Campaign 2012 The City Vote: Tuskegee

Tools

By Tamika Bickham

Story Created: Aug 15, 2012 at 11:50 PM CDT

Story Updated: Aug 16, 2012 at 12:01 AM CDT

It's no doubt election season, and in Tuskegee the race for mayor is just as heated. Tonight, we meet the three mayoral candidates.

Johnny Ford, the city's former mayor is looking to win back the seat he sat comfortably in for 28 years. He says while he wasn't successful in the last election against current mayor, Omar Neal, he says he laid the ground work for where the city is headed, and the work is not done.

"We had a hospital when I started, but we lost it because the university closed it. I want us to get a hospital again and we will. We had Walmart here twice. I want to get Walmart back again. In other words, there is still much work to be done," said Ford.

Current mayor Omar Neal says he is the one to do it. Neal has been mayor for the last three and a half years and served on the Macon County Commission prior to that. He says he has plans to keep the city in good financial standing and bring in new business.

"The best indicator for what a person will do is what a person has done," he said, "Given my three and a half years we have demonstrated our leadership, taking the city out of the brink of bankruptcy, almost completely out of debt."

While Ford and Neal are well known for their politicial experience in Tuskegee, mayoral candidate Lula Pearl Riley Franklin admits she is exactly the opposite. A self-described underdog, who lives in public housing says she sees the real needs of people in this community and wants to fight for them.

"I can't talk like a politician because I'm not a politician. The only thing I'm going to say is I'm a mother, I'm a wife, and my family lives here. My family has starved in this city and I refuse to sell out and not do what needs to be done to make Tuskegee grow," she said.

The voters will make the final decision when they head to the polls on August 28th.

Add a comment

Name:

Comment: 1000 Characters Left

CBS 8 News and its affiliated companies are not responsible for the content of comments posted or for anything arising out of use of the above comments or other interaction among the users. We reserve the right to screen, refuse to post, remove or edit user-generated content at any time and for any or no reason in our absolute and sole discretion without prior notice, although we have no duty to do so or to monitor any Public Forum.
This content requires the latest Adobe Flash Player and a browser with JavaScript enabled. Click here for a free download of the latest Adobe Flash Player.

What's onFull Schedule

Featured Content

Hot Video From AP

AP Video