U.S. Senate Candidate, Riggs Amico, Supported Romney over Obama, Donated to Right-wing Republican
(APN) ATLANTA – Sarah Riggs Amico, a current candidate for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, supported Mitt Romney over Barack Obama for President in 2012; and financially supported the 2012 campaign of a right-wing Republican, now-former U.S. Rep. John Mica (R-FL), for reelection to U.S. Congress.
Amico is seeking the Democratic nomination in the upcoming June 09, 2020 Primary Election for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by U.S. Sen. David Perdue (R-GA), originally scheduled for May 19.
Five other candidates–Marckeith DeJesus, James Knox, Tricia Carpenter McCracken, Jon Ossoff, Maya Dillard-Smith, and former Mayor of Columbus Teresa Tomlinson–are seeking the Democratic nomination in the upcoming Primary Election.
Previously, Amico was the 2018 Democratic nominee for Lt. Governor.
Former U.S. Rep. Mica’s extreme record in U.S. Congress is inconsistent with Amico’s representation of herself as a progressive Democrat.
Amico’s press releases have described her as a “labor-backed progressive businesswoman” and said that “Amico has centered her campaign on the intersection of her faith and her progressive values.”
Mica opposes abortion rights, wants to privatize Amtrak, opposes drug reform, voted against the 2009 stimulus package, and was referred to by labor as the “Most Dangerous Man” on the issue of labor.
John Sturdivant, then-President of the American Federation of Government Employees, called then-U.S. Rep. Mica “a mean-spirited, anti-government, anti-government-worker and anti-union fanatic.”
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1996-10-10-9610090960-story.html
Sturdivant passed away in 1997.
Atlanta Progressive News’s review of Federal Election Commission records shows that in 2011 and 2012, Amico also made several donations to Mitt Romney’s campaign for President of the United States; and to a Political Action Committee supporting Romney, when Romney was running against now-former President Barack Obama (D-IL).
On July 16, 2012, Amico made a donation of 2,500 dollar donation to Mica for Congress; and a three dollar donation to Romney Victory, Inc.
On August 01, 2012, Amico made a 220 dollar donation to Romney for President.
On September 17, 2012, Amico made two donations to Romney for President, totaling five hundred dollars; and another 250 dollar donation to Romney Victory, Inc.
While Romney might be seen, at least by today’s standards as a somewhat moderate Republican, it is difficult to see why a progressive Democrat would have preferred Romney to Obama.
It is even more difficult to see what Amico saw in then-U.S. Rep. Mica.
Atlanta Progressive News reached out to the Amico Campaign, leaving a voice message for spokesman Keith Grant. However, we did not receive a reply in time for publication.
Previously, APN reported about another candidate in the same race, Maya Dillard-Smith, having betrayed activists for the Turner Field community.
(END / Copyright Atlanta Progressive News / 2020)
Sarah Riggs Amico??? Teresa Tomlinson is the one, truly.
Teresa Pike Tomlinson’s consistent actions, or lack thereof, as Columbus Public Safety Director are inconsistent with the representation of herself as a progressive Democrat with an absolutely perfect relationship with the Black community of Columbus, Georgia the entire 8 years she served as Mayor.
Teresa Tomlinson as Mayor and Public Safety Director was pro-police. She defended them and protected when she knew what was going on or had went on was wrong. She joined in with the good ol’ boys and took charge of the PR.
When Columbus police with no warrant, having not done a thorough investigation, went to the home of a Black Father raising two daughters on his own, and demanded that the father present his daughters to him one by one for the officer to determine if one of the daughters were involved in shoplifting back at K-Mart on Macon Road, Teresa Tomlinson’s answer was to drop a note.
Tomlinson had been told about issues with the Columbus Police Department and the Black community from the time she was a candidate in 2010. When Tomlinson took office, Mr. Ricket Carter, a disabled Marine Corp veteran and former small business owner, and I met with the mayor. I wanted the mayor to hear Ricket Carter’s story coming from him, hoping that this would open her eyes to what I had been trying to get her to see regarding the CPD and what innocent Black citizens might experience. I understood that she was supportive of police chief, if she did not outright favor the chief. Nevertheless, as a person who had supported her against a young Black youth minister, I believed that she would never be a party to abuse of citizens by police, or to any injustice.
Ricket Carter explained to Mayor Tomlinson how he had been mistreated by Columbus police officer who refused to give their badge numbers and would not immediately call out a supervisor when Mr. Carter immediately requested that they do so. Ricket Carter was in his own backyard and had committed no crime whatsoever. Although this had been brought to the attention of the outgoing Mayor, who was the former chief of police, that Mayor protected and defended the chief and the police officers, as Teresa Pike Tomlinson would do during her time in office. We only wanted Mayor Tomlinson to understand the problem and show some real leadership before somebody in the Black community got hurt and Columbus had a real problem. Tomlinson show great concern at the meeting, but after talking to the chief of police that concern vanished.
It was February 2012 when William Foster and his daughters resting at home after coming from the Macon Road K-Mart store. A Columbus police officer came to their door. The officer had responded to a call regarding shoplifting at the Macon Road Fashion Trends and K-mart stores. A pharmacists illegally released the person address of William Foster to the police officer because the actual shoplifters were both Black and female, not that the pharmacist had witnessed the shoplifting. He only knew that it was two Black females, teenagers. The police officer never viewed the security camera video to see for himself what the girl or girls looked like. He just took off the Foster home with what he had.
After looking over Mr. Foster’s oldest daughter at the door, the officer had Mr. Foster to get the youngest daughter for him to look over, for what I do not know since he had not viewed the store security video of the shoplifting. The officer informed William Foster that he was going to take the youngest daughter with him back to K-Mart so that she could be identified. Mr. Foster, a mild-mannered, easy-going man, asked the police officer to wait until he slipped on his shoes and got his winter coat. However, when Mr. Foster went to get shoes and winter jacket, the police officer pulled the child from the home. The police officer did not wait for Mr. Foster to return to the door, nor did he allow the child to put shoes on her feet or to get a coat to put on her back to protect her from the winter cold.
The child was placed in the back of the police cruiser. Another police officer came up with one of the actual shoplifters. They tried to get the shoplifter to identify William Foster’s daughter as an accomplice. When the teenager arrested for shoplifting sitting in the back of the other officer’s cruiser would not identify Mr. Foster’s daughter as an accomplice, then the officer who took the child from the home jumped in the police car and took off back to the stores on Macon Road.
The officer did not know or wait to see if Mr. Foster had any means of transportation or what. He just took off. When William Foster got to the door he discovered the officer had taken his daughter. When he looked up the road he saw the cars. He jumped in his vehicle and took off behind the police cars. When the police officer reached Fashion Trends on Macon Road, the personnel told him that Mr. Foster’s daughter was not one of the shoplifters. With that, the officer went inside the K-Mart store and reviewed the security camera video. No K-mart personnel identified Mr. Foster’s daughter, nor did the video show that she was either with the shoplifters or one of the shoplifters. When William Foster pulled in front of the store, his daughter was released by the Columbus police officers.
William Foster filed a complaint against the officers. He went of local television news to tell the story. When I was told about the news story, I emailed Mayor Tomlinson, whom I had been emailing with back and forth that day about a program she was interested in called Hot Spots Policing. After giving her plenty of time to show be totally outraged and responded, which did not happen, I contacted the Nate Sanderson, Branch President Columbus NAACP. President Sanderson help a press conference with Ricket Carter and William Foster. Ricket carter told his experience before the camera. William Foster and his family was so traumatized by the terrible experience that he did not go on camera and tell the family’s story. President Sanderson had to tell the story for him.
Teresa Pike Tomlinson response to the NAACP press conference was to drop what she called a note off at the child’s school for the Principal to call the child to the office and read to her. The letter form the mayor actually defended the police. She told that little girl that the police officer would lay down his life to protect her and to not let his mistake keep her from being the great person she knew she was, which was actually admitting how traumatizing he whole event must have been for the child, he sister, and her father. A letter, or note, was dropped off at the school and one was dropped off at the home with no there. Mayor Tomlinson never even respected the father enough to contact him to get his permission to go by the child’s school and drop off a note for the Principal to read to his daughter. She just dropped off another copy at the house the same day.
That was her leadership. or at least about all we were going to get. Teresa Pike Tomlinson went on to prove time-and-time again that when it came to everyday Black people not high up on the socio-economic ladder, she could not care any less about their plight and she was not going to do anything to get a handle of how Columbus police did business in the Black community.
Teresa Tomlinson was obstinate and indifferent as Public Safety Director. The very lives of citizens were placed in danger by her decided refusal to show leadership when if came to the Columbus Police Department because she, as a White female Democrat, did not want to upset conservative councilors and the White conservative community hugely supportive of the White police chief.
Tomlinson told the DeKalb Dems that the GBI investigated the case. That was not true. If the GBI came in to investigate, then they must have not saw a need to interview William Foster’s family. Maybe they just interviewed the police officers.
Where is the record?
There was no GBI investigation, and Tomlinson never called in the GBI. Tomlinson was not truthful for a reason, a good reason. She knows that Black voters are not going to be happy when her real record as Public Safety Director is exposed, not to mention her bad relationship Black citizens she hung out to dry or were victims of the police.
The incident I have described to you was just one. However, you must understand that this was not a one and done thing with Tomlinson. It was an ongoing practice, an ongoing pattern. Sure, she was wonderful with certain Black politicians, certain members of the local Black clergy, and with the Black sororities and fraternities, she played to them and with flattering speeches and attending their big events and fundraisers. That is what they wanted of her, and she had no problem being the center of their praise and attention, and she was the absolute center.
Be that as it was and still is, at least to some degree, as a few did wake up to see the real Teresa Tomlinson, the truth of the whole matter is that Tomlinson was not a progressive in the way that she is portraying herself to highly respected Black people in Atlanta and the surrounding area. She never had a good relationship with the local NAACP. Nate Sanderson was Branch president. Edward O. DuBose is a four-time Georgia State NAACP Conference President and member of the National Board of Directors. He lives right here in Columbus. Both men made comments to a Mother Jones reporter for an article about Teresa Pike Tomlinson(July 1, 2019), which is why Tomlinson began running around Atlanta trying to scoop up every Black civil rights big name and every person associated with the fight for social justice that Black people would be influenced by. They do not know Teresa Tomlinson. They have not spoken with the activists in Columbus who have been on the frontlines, not the sidelines, fighting to protect civil rights and for social justice. Edward O. DuBose is one of those. Regrettably, Teresa Tomlinson has told them how great she was as Mayor, and about how connected she was and much beloved by the Black community of Columbus, and they bought into it hook line and sinker.
What many of us here in Columbus know of Teresa Pike Tomlinson is that she is a grand master at playing the Black community and at pimping weak-minded so-called Black leaders who just want to be counted in that number of the Tomlinson loyal.
Tomlinson put power and politics before people because that is what is in her heart and who she is. That is who she is and who she will continue to be. It is just her talk that is blue ribbon progressive.
Matthew,
My comment was posted here, but now it is not.
I certainly was not notified.
I spoke to what I knew and experienced while Teresa Pike Tomlinson was Mayor/Public Safety Director.
If I mentioned that she was untruthful at the DeKalb County Dems political forum when she led the audience to believe the GBI investigated the incident with a little Black girl being pulled from her home by a CPD officer without any warrant with a very sketchy description of the person who was suspected of shoplifting at the Macon Road K-Mart.
This was a child that was not even allowed to put shoes on her feet or a coat on her back in the winter time.
All of that happen. What did not happen was Tomlinson calling in the GBI to investigate the case.
The child was innocent, the whole family traumatized.
Tomlinson sat on her hands time and time again whenever such matters occurred.
If I said Black lives did not matter to her, then I will say this now, I witnessed that justice did not matter to her, but protecting and defending police when they were wrong because they came up under her, that mattered a whole lot. It was politics before people for 8 years.
Both comments have been approved and posted.