Champ Walker campaigns in shadow of politically powerful father

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Posted 7:59AM on Monday, August 12, 2002

AUGUSTA - Perspiration streaks Champ Walker's shirt as he trudges the incline of Hillwood Street, campaigning door-to-door in the comfortably middle-class black neighborhood where he spent his teenage years organizing block parties and pickup basketball games. Many things haven't changed. The basketball goal atop a wooden post in Carswell Gilbert's driveway still has no backboard. Sherri Johnson, who greets Walker's knock at the carport door of his old house, was a high school classmate. And when Walker hands Johnson a slick brochure touting his campaign for Congress, her response is as familiar as the surroundings. "Following in your daddy's footsteps, huh?" she says. The 34-year-old son of state Senate Majority Leader Charles Walker grins and shakes his head. It's not the first time he's heard this today. "You better believe it," he says. "I rebelled for years." Charles "Champ" Walker Jr. has embraced his political pedigree in his campaign for Georgia's new 12th Congressional District, even as his opponents suggest his father's influence is the real reason the young, untested candidate is perceived as the front-runner in the Aug. 20 Democratic primary. "It used to depress me severely, trying to find my place. I was struggling, trying to be my own man to the point of not wanting to accept his support or help," Walker said of his father. "Growing up, being in business with him, taught me more about life than I could have imagined. He taught me that if you don't want to be criticized, don't do anything of any significance." Walker is one of seven candidates competing for the party's nomination in the 12th District, which spreads 202 miles from Athens to Augusta to Savannah. With no incumbent in the race, a runoff is likely. As the candidate with the most money, Walker also appears to be the best known. He's raised $398,498 to spread his name in television and radio ads across the district. His closest competitors in fund-raising, attorneys Chuck Pardue of Augusta and Tony Center of Savannah, are jockeying for a runoff slot. "What I found on the street is they don't know anybody's running except Charles. A lot of people don't want him," Center said. "They don't know who he is, but they know who daddy is." The senior Walker, a sharecropper's son turned millionaire, has become one of the Capitol's strongest power brokers since he was elected Senate majority leader in 1996. His position gave the senator a leading role when the Legislature redrew Georgia's political districts last year. The U.S. House map approved by lawmakers included a new Democrat-leaning district centered in Augusta, prompting speculation that Walker had it drawn for his son. "I think that all parents should support their children in any way that they can ... whether it's politically or in business," the elder Walker said. "I have seen daddy Bush prepare the way for baby Bush. I see nothing absolutely wrong with that. But it's not what happened with the 12th District." Robert Finch of Athens, one of the younger Walker's opponents in the Democratic primary, says otherwise. Before running for Congress, Finch served as Sen. Walker's chief of staff for 16 months, a period that included the redistricting session. "Nothing was going to happen until we knew that Champ could stand a chance to win. Those lines were certainly drawn with Champ in mind," Finch said. As for the senator's role, "as the maps were being drawn he would make sure his son's address was in the district," Finch said. "The maps were just getting ready to be approved, and at the last minute we realized his son's address was not in the district. We had to scramble to get it." The senator acknowledges the last-minute change, but says it was done to include his own home in the district. The elder Walker says he was weighing his own bid for Congress. His son lives one neighborhood away. "I'm a cheerleader and an adviser," is how Sen. Walker describes his role in his son's campaign. Yet there are other signs of his influence. More than half the individuals who donated money for the senior Walker's re-election this year also gave to his son. That money makes up just 15 percent of the younger Walker's campaign fund. An analysis of both men's contributions shows the younger Walker raised $59,600 from his father's donors and their immediate relatives. "I've raised more money than the other candidates without his help," the younger Walker says. Walker says adversity doesn't phase him. As a boy, he watched his father build a business that propelled their family from a housing project to the suburbs. Even his nickname has caused its share of challenges since his grandmother dubbed him "Champ" the day he was born. "My doctor said, `You have an 8-pound, 9-ounce champ.' And that's when my grandmother said, `He's going to be our Champ!'" Walker says. "I got in a lot of fights over it. Everybody wanted to know why I was called the Champ." Walker says he's wanted to be a congressman since high school, and often wore a coat and tie to class. He opened his first business - a teen nightclub with a paper window sign in downtown Augusta - after graduation. The fun-loving teen would often butt heads with his "taskmaster" father. But Walker says his first daughter, born out of wedlock when he was 18, forced him to grow up in ways his dad couldn't. He left college after one year to help raise the child, married his daughter's mother at 21 and later earned a two-year degree. His business ventures have run the gamut - including a restaurant, a barber shop and a clothing line for "African-American preppies." He's also drifted in and out of the family business, stepping down two years ago as chief operating officer of his father's company, the Walker Group, to start Bright Ideas, a company that seeks investors for entrepreneurs. Walker also returned to school, this time to study theology but dropped out after six months to run for Congress. He says he's having a ball, whether working the phones for money or working the streets under the blazing sun.