Clinkscale to challenge Bellamy-Small
City Council member T. Dianne Bellamy-Small not only faces a recall election on Aug. 21; she also faces a challenger
Tonya Clinkscale, a self-employed mother who has been involved in anti-gang efforts in the Warnersville community, said this week she will run for Bellamy-Small's District 1 seat.
Clinkscale said in a telephone interview she isn't so much running against Bellamy-Small as she is running for the council.
She also stressed that she is in no way connected to the recall effort.
Meanwhile, given recent developments, I wonder if Bellamy-Small can be beaten. Thanks to fellow council member Florence Gatten and the recall effort, she may yet survive. Consider these dynamics:
1. Gatten, who is white, upset a lot of people in the predominantly black district by calling for Bellamy-Small's resignation and by labeling her as a "rogue" council member. Even voters who are not especially fond of Bellamy-Small say they'll vote for her as a message to Gatten that she ought to mind her own business and leave District 1 matters to District 1 residents.
2. The face of the recall vote is a white man, Jonathan Wagstaff, who does not live in the district.
3. If Bellamy-Small did indeed leak a confidential police report to black clergy and other leaders, as many believe, they may feel an obligation to repay that favor.
4. Rightly or wrongly, some black leaders see the Bellamy-Small saga as connected to broader issues such as Truth and Reconciliation and Warnersville community residents' ongoing debate with Greensboro College over an planned athletic complex in their neighborhood.
If Gatten hadn't self-righteously wagged her finger and the recall campaign hadn't happened, I believe Bellamy-Small would have been ousted anyway.
She would have lost to Luther Falls, who almost beat her two years ago. Now, Falls isn't even sure he'll run.
And Gatten, a political consultant, may wind up unwittingly being Bellamy-Small's honorary campaign chairwoman.