Dramatic election brings new priorities to Savannah City Council

We saw a seismic shift in Savannah politics in 2015, and we saw a seismic shift in 2019.

So are we back where we started?

Not at all.

I thought the incumbents would do pretty well in last week’s vote, so I was curious to scrutinize the results for clues about the changing Savannah electorate and the policies that voters seem to support.

I was especially struck by the increased turnout in largely African American districts.

Alderman Estella Shabazz sailed unopposed to reelection last week in District 5 with more than 3,000 votes. Four years ago, in a fiercely competitive race, Shabazz got 50 percent fewer votes with a total turnout about 300 less than last week.

In District 3, challenger Linda Wilder Bryan narrowly defeated incumbent John Hall last week. The two candidates combined for about 4,300 total votes – 500 more votes than in a competitive race in 2015.

As expected, Bernetta Lanier cruised to victory last week to fill the District 1 seat of mayoral challenger Van Johnson. Lanier won 2,600 of 3,200 votes. Only about 2,700 votes were cast in the much more competitive race in 2015 between Lanier and Johnson.

While the number of votes increased significantly in predominately black neighborhoods, the total vote fell in the largely white District 4 where newcomer Nick Palumbo ran unopposed.

About 4,100 votes were cast last week in District 4 – a drop of about 800 from 2015.

Sure, District 4 turnout would have been higher if Palumbo had faced competition, but remember that more voters turned out in District 5 than four years ago even with Shabazz running unopposed this year.

Clearly, the significant increase in black turnout helped propel Alicia Blakely to an overwhelming victory in the race for one of the alderman at-large posts.

And the shifts in turnout certainly benefited Johnson, who seems a heavy favorite to beat incumbent Eddie DeLoach in a December runoff.

DeLoach actually received about 500 more votes last week than he did in the general election in 2015, but the dynamics are different this year. In the 2015 runoff, DeLoach surged past incumbent Edna Jackson by picking up votes from the other candidates and driving a large turnout.

This year, Van Johnson would likely have won the mayor’s race outright last week if Regina Thomas had not been in the race, and he seems poised to attract more than enough of her supporters in the runoff.

So what caused the dramatic shift in the composition of the Savannah electorate?

The candidates, campaign staffers and local grassroots organizers deserve considerable credit. Those folks were likely able to build on efforts of the Stacey Abrams campaign to get more citizens engaged in the process.

But last week’s results were not solely due to the turnout.

Many voters, including a significant number who supported DeLoach and the challengers in 2015, backed other candidates last week because of concerns about the direction of the city.

I could go on and on about specific policy decisions that have angered voters during the last four years, including the fire fee, the approval of controversial large-scale projects, widespread confusion about plans for the Canal District and the wildly unpopular changes to downtown parking regulations.

But individual policies probably played a smaller role in last week’s results than the gnawing sense that Savannah is headed in the wrong direction.

Many voters believe that the city bureaucracy has been catering too much to tourism, to developers with deep pockets, to people who already have money and power.

I have heard the word “progressive” used to describe the candidates who were elected last week, but that term seems problematic in light of the overwhelming 68 percent to 32 percent victory for the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.

SPLOST, which opponents consider a regressive form of taxation that leads to pork spending, was approved in every precinct in Chatham County and won by overwhelming margins even in precincts that elected new faces to City Council.

Now comes the hard part – the governing.

Palumbo and Lanier have shown extensive knowledge of policy, but the other winners last week generally did not articulate detailed positions during their campaigns. They will have to pivot from being vocal critics on the outside to being effective leaders on the inside.

In a few months, they will have to work together to hire a new city manager and begin making tough budget decisions.

In theory, last week’s shift in political balance will mean more attention for districts and neighborhoods that have too often been neglected in the past.

In theory, more residents will feel like they have a legitimate say in the city’s future.

City Talk appears every Tuesday and Sunday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net. Send mail to 10 E. 32nd St., Savannah, Ga. 31401.

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