McKinney's father facing runoff challenge

ATLANTA - When five-term incumbent Representative Cynthia McKinney lost her seat in a primary election last month, political observers were hardly surprised. The fiery Democrat had been on the defensive for months, criticized for outrageous statements and attacks on President Bush and others. <br> <br> No one noticed that her father was facing the political challenge of his career, too. State Representative Billy McKinney, a 30-year incumbent credited with landing his daughter in Congress, had never been forced to a runoff in his heavily Democratic district. In the primary three weeks ago, McKinney failed to muster a majority against a political unknown, John Noel. <br> <br> Monday, voters in the elder McKinney&#39;s northwest Atlanta district return to the polls to decide whether decades of McKinney political leadership will end. <br> <br> Seventy-five-year-old Billy McKinney was among Atlanta&#39;s first black police officers. Once elected to the state Legislature, he campaigned tirelessly for more black representation and acknowledges tailoring a heavily black congressional district in 1990 for his daughter. <br> <br> He said today that maybe he spent too much time campaigning for his daughter over the last decade and not enough campaigning for himself. <br> <br> He said, ``I&#39;ve been working pretty hard for an old man, working for my daughter. Any father would do the same, I guess. Worrying about your child more than you worry about yourself.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The 31-year-old Noel was a toddler when McKinney first went to the Legislature. He was careful to take care to honor the legislator&#39;s career even while saying it was time for it to end. <br> <br> Noel said, ``He&#39;s a civil rights hero to many people, and I would not disparage that. He asks people to recall the days of old, his civil rights legacy, and no one wants to take that away from him. The question is, what has he done for me lately?&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Noel is white.