backed by Gov. Roy Barnes and the Legislature, was to avoid the undercount problem Florida experienced during the 2000 presidential election and the legal wrangling that kept the presidential election in limbo for weeks. Many Georgia counties use the same type equipment that proved so controversial in the Florida balloting. Ramirez Broyles says the rollout of new equipment has been "rushed." Wyatt contends it's going to wind up costing counties more money for elections. Bailey says it just isn't necessary. Cox contends the new equipment is the only way for the state to ensure every vote is counted and thus avert the kind of legal challenges that potentially could be brought after every election. Michael Pitts, the Libertarian, is a 29-year-old student at Georgia State University making his first bid for political office on a platform that includes making ballot access easier for third parties and eliminating laws that ban beer sales on Sundays.