Zell Miller is retiring next year as the senior senator from Georgia. Civil rights leader and former mayor of Atlanta Andrew Young is thinking of running for the open seat.
Thirteen years after he last held elective office, Andrew J. Young Jr. —- the former pastor, civil rights leader, congressman, mayor and ambassador, to pick a few lines from his résumé is eyeing a new title: United States senator.
He is 71 now, overweight, and hobbles on two bad knees. But because the Democratic incumbent, Senator Zell Miller, is stepping down next year and the Democratic Party can find no one more capable of trying to retain his seat, and because Mr. Young, ever the internationalist, is increasingly concerned about America’s place in the world and eager to do something about it, he is considering ending his political retirement.
It could be an interesting race, though Georgia is becoming more and more Republican nowadays. In his only statewide candidacy for governor, Andrew Young lost in the primaries to Zell Miller in 1990.
Well, with Cleland knocked out by the loathsome Saxby Chambliss, it would be nice for Georgia to have a Democratic senator again.
yeah, can’t get much worse than Saxby Chambliss beating Cleland, but even though the state leans republican that race had all kinds of special circumstances, some of which can be repeated (Bush’s constant stumping), some of which can’t (the whole Osama conflation rested on the DHS debate).
But Young would be great, though many pundits think him winning is a liberal pipe dream. Check out the Political state report over at Kos for a rundown of rumored candidates.
talking dog: Yes. Zell Miller can’t really be called Democratic, can he?
wes: Thanks for the link. A couple of problems that I see are that Young is too old for a freshman Senator; will conservative rural Georgians vote for an African American liberal Atlantan?
Ole Zellot Miller- Thank God he has retired. If Ole Zell had any bite to his bark he would be in Iraq now packing a M-16 helping his good buddy Ronald Dumsfeld. If he can’t shoot – he could always wrestle them to the Ground.