Wes Jordan’s re-election victory over Andre Fleet was exceptionally narrow, decided by less than one percentage point. The result also became, in Wes’s account, a political reversal shaped by the public dispute over Fareek Fanon: Roger White’s effort to secure Charlie Croker’s appearance at a press conference helped put Wes in a position to speak on the controversy, while Fleet’s silence cost him the backing he had expected from Inman Armholster.

Background and Result

The final tally did not arrive until four in the morning. By the time Wes discussed the election with Roger, he looked as though the campaign had exacted a heavy physical toll: his face was ashen beneath his deep tan, his eyes were bloodshot, and dark circles suggested he had gone without a proper night’s sleep for a week or perhaps two. He may have stayed awake through the final count. Against that exhaustion stood the decisive fact: he had defeated Andre Fleet by less than one percentage point.

The scene is framed by a miserable November day, with low clouds, fog, and humidity that made the weather feel alternately warm and clammy. Wes looked pensively out through the large plate-glass window before turning back to Roger. His mention of champagne carried the air of a rare election-night reward, tempered by the joke that it might not be served in his office again unless Roger ran for mayor.

The Fanon Controversy and the Campaign

Wes explained that his public intervention had not been an endorsement of Fareek’s guilt or innocence. He said he had used the press conference to argue for fairness, justice, individual rights, and calm in the city—grounds on which a politician could speak without taking a position on the disputed facts. When Charlie Croker turned against Fareek, Wes believed the episode made Croker appear to confirm his warning that business interests could act unfairly. In Wes’s telling, the reversal left him as Fareek’s conspicuous defender in public life and placed him squarely within a politically charged racial issue.

The same controversy exposed the limits of Fleet’s room to maneuver. Inman Armholster wanted Fleet to attack Fareek, but Wes argued that Fleet could not back Elizabeth Armholster as openly as Wes had backed Fareek without risking the South Atlanta vote he was counting on. Fleet therefore remained practically silent. The silence frustrated Inman Armholster, who had expected a stronger response and wanted Fleet to act against Fareek.

Political Consequences and Aftermath

Wes said Inman Armholster retaliated by cutting off Fleet’s get-out-the-vote money. He described Fleet as left with nothing to spend on mobilizing voters, and laughed as he recounted the reversal. The account presents the loss not merely as a close tally but as the consequence of a political alliance weakened by competing electoral calculations: Fleet’s caution alienated the supporter who had expected him to take a side.

Wes credited Roger’s role in arranging for Charlie Croker to appear at the press conference with helping secure the victory, telling Roger that he had won the election for him. Roger rejected the celebratory framing as incomplete. He pointed out that the campaign outcome had been good for Wes but not for Fareek, whose name had been dragged through public scandal. Wes answered by distinguishing political mud from the ordeal of arrest, incarceration, indictment, and facing Elizabeth’s account in court. Their exchange thus leaves the victory shadowed by its human and political cost: the controversy helped Wes prevail, but the result did not resolve what the public dispute had done to Fareek.