McKinney Defeated By Challenger NoelLast Modified: 9/11/2002 10:11:32 AM

The McKinney era in Georgia politics ended Tuesday when state Rep. Billy McKinney lost his seat in a Democratic runoff, three weeks after his daughter lost her place in Congress.

John Noel, a political unknown who was a toddler when McKinney first took office 30 years ago, easily defeated McKinney, 2,852 to 1,565. Noel, 31, had never run for office before and elicited little media interest until he forced McKinney to his first runoff.

The longtime legislator deflected criticism he was too closely tied to his daughter, a fiery congresswoman who lost after scolding prominent Republicans after Sept. 11. The elder McKinney wore a baseball cap from his daughter's campaign while waiting for returns Tuesday.

Earlier, McKinney said the two were "targeted" by Republicans and victims of a conservative smear campaign.

"We've been targeted from day one," he said. McKinney also accused Noel, who is white and a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, of being racist.

"He's never been for black people, I'll tell you that," McKinney said Monday. He could not immediately be reached for comment after his loss Tuesday night.

Like his daughter, the elder McKinney is known for making controversial statements. He was heard on television before the primary describing why he believed she faced such a tough battle: "J-E-W-S."

In 1998 McKinney called his daughter's opponent a "racist Jew." He later apologized for the remark, but came to be seen as out of touch by many in his liberal district.

"His comments turned off the majority of people," Noel said.

Some even formed an anti-McKinney Web site, called www.goodbyebilly.com, which mirrored an earlier one formed against his daughter, www.goodbyecynthia.com.

Clearly worried, the elder McKinney, who was forced into the first runoff of his legislative career, pushed his staffers early Tuesday to finish their lunch and get voters to the polls in District 44.

"They ought to be enthusiastic enough to go to the polls and vote against a member of the Sons of the Confederacy and, if they don't care about that, then I'll go on off into oblivion," he told 11Alive's Denis O'Hayer.

Challenger Noel defended his membership in the Sons of the Confederacy, saying he is an associate member who works only as a historian trying to uncover the mistakes of the past. Noel said his mother worked actively for civil rights.

"You don't come out of a household like that and be a member of the KKK," Noel said, adding that it is unfair that he's been accused of being a racist. Either Way, Noel said he did not plan to renew his membership in the confederate group.

Noel was, however, careful throughout the campaign not to strongly criticize McKinney, one of Atlanta's first black police officers and a major advocate for increased black representation in the 1970s.

As for McKinney, he admitted that he could lose, despite running in a district that is 60 percent Black.

"I might just well lose because with this low turnout then I can very well lose. If they don't go to the polls, then I've lost," he said.

-- Anonymous, September 11, 2002