Politics aside, I have some thoughts about Helen Blocker-Adams, recent mayoral candidate who abruptly suspended her Augusta mayoral campaign yesterday amid revelations of financial woes. I say “politics aside” because politics has no bearing on my opinion of her. So why am I writing this?
For one thing, because she is a columnist for my newspaper, the Augusta Medical Examiner. And also because my acquaintance with Helen precedes Helen the political person by decades. All that time she has been, like me, self-employed. I know from first-hand experience that’s not an easy path to take. It always seems to be either feast or famine. I remember one entire week when I received a grand total of $3.50 in revenue: someone sent in a classified ad. When you’ve been in famine mode for awhile, all feast mode often does for you is get your head barely back above water. Not ahead. Just caught up, and barely at that.
So I can relate to financial stress. It’s a constant companion. But there’s something about Helen’s financial woes that I find to be incredibly impressive. Why? One of the post-mortems reviewing the demise of her campaign mentioned in its recaps that former US presidential candidate Herman Cain recently came to Augusta to host a fundraiser for Helen. That event undoubtedly raised a handsome sum. Another recent highlight for Helen was being awarded a major grant (the figure $30,000 sticks out in my mind) to promote greater health and fitness in Augusta area elementary schools.
If she was a less than honorable person, we could be reading headlines like this: “Blocker-Adams misappropriates campaign funds,” or “Blocker-Adams pays personal bills with campaign donations,” or “Grant for child fitness goes to Blocker-Adams’ car payment.” How many people would have the integrity to resist the temptation to dip into one pocket to pay the bills in the other? The fact that Helen’s personal finances are a mess is actually a huge endorsement of her personal honesty and integrity. If I may say so, the message is the mess.
As she said yesterday, the past week has been “humiliating.” But I hope the cheerful and optimistic and perpetually positive Helen Blocker-Adams emerges from this with all those qualities intact. Even after this mess, I’m sure she still has a lot to offer going forward.